Afghan Has a Blade at Bush's Neck

[Fordman50]

WASHINGTON — Once a fortnight since America launched its war in Afghanistan, President Bush's secret service agents have left him alone with an Afghan wielding any number of sharp implements.


Fortunately Zahira Zahir is one of Bush's most ardent admirers. She also happens to be his hairdresser.

Since September 11, she has lost two dozen of her regular Washington customers because of her nationality. "It's hurtful," she said yesterday. "I have known them for a long time and some of them I considered my friends."

But Bush has remained loyal. "He's been very kind, generous and gracious and was shocked when I told him I had lost some clients," she said as she sat in her Watergate Hotel salon overlooking the Potomac River.

Mrs. Zahir, who has groomed three presidents, numerous prominent Republicans and Baroness Thatcher, seldom gives interviews but made an exception on this occasion because she wants "the world to know this president isn't fighting a war against the Afghan people because otherwise I would be the first one to be fired."

The 56-year-old Afghan has FBI clearance. She cuts Bush's hair in a small salon in the family quarters. The two of them are quite alone.

She does not volunteer her views. "It's the only peaceful half hour the poor guy has," she said.

"I usually try to relax him. I don't like to agitate him more than he already is. Basically he just closes his eyes."

The President does sometimes ask her opinion, she admits, and as the daughter of a former Afghan prime minister she does have strong ideas.

She supports his conduct of the war "100 per cent because what's been going on in Afghanistan is unacceptable to any Afghan and any human being."

She believes that Afghanistan's exiled King Mohammed Zahir Shah, who attended her wedding, should be reinstated because "he's the only one who can reunite the country." She also insists the world must not forget her "poor nation" once the war is over as it has so often before.

She charges $30 for their haircut — the advice comes free — and while she will not disclose how much he tips she insists he is "very generous."

Mrs Zahir is the embodiment of the American Dream. She came to the US in 1975 when her former husband was appointed Aghanistan’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations. In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, making it too dangerous for her to return. She found herself stranded in New York with an unemployed husband and three young children, and began cutting hair to make ends meet.

In 1985 she moved to Washington because her son had fallen into difficult company in New York. She found a job with the late Milton Pitts, President Reagan's barber.

She would accompany Pitts to the White House to give the President a manicure while her boss cut his hair, but one day Pitts fell ill and the Gipper asked her to stand in.

"I was nervous as hell because Nancy always checked his hair," she recalled. "He was telling me jokes but I wasn't listening.

"He said, 'Why aren't you laughing?' I said I was concentrating because I was the first woman ever to cut a President's hair. He replied, 'Are you telling me we're making The Guiness Book of Records?' He was such a wonderful man."

Before she knew it, Mrs. Zahir had become the Republican party's designated hairdresser. Her customers included Al Haig, George Schultz, Casper Weinberger, James Baker and the elder George Bush who was then Vice President and kept her on when he became president and became a close friend.

She calls him "41" because he was the 41st president. He and Barbara Bush invited her to last year’s Republican convention in Philadelphia as their guest. She cut their hair before their son’s inauguration in January.

"President Reagan was very nice, very fine, very charming, but he wouldn't let anybody get close to him. He didn’t have the warmth of the Bushes," she said.

Through Reagan she also became Lady Thatcher’s hairdresser when she visited Washington, and her signed photograph hangs alongside those of the Republican dignitaries on the salon’s wall.

"I was scared of her because people told me she was the Iron Lady, but she was a charming, wonderful lady. When I finished she looked at her aides and said, 'Didn't she do a wonderful job?' I whispered in her ear, 'I dare one of them to say no.' She laughed so hard."

Thereafter Lady Thatcher never visited Washington without bringing her a gift of soaps or perfumes.

President Clinton did not use Mrs Zahir. He preferred to pay $200 for the services of Christophe of Beverly Hills while sitting on the tarmac of Los Angeles airport in Air Force One. Nor does she have many other Democrats on her list. That is partly because her initial contact was a Republican president, but may also be because Democrats have different demands.

Republicans like short back and sides. "They want very conservative haircuts," she says. "Democrats have longer hair most of the time, and don't pay as much attention to their grooming."

[Shadowhawk]

Originally posted by Fordman50
Republicans like short back and sides. "They want very conservative haircuts," she says. "Democrats have longer hair most of the time, and don't pay as much attention to their grooming."

LMAO! There's a few jokes there, but...

Very cool human interest story otherwise though.

[Dest98]

G.W. & Clinton were both getting their hair cut at the local D.C. barber shop. When the barber asked if they'd like a perfume spritz, Bill replied, "No thanks, my wife will think I've been at a whorehouse!!". W replied, "Go ahead, my wife doesn't know what a whorehouse smells like".

[Contraband]

Thirty bux! For that crappy hair cut! Hey W - I'll cut your hair for 20

[Fordman50]

Originally posted by Dest98
G.W. & Clinton were both getting their hair cut at the local D.C. barber shop. When the barber asked if they'd like a perfume spritz, Bill replied, "No thanks, my wife will think I've been at a whorehouse!!". W replied, "Go ahead, my wife doesn't know what a whorehouse smells like".

lol !

[Manu]

HAHA, Dest that's great.

Avi, you'd never get FBI clearance