An explosion at the Tetuan hair salon in Jan Evertsenstraat caused havoc on March 15. Four days earlier, owner Fatima El Asri was ‘exposed’ on social media. She would have ruined the hair of dozens of women. Police are investigating a possible connection.
Wednesday evening March 15, just before midnight. Two residents of Jan Evertsenstraat in West come home from work. At the Tetuan barbershop, under their house, they see a man putting something in front of the door. The residents get an uncanny feeling and run inside, up the stairs. Moments later, a loud bang is heard: an explosion in front of the hair salon.
Owner Fatima El Asri (40) is called by the police and jumps on a bicycle to her business. It appears that the damage is considerable. The window is shattered and the ground is full of shards. The roller shutter behind the window is also damaged.
The next morning, the Explosives Safety Team (TEV) conducts an investigation. Police are also investigating the area and distributing a description. According to the police, the explosion was most likely caused by heavy fireworks. A Cobra, witnesses think.
Threats
Local residents above and next to the hair salon have no idea why this particular business has become a target. “We have never noticed anything before,” says one, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons. Another says: “I have never been bothered by the hair salon. It just seems like a very normal thing.”
El Asri is shocked. She tells The parole that she started receiving threats four days before the explosion. “I think I’ve had a hundred bubbles,” she says, wiping away her tears. “They were different people, boys and girls around 18, 19, 20 years old. Sometimes in the middle of the night.”
She says she was threatened with death. She would also have been told that she is a bad hairdresser and that people want to destroy her business. It is unclear whether the threats have anything to do with the explosion.
Bald and damaged
El Asri has no idea why these people are after her. “I don’t argue with anyone,” she says. She says she has no enemies. Reactions on social media show otherwise. On TikTok and Facebook, “karma” is written under news reports about the explosion. In a private group someone writes: ‘A window is replaceable, but getting it back takes years.’
Dozens of people write how El Asri would have ruined their own hair or that of acquaintances and friends. “I do not support violence, but she has wronged many ladies,” one person writes. “Many ladies have come back bald and damaged!”
One woman is mentioned in particular: Chérie (19). She has more than 80,000 followers on Snapchat and her videos on TikTok often have around 100,000 views, with occasional peaks of up to 800,000.
Kill her
A few days before the explosion, on Thursday March 9, Chérie visits El Asri’s shop. She wants a wash and blow-dry, but once in the hairdresser’s chair she is advised to have a keratin treatment, she says. “Fatima said my hair was dead. I trusted her, expected her to specialize in her craft. After the treatment, she wanted to take a picture together.”
When Chérie comes home, she notices that the keratin has not produced the desired result. “I had thick and shiny hair, almost down to my buttocks. But it looked like pieces had burned off. My hair had literally turned into straw. When I brushed it, whole strands fell out. Even my mother cried.” Photos show that the ends of Chérie’s hair look dry and frizzy. “I ended up having to cut it just below my shoulders.”
Chérie calls El Asri to confront her. Not only is she dissatisfied, she also paid 260 euros for the treatment. Way too much, thinks Chérie. “I was there on my own and it was difficult not to pay afterwards. Besides, if it had been done well, I would have accepted it.”
Exposure
Chérie says she wants a solution, for example her money back, but that El Asri refuses. Chérie calls ‘at least thirty times’, but El Asri no longer answers. Meanwhile, there is a video on TikTok, with the photo that El Asri took with Chérie after the treatment. “She didn’t ask me for permission at all,” says Chérie. “I really didn’t think it was possible and I didn’t want to wish this experience on anyone. Then I said to Fatima: I am going to expose you on social media.”
After Chérie shares her experience at the Tetuan hair salon, she says she receives dozens of responses from women with similar experiences. On screenshots, owned by The parole, you can read the stories about the hairdresser: women who came home with burnt strands, orange or green shades in the hair, bald spots and hair falling out. One woman got an unwanted ‘upturn’ (a shaved haircut, ed.) And one of Chérie’s followers writes that she eventually went to Turkey for a hair transplant. “It stopped growing.”
Chérie shares the women’s experiences on her Snapchat. In a video she says: ‘She (El Asri, ed.) also posted me on TikTok! Everyone go to her TikTok and bombard her comments saying she needs to take that shit off because she didn’t ask me anything.”
Bomb
Four days later, the explosion in front of the hair salon takes place. Many of Chérie’s followers make a connection. This can’t be a coincidence, they think. Cherie herself denies that. “I have called on my followers to bombard her comments, but that has been taken completely out of context. I mainly have young girls as followers, they really have nothing to do with this. And it goes too far to explode a case for a wrong haircut.”
In addition, El Asri would also have had a problem with other tiktokers. Earlier this month, for example, she publicly fought a fight with a former Spanish business partner on TikTok, with whom she had a disagreement about money. In the end, this angry Spanish woman cuts a bunch of dresses that she was going to sell with El Asri in a video on social media.
The police say the investigation is ongoing and cannot yet say whether Chérie’s social media revelation or the fights on TikTok indeed have anything to do with the explosion. “Very occasionally, explosions are the result of rowdiness,” says a spokesman. “Often we see them being used as a means of pressure or as a threat. This can be related to drug crime, but also if someone is refused entry at a catering establishment. Many different motives are possible and we maintain that broad view during the investigation.”
El Asri does not identify with Chérie’s story and says that this situation has nothing to do with the explosion. Her customers are happy, she says. According to the hairdresser, many of her customers have been coming to her salon for years for cuts and colors. Online, next to some negative, indeed many positive reviews about the hair salon. And a few days after the explosion, the business is busy again as usual.
According to El Asri, the explosion also has nothing to do with her other online fight. “People talk, but none of that has anything to do with it. I think it is about children in puberty or someone who is jealous of me.”
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