A hairstylist that costs nearly 10,000 euros a month, because Francois Hollande is worth it. France is reeling over news that the president’s coiffure comes with a rather steep price tag.
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It is not clear whether Hollande was aware about the salary of his hair dresser or not.
Seizing on the story as an opportunity for humor, many people took to Twitter using the hashtag #CoiffeurGate to lampoon the unpopular French president with edited photos and other memes.
The amount Hollande pays his personal hairdresser is roughly the same as a government minister’s salary, according to The New York Times. The hairdresser has been identified as Olivier Benhamou and he is certainly earning princely wages!
One of May’s first decisions will be when she plans to trigger Article 50 – the formal procedure for withdrawal from the European Union – which would set a two-year deadline for completing exit negotiations. Sarah Levy, Benhamou’s lawyer, told Le Canard Enchaine that the salary was justified because her client had to sell his salon in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris and because he was constantly on call.
“He is available to the president around-the-clock, 24 hours a day and is never replaced by anyone else”, she said. And the French government’s defense for such loose spending? (The stylist reportedly cuts Hollande’s hair every morning and before speeches.) But it also makes the idea of paying someone six figures to tend to that fallow plot of follicles feel a little silly.
The newspaper obtained a copy of the hairstylist’s five-year contract, which began in 2012 with the start of Hollande’s tenure.
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For comparison, then-President Bill Clinton’s much maligned haircut on the runway at the Los Angeles airport that delayed flights in 1993 cost $200.
