‘Barber-gate’: President Obama Reportedly Flies Chicago Barber Zariff to Washington for Twice-Monthly Haircuts

Carbon footprint be damned! When it comes to looking good, there’s no length President Obama– or more accurately, the president’s barber– won’t go to. Like 700 miles for a haircut. That’s how far Obama’s long-time barber Zariff reportedly flies twice every month just to give the commander-in-chief a trim.

“If you go to three or four different barbers, your hair will look like you’ve been to three or four different barbers,” said Zariff, who told German Public Radio he’s been cutting Obama’s hair for 17 years. “I’m his only barber,” he added.

“He pays $21 like everyone else,” Zariff told Mail Online. “We don’t care about how famous you are or who you are. Everyone gets the same price.”

Zariff, of the Hyde Park Hair Salon in Chicago, keeps the president’s barber chair in bulletproof glass for those occasions when he’s in town. And for those who want their hair cut like the world’s most powerful man, “we have ‘The Obama’ cut… on our price list,” he says.

The president’s long-distance tonsorial tradition has raised eyebrows among conservative commentators, even though he reportedly pays for his haircare himself.

“President Obama obviously also does not care much about the massive carbon footprint his haircuts are leaving on our planet which, we are told, is tipping precariously,” quipped Fox Nation.

“In these tough times when Americans by the score are struggling with high unemployment, tight budgets, tattered finances and deep worries about the future, wouldn’t it be more appropriate for the President to get a barber from DC?”

Here is a CBS Early Show segment about then-Senator Obama’s barber shop from the 2008 campaign:

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