CHENGDU, CHINA ¨C Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer¡¯s eyelid.

¡°You should be gentle, very, very gentle,¡± said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Customers swear by the practice of ¡°blade wash eyes,¡± as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong¡¯s skill with the blade.

¡°No, it¡¯s not dangerous,¡± said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. ¡°My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.¡±

Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave.

¡°It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterward,¡± he said.

The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu.

¡°Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,¡± she said. ¡°When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.¡±

She said there is a risk of infection if the equipment is not sterilized.

¡°If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,¡± Qu said.

While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor.

¡°I am afraid to do it,¡± said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.