While we often celebrate the awe-inspiring and adventurous elements of life aboard the International Space Station (ISS), there are many mundane aspects that remain essential to the daily lives of astronauts. Just like anyone living on Earth, astronauts have to deal with the natural processes of the human body, including the digestive system and even the simple act of hair growth. No one wants to see astronaut return to Earth after a six-month mission looking like theyve just emerged from a deserted island, and that's where the onboard barbershop comes into play.

On the ISS, maintaining personal grooming is taken seriously, and a clever engineering solution has been devised to keep things tidy. The onboard barbershop utilizes an electric hair clipper that is ingeniously connected to a vacuum system. This setup ensures that hair clippings are swiftly whisked away into a collection container, preventing them from floating freely in microgravity. This system operates much like the vacuums used in woodworking shops, but instead of collecting wood shavings, it captures keratinthe protein that makes up hair.

Interestingly, the Chinese Tiangong space station employs a similar hair clipping method. Video demonstrations reveal that their approach is equally straightforward, utilizing a small handheld vacuum cleaner attached to the clippers. However, its important to note that simply affixing a vacuum to hair clippers isn't enough to guarantee effective hair removal. Both the ISS and Tiangong have crafted their systems with precision, ensuring maximum efficiency in removing hair clippings with thoughtful design.

For those interested in seeing the ISS system in action, a 2019 video produced by the Canadian Space Agency provides a fascinating glimpse. Though the hair clippers and vacuum setup is not flawless, it serves its purpose well. Amidst the inevitable shedding of skin particles by astronauts, the ISS's air treatment systems are quite capable of handling a few stray hair clippings. The goal, after all, is to avoid a scenario where a cloud of floating hair fills the space station, creating an unsightly and potentially hazardous environment for the crew.