WASHINGTON — Diego D’Ambrosio has had the ear of American presidents, high-ranking court officials and foreign leaders for nearly 50 years. But what happens in his barbershop, stays in Diego’s.
President Barack Obama and his two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, are among the list of presidents to sit in D’Ambrosio’s chair. D.C.’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, also is a customer.
“I cut the hair of more than 46 presidents,” he said, noting it’s not just American dignitaries he has worked on, but international leaders such as former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. “But everyone who sits on my chair is the same for me. No difference.”
The 80-year-old Italian immigrant opened his barbershop in 1968 and it soon became a Washington institution. The street in front his shop was renamed in his honor in 2010.
“I’m a close friend of President Netanyahu since he was ambassador here in D.C. Every time he comes back to meet the U.S. president, he always comes here to have his hair cut by me,” says D’Ambrosio. Benjamin Netanyahu was a senior official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington in the early 1980s, then became Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988. He has been prime minister of Israel since 2009.
But D’Ambrosio declined to talk about the conversations that occur during haircuts, saying they are private matters.
The walls of his small shop, however, are covered with framed photos of government leaders, American and foreign; most are signed. He greets patrons with a hearty “Buon Giorno” before leading them to one of the nine barber chairs. Italian music plays in the background, from opera to pop tunes from the 1970s and ’80s.
A man’s haircut had cost $20 for more than two decades. But this year, he reluctantly increased the price to $25.
Robert Bodanski has been a Diego’s client for the last 40 years.
“Every time I come here, it’s family for me,” he says. “And Diego is an excellent hair stylist and he always makes me look good, which is not easy to do.”
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