You have heard about shaving your beard or shaving your head, but have you ever heard about eyeball shaving? Yes, a barber in China has mastered the bizarre practice of shaving eyeballs.
In China, shaving eyeballs is an age-old tradition and Xiong Gaowu from the Chinese city of Chengdu is among the few barbers, who are still practising the age-old tradition. This barber in China uses the blade to clean eyeballs, which is an ancient craft in the country.
Gaowu, who is 62-year-old, uses a sharp razor blade to clean and remove dirt from the eyeballs of his customers. This bizarre practice might terrify people, but Gaowu claims that he has not injured anyone until now in his career. He also said that cleaning eyeballs help people above 30 to have a clear vision, ShanghaiList.com reported.
Another barber, Liu Deyuan, carries out this practice to clean his customer's eyes. Liu told the Chengdu Business Daily that he gently scrapes a blade back and forth across the inner surface of eyeballs.
He learned about cleaning eyeballs when he was 17-years-old and he became an expert after three years of practice.
"I am still a little bit nervous during eye shaving. I do not dare to move even a bit during the process," a customer, who has undergone the process, told the Chengdu Business Daily. "The experience was quite comfortable and my eyes feel moist and my vision is clearer."
To treat a medical condition called trachoma, people in China practised this tradition in the 20th century. The entire process is about 5 minutes, but the tradition is dying in the country because of modern techniques. Also, medical specialists believe that this practice is dangerous for people's retinas.
"The practice could easily result in damage to people's retinas. Poor hygiene could also result in the spread of infection of eye diseases among customers," Qu Chao, deputy director of the ophthalmology department at the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, told the South China Morning Post in 2015.
