Extreme makeover: Ossama's hair salon now Obama's
PRINTERS ROW | Business way down after Sept. 11, but now it's thriving
What a difference a "B" makes.
A downtown Chicago hair salon has changed its name from Ossama's Hair Design to Obama's Hair Design -- for exactly the reason you'd think:
Business is better when your name evokes one of the nation's most popular figures, not one of its most hated.
"A lot of customers stopped coming after Sept. 11," owner Mike Elsheikh said. "Old customers have come by and said, 'We like it much better.' ... This is going to work for me for sure. The name is absolutely making a huge difference."
Elsheikh, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen from Plainfield, worked as a stylist at Ossama's when Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida launched the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Business plummeted 50 percent in the months that followed as customers shunned the suddenly unfortunately named salon, Elsheikh said.
The old owner eventually sold the business to Elsheikh, who licensed the "Obama Hair Design" name on spec during the campaign: "I had a good imagination he would win."
When Barack Obama did win the presidency, Elsheikh, 42, got moving. He officially opened the newly renamed salon at 433 S. Dearborn on Printers Row two weeks ago. Business has improved already, he said, adding people have stopped by to snap pictures of his new neon sign.
Elsheikh said he met Obama a few years ago when they both lived in the Hyde Park area. He hasn't heard anything from the president-elect since the new name went up -- and doesn't expect him to object.
"It makes a lot of sense to me to name it Obama's rather than Ossama's," Elsheikh said. "Plus Obama's gonna get Osama."
Contributing: Natasha Korecki
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