As a kid, whereas he worked as an apprentice with his grand-father who was tinsmith, Sy Hassan loved to visit the workshop where his father worked. When he was a young man, he became a jacquard engineer, but handweaving and drawing were his main interests. While he worked for INTEXA, a Ben Cherif company, he completed his self-education and improved his theoretical knowledge of handweaving. He had regular exchanges by mail with a distinguished scholar from Lyon, Mister Gabriel Vial, teacher at the weaving school of Lyon and expert of the Centre International d'Etudes des Textiles Anciens (CIETA). Sy Hassan bitterly regrets not to have been able to invite Mister Gabriel Vial in Fez: not long before he heard about his death, Sy Hassan had the dream to invite him and show him his workshop and textile creations.

Combined with his careful observation of draw-looms which are still in use in Fez, the reading of numerous technical books allowed Sy Hassan to become an expert in the field of handweaving, both theoretically and practically.