Donald Trump isn’t the only political figure whose hair is coming under close scrutiny: recent news reports from France have zeroed on President François Hollande’s receding hairline. There’s nothing particularly interesting about his hairstyle, though – the reports are more to do with the amount of money he (and the French taxpayers) are throwing at it.
Top dollar
According to French newspaper Le Canard, Hollande’s personal hairdresser – a coiffeur known only as Olivier B – is on contract for an eye-watering €10,000 a month. In addition to this, he’s also entitled to a housing allowance and other family benefits.
He’s been on the government payroll ever since Hollande came to power in 2012, and since then he’s not missed a day of work, accompanying Hollande to most of his foreign trips, and has even missed the births of his children to be on hand to style the Presidential hairdo.
Other political hair obsessors
It’s not the first – nor will it be the last – time that politicians have come under fire for money spent on hairdressers.
John Edwards’ campaign to run as the Democrat candidate for President in 2007 was blighted by claims that he took $800 out of the kitty for two haircuts in Beverly Hills, and Silvio Berlusconi’s hair transplant was the talk of the Italian press for ages in 2010, leading no less a figure than Bill Gates to pile on when he wrote “Rich people spend a lot more money on their own problems, like baldness, then they do to fight malaria.”
Naturally, Hollande’s rivals have not hesitated to pile on. An aide to Alain Juppé, who is being groomed as Hollande’s main adversary in next year’s French elections, gleefully pointed out that as his man was unashamedly bald on top, there could be a considerable saving to the governmental coffers before long. “Here’s a problem which won’t arise with Alain Juppé!” he tweeted…
