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By Bonnie Mason

Body hair is increasingly looked upon as a nuisance by both men and women. And, although waxing and electrolysis still have their place and are recommended for certain body areas and skin types, laser hair removal has exponentially gained popularity. Continue reading

Where there is smoke, there may be fire. And, where there are smoking needs, there is Best Smoke Shop & Hookah, with everything smokers need and more, plus a hookah lounge coming soon.

If Best Smoke Shop & Hookah — located just east of I-75 on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel — doesn’t have it, owner Dean Refai says that he will get it for you. Since 2012, Refai’s shop has been the epicenter of smoking supplies, carrying everything from hookahs and waterpipes to cigars and E-cigarettes, plus everything in between.

“We know everything there is to know about smoke,” Refai says. “I think Wesley Chapel needed a store like this.”

Refai decided to open Best Smoke Shop after some friends recommended it as a good entrepreneurial venture. Before opening the shop, Refai was working for a car dealership in Tampa, but says he wasn’t happy, so he and his wife decided to open a smoke shop. The doors opened to the original location, on E. Fowler Ave. in Tampa, in 2007.

Seeing a need, and already living in the area, Refai decided to move Best Smoke Shop to its current Wesley Chapel location in 2012.

“We sell everything about smoking,” Refai says. “If customers don’t see what they’re looking for, I will special order it for them.”

However, it’s not often that Best Smoke Shop doesn’t have what its customers are looking for, Refai says, because of his constant travel around the country to attend industry conventions, where all of the latest smoking- related products are always on display.

“Our inventory is always rotating,” Refai says. “If I see something new at a show, I get it. I try to keep up with everything new that comes out.”

Refai says that products can even change as quickly as month-to-month, as new fads begin to trend. One of the more recent examples, he explains, is electronic smoking. To keep up with the popularity of E-cigarettes and even E-hookahs, Refai keeps his shop stocked up with all the latest flavors from 7’s E Cigarettes, some of which contain no nicotine.

“(E-cigs) are good for helping people to quit smoking cigarettes,” Refai says. “I carry liquids that contain less nicotine than most cigarettes and some flavors that have little to no nicotine. I’ve had about 60 customers tell me that E-cigs have helped them quit smoking cigarettes in the past few months.”

Instead of smoking actual tobacco leaves, E-cigarettes vaporize a liquid and produce no actual smoke. Customers simply purchase and plug a liquid-filled cartridge into the battery-powered E-cigarette.

“Because they have the habit of holding something in their hands, (E- cigarettes) still give them the feeling of smoking without actually smoking,” Refai explains.

Of course, if a customer isn’t interested in quitting smoking cigarettes, Refai says, they also have the option of purchasing the cartridges that contain the normal amount of nicotine as a traditional cigarette. He adds that, in addition to not getting the typical cigarette odor on your clothes from smoking cigarettes and the convenience of still being able to “smoke” them indoors, E-cigarettes give smokers the option to wean themselves off of their nicotine addiction at their own pace.

The store also carries everything necessary to roll your own cigars and cigarettes at home, including Raw-brand cigarette-rolling papers. Best Smoke Shop also carries a wide range of different tobacco brands.

Don’t feel like rolling your own? Best Smoke Shop also carries traditional cigarettes, as well as a variety of premium cigars from popular brands such as Cohiba, Garcia y Vega, Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta.

The store also carries a variety of vaporizers, pipes and water pipes, for tobacco use only. Refai says his top- selling water pipe brand is Roor.

If you enjoy hookah smoking, Best Smoke Shop carries several brands, the most popular being Khalil Maamoon, Refai says. Hookahs vary in size from a few inches tall with one hose, to decorative hookahs that are several feet tall with multiple hoses.

Refai is in the process of adding a hookah lounge to the shop, complete with couches and even a belly dancer, but he says that he still is working out the details with Pasco County.

Refai insists: everything in the shop is legal to sell.

“It’s a clean smoke shop,” he explains. “We believe in clean business. We don’t sell anything that is illegal.”

Besides the wide range of smoking products, Refai says his customers will come back for Best Smoke Shop’s surprisingly low prices, something he makes a point of checking at other shops when he visits other cities.

“I just went to Houston last month and saw prices that were 70 percent higher than mine,” he says. It was the same thing when I was in Miami. We have the lowest prices in the area. I go out and search shops and online and make a conscious effort to keep our prices low.”

But, don’t just take his word for it.

“I come here all the time and the prices are the best around,” says a Meadow Pointe resident named Scott. “Dean knows what he’s talking about and always has the newest products. Before I came here, I would always get stuff on- line, but Best Smoke Shop is cheaper than (shopping on) the web.”

Tracy, a Quail Hollow resident, adds, “(Best Smoke Shop) is a great place. It has lots of good products and is always clean. I try to support local merchants whenever possible and Dean always has such a great selection.”

And, as if the prices weren’t low already, check the Best Smoke Shop ad on page 18 for a coupon that’s good for an additional 20-percent off select items.

Best Smoke Shop & Hookah is located at 28411 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54) and is open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday. Do you want to know if Dean carries a specific product? Call the shop at 991-1188 or visit BestSmokeShopFlorida.com.

And, don’t forget to “Like” the shop’s Facebook.com page, where new products are announced as they arrive.