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WASHINGTON – As COVID-19 lockdowns shut down businesses across the country in early 2020, West Wing assistants began creeping into a bathroom downstairs in the Eisenhower executive office building next door – for dates with a black market hairdresser, The Post has learned.
With barbers in downtown Washington being closed by local order, the clandestine operation kept the staff of then President Donald Trump at their best as they battled a once-in-a-century pandemic.
The service was so popular that Trump’s White House reestablished an official barber shop after years without having one – and it appears the Biden administration has kept it going.
The initial covert operation – a source of intrigue and humor among Trump staff – employed a duo of women of Asian and American descent who sources say were recommended to the chief of staff’s wife from the White House, Mark Meadows, Debbie Meadows, by the wife of Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Four former White House aides said Meadows’ role in creating the speakeasy barber was widely known to his staff.
“Jim Jordan’s wife introduced them to Debbie Meadows, then Mark had the idea to bring them in during the pandemic,” a former White House official told the Post.
“[Meadows] Said he was bringing this lady to cut her hair [and] told people to email Beau [Harrison] to make an appointment. ”Harrison worked as an operations assistant to the president and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another former White House official confirmed that Meadows “asked his personal hairdresser to go to EEOB and do it. [and] people had programmed it via the [operations] shop.”
The service was a success, especially among the young men in the White House. One of the women operating outside the bathroom workspace cut her hair. The other dealt with snacks and payment – which could go up to $ 60 or $ 70 with tip included.
The assistant would insist on photos with almost all of the clients, flattering them by stating that they were political celebrities.
“I’m sure they would have agreed to style women, even if it was definitely aimed at male employees. I can’t say for sure if any women have been there, ”said the first former White House aide.
The success of the unofficial system gave momentum to inking a permanent in-house barber by fall 2020, and the deal was made with the nearby Wall Barber shop frequented by staff. of the White House before being forced to close by the pandemic. An asbestos removal project in the building it once occupied has compromised its reopening.
Wall’s Barber Shop owner Dale Simmons told the Post that his sister, Makia Simmons, was allowed to have her hair cut in the White House office building last year. He plans to join her once the Internal Revenue Service clears the paperwork.
“She’s keeping that notice so far,” he said in an interview. “She decided to go there, which I’m really happy for, because I couldn’t go right now because I was dealing with [IRS] Things.”
A Trump White House former said preliminary prices for the permanent store were $ 45 for a haircut, $ 25 for a shape and $ 15 for a beard cut, although a different source said those numbers are subject to change. Several White House staff recalled that the barber shop was open around the November 3 election.
A former White House staff member said the men, especially the ones from New York City, “were going and they were all excited.”
Makia Simmons referred the Post’s questions to the White House press office after asking for advice. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A Meadows aide declined to comment.
Before the pandemic, many White House employees frequented Wall’s barber shop and Vice President Mike Pence was a frequent customer. Pence occasionally jogged down the street for a quick cut and was greatly appreciated by the staff.
“Pence is a really good guy, he should actually be president someday – a smart, smart guy,” said Dale Simmons.
But Simmons said he had served as prominent officials and journalists across the political spectrum and hoped Biden was able to effectively lead the country toward economic recovery – and that he would be there to give it a boost.
“I’m ready to go back to work,” said Simmons, who spent much of the pandemic with his six-year-old son in northeast DC.
Simmons believes his shop’s long-standing reputation for serving White House staff helped land the new position. “With the staff moving in and out of the barber shop, maybe they felt it was a perfect fit,” he said.
Dale Simmons bought the shop 16 years ago from his namesake, Harry Walls, a member of the famous African-American aviators of Tuskegee. Walls began operation in 1967, one block east of the White House on 15th Street, according to his 2005 obituary in the Washington Post. Seven years ago, Simmons moved the business to 17th St.
It’s unclear whether the re-establishment of the White House barbershop will return the position to its glory days of the 1970s to the early ’90s, when hairstylist Milton Pitts operated from the basement in the West Wing. Pitts dispensed styling advice to presidents and fended off challenges from rivals who preferred a more artistic “style” of hair – proclaiming “I’m completely happy” when two rival hairdressers were sacked in 1982. Pitts left after having criticized Bill Clinton’s $ 200 snip in Beverly Hills.
White House Biden’s apparent decision to keep the restored barber shop drew praise from Trump’s White House staff, but also scorn for Democrats’ reluctance to reopen businesses more widely. One of them noted strict new rules for access to the press imposed in January.
“The motto of the Biden presidency: do what I say, not what I do,” a former White House official told the Post. “The fact that he’s keeping the White House barber shop open while shutting down the press covering it tells you everything you need to know about his governance when it comes to gas lamps.”
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