Tarek Hamad picked up the razor and set about shaving the back of the young man’s head without even asking. After working at the barbershop on Berlin’s Sonnenallee for more than three years, Hamad said he knows exactly what his clients—many migrants from Syria like himself—require.

“It’s just like back home,” said Hamad, 27, a Palestinian born and raised in a Damascus refugee camp. “We know how to trim beards better than the Germans do. But they’re better with color.”