Root of Blagojevich’s hair: Barber says dye job will go gray in prison
ASSOCIATED PRESS March 21, 2012 12:50PM
Rod Blagojevich
Updated: April 23, 2012 11:36AM
Rod Blagojevich’s barber says the former Illinois governor’s famously thick, dark hair is dyed and will turn gray within the first months of his prison term.
Peter Vodovoz, also known as “Mr. Barber,” has been Blagojevich’s barber for more than two decades. Vodovoz said Wednesday that the 55-year-old Blagojevich has dyed his hair himself for years.
Blagojevich reported to a Colorado federal prison last week to begin serving a 14-year sentence for corruption. A prison spokesman says hair dye is banned because inmates could use it to change their appearances in escape attempts.
Vodovoz says Blagojevich’s dark-brown dye will fade within three months.
“His hair will turn gray, like Jay Leno’s,” Vodovoz said
Vodovoz told Blagojevich not to fret about his hair behind bars because no cameras will be around to document his changed appearance.
“’There’s no media, so don’t worry,’ I told him,” he said. “Who’s going to care?”
When he was governor, Blagojevich was so obsessive about his hair he had a security official carry a brush. A comedian on Saturday Night Live once joked that when FBI agents came to arrest him in 2008, Blagojevich asked for five minutes to pack his things — and for eight hours to comb his hair.
Vodovoz, a 48-year-old who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1990, spoke admiringly of Blagojevich’s hair and said he’ll miss cutting it. Then he added that he thought Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence was far too harsh.
“In the Soviet Union, you have to kill someone to get a sentence like that,” Vodovoz said in a thick Russian accent.
