Does anyone know if the current President or recent Presidents (Reagan through present) regularly shaved themselves or went to a barber?
My google-fu indicates that at one point there was a barber shop in the Executive Office Building that may or may not have been frequented by Nixon at one point. Nothing more recent than that seems to come up, though.
I know Presidents have professional hair stylists, but that isn’t the same thing as a professional barber who gives you a straight shave.
Do Presidents shave themselves or not?
If so, I wonder what the Secret Service thinks about someone with a straight razor on the neck of the President? In practice a straight razor isn’t as immediately deadly as most people imagine, but still, if someone decided to gouge out the President’s neck it would not take long to do and even SS agents right there wouldn’t be able to stop it before serious damage was done.
Would it be any worse than holding sharp scissors a few inches away from his neck for the haircut? Or a chef preparing every meal for his entire family? I think the key is in the screening process.
There have definitely been official White House barbers at least through some administrations. Milton Pitts was the official Republican barber for four administrations - Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush senior. I remember reading once Bush Jr. went to some outside barber in a story about Pitts, Pitts having retired by that administration. No idea about Obama but several stories out on the web exist about his long time friend and barber of 15+ years who was going with him to the White House if he won, so presumably he did.
In all these cases from what I’ve read the barbers might work full time but the President only visits every week or two for a trim not a daily shave. I have no cite but my opinion is that the President is responsible for his own shaving and basic personal grooming in general.
That said getting a shave from the White House barber when he stops in for a trim is probably no more worrisome to the Secret Service than the trim itself would be.
Milton Pitts was the white house barber for about 25 years. The position require a certain amount of trust, as Time magazine discussed in an article called “What the Barber Knew.”
The white house’s website has some pictures of the white house barbershop, from Eisenhower to Reagan. That room is now an office for the Homeland Security director, and there is no longer a barber shop in the white house.
Given the demands of the job, it would make sense for him to do so. Every morning starts with briefings about what happened while he slept, the book of newspaper clippings assembled every day, and then every minute of his waking hours scheduled. A professional giving him a shave would be one less thing to deal with.
Sorry, I’m misunderstanding…are you saying you think the President does or does not shave himself? Don’t you mean a professional giving him a shave would be one more thing to worry about?
I think he definitely shaves himself. Much faster, less hassle.
I can’t wait until we have a woman President (don’t worry, not Palin, but somebody) and the opposing party starts foaming at the mouth because there will be a White House manicurist. And her own party will defend it on the grounds that she only gets her nails buffed and clipped short, not four inches and fire-engine red, but it’ll still be seen as a shocking waste of money.
I think it would make sense for the President to be shaved by a barber. Maybe I’m biased because I hate shaving, but in a job scheduled in five-minute increments, shaving is a waste of a valuable resource. It’s time that could be spent better.
I don’t see the difference. If anything I would think it would take more time to have someone come in, get cleared by security or whatever it entails to enter the private residence, and give him a shave. Besides limited motion preventing him from getting much of anything done during the shave either way, he would be limited in what he could talk about or be briefed on while the barber was there.
Even being as busy as they are I think Presidents probably also shower themselves, use the bathroom themselves, and lift the food from the plate to their mouths using their own forks, too.
Carter canned Milton Pitts when he took office and brought in 2 female beauticians to be the White House barbers. When Reagan took office he brought Pitts back, but kept the two beuticians for the ladies. Pitts and the two ladies didn’t get along and had to be given separate barber shops due to infighting and sabotage. It created a quite a stir back in those carefree days when we could be outraged about $9,000 in tax dollars being wasted.
The President has an aide known as his “body man”, in Obama’s case Reggie Love, who is allowed in every area of the White House and every meeting, someone who could be trusted to shave the President. From what I understand, one of his jobs is to wake the President up.
I also come from a long line of multitaskers. My father used to do WDAF’s drive-time traffic reporting from our bathroom every weekday morning. Yes, I’m absolutely serious.
If you’re saying you believe his personal aid also goes into the shower with him and/or shaves him every day I really think the burden of a cite would be on you in this case.
I doubt it. Not only based on my personal opinion which is what you seem to be arguing, but on the logical basis that it wouldn’t save any time anyway. It would take someone else the same time or longer and would prevent him from moving freely (which he could still do to some extent if he were shaving himself).
My guess is that the president shaves himself simply because it’s something that most men do for themselves, and I doubt it would change now that he’s president. (But articles about the president mentioned that when he was in Chicago, he frequented Hyde Park Hair Salon and his barber was someone named Zariff. If anyone is bored enough, they could try calling the shop and asking.
No. It was never stated that he was in a helicopter or airplane, and I don’t know if people assumed that he was. He listened to police scanners, jotting down locations of traffic accidents as the police responded to them. His day job was as a cop, so he knew the lingo and probably a majority of the officers talking on the radio. Then he’d phone in every 15 minutes and extemporize a report from his notes, concluding “10-4, Traffic Central”. While doing this, he’d accomplish his normal morning needs, shaving, bathing, etc.
I’ve never understood why anyone would want to do that job from a helicopter or plane, especially as the taxpayers already are paying for several ones already, staffed by trained observers.
