A Sleek, Trendy Hairstyle

This is Floriani, who “escaped” from the barber

On the right with the uniform hairstyle; the sleek cut on the left, however, has its own backstory.(Bild: FF Laa/Thaya)

Actually not that far from real-life practice: In large wildfires, firebreaks are created by clearing a strip of vegetation. The same applied to the hair of a firefighter in Lower Austria, who went viral with a brief post about an “ordered escape from the barber.”

“It really happened,” the Laa-based firefighter told the “Krone” about his brief but amusing experience: “I was sitting at the barber’s when my cell phone alarm beeped. Somehow, everything happened quickly, automatically, and without much thought—just as it should be during fire department calls,” explains Lukas H., describing why he suddenly “jumped up and ran” right in the middle of his haircut.

Is a new firefighter hairstyle trend on the way?
As he ran off, he briefly told the astonished barber, “Call—I’ll be back,” and was suddenly at the nearby fire station, ready for duty. “My colleagues were very amused—but I did get a commendation for arriving so quickly,” H. smiles. After finishing the call, the 28-year-old returned straight back to the barber’s chair—as if nothing had happened, he adds.

A free haircut for running off in the line of duty?
According to him, the most frequently asked question on Online-Floriani was: Was the haircut—which was eventually completed—free of charge because of his dutiful response? “Yes,” confirms the 28-year-old (who, by the way, had already received an award for his service during the 2025 floods). “But only because I had a discount card with me that was just one stamp away from being full.”