Because you’re worth it, Bibi
A closer look at the prime minister’s silvery locks, shown to particular effect during last week’s visit with Obama
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Did you notice Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hair last week? We did. More silvery in hue, fuller and thicker-looking than usual, it was a clear departure from his usual gray comb-over, a decidedly improved coiffure in honor of US President Barack Obama’s three-day visit to the region.
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- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a silvery mane of hair (photo credit: image capture Channel 2)
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- POTUS and Bibi with blue ties and suit jackets slung over their shoulders (photo credit: Avi Ohayoun/Flash 90)
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- A side view of Bibi’s blow-dried hair (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90)
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- Obama may be taller, but Bibi definitely has more hair (photo credit: Avi Ohayon/Flash90)
Question is, was it just a matter of a dye job and daily blow-dry, or did Obama’s “friend Bibi” spend some time filling in those thinning roots?
Not a chance, said Moris Shokron, a Jerusalem hairdresser with a salon on Bethlehem Road in Baka, or he’d never hear the end of it from the rest of the country.
“It was probably a shampoo with color, augmented by a purple mousse, because that’s good for gray hair,” said Shokron, studying a photo of Netanyahu greeting Obama at the airport. “He definitely got it blown out; that’s how it looks so full.”
Unlike previous photos from the last few years, when Netanyahu sported a modest comb-over of his graying locks, as well as a receding hairline across his pate, the photos of Bibi and Barack showed him with a pompadour hairstyle, with his thinning silvery mane brushed back from his face.
It’s the kind of thing you do every day when there’s a high-profile visitor, said Eli Man, another neighborhood hairdresser who was busy blow-drying a customer’s hair.
“You’ve got photo ops every day, they’re badgering you all the time, and you want to make sure you look your best,” said Man.
But Man nixed the idea of a purple rinse.
“It’s blue,” he commented, peering at the photo. “Blue goes best with gray, silvery hair. That’s why he’s also wearing a blue tie.”
Or was that to match Obama’s tie? Just as he slung his suit jacket over his shoulder, hooking it on with one finger, to match the POTUS style?
Possibly. But it could also be all about photoshopping, joked Ophir Hashmonai, while getting his own balding pate closely shaved — one of the best solutions when losing one’s hair, he pointed out.
“You see?” he said, pointing at the photo. “It’s sunny, and it’s just really the color that’s different, which is probably a rinse.”
Then again, politicians have been known to try anything in order to look better, added Hashmonai.
“Maybe he’ll surprise us all and do hair plugs,” he said.
