Milton H. Pitts

Milton Homer Pitts was born on July 4, 1910, in Greenville, South Carolina.¹ He trained as a barber and moved to Washington, D.C., opening his own shop on Connecticut Avenue at age twenty-three.² 

Pitts later became well-acquainted with politicians, diplomats, and other prominent Washingtonians while working as a barber at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel near the White House.³ Thanks to his popularity among Washington’s political elite, in 1969, Pitts was invited to cut the hair of President Richard Nixon, embarking on a decades-long career as White House Barber that included every president from Nixon to Bush, Sr., save for Jimmy Carter.⁴ Pitts did, however, spend one month working in the Carter White House, “taking comb and scissors to the likes of Walter Mondale, Bert Lance, and Hamilton Jordan.”⁵

From his barber shop in the basement of the West Wing, “the Chagall of male coif” and “the Leonardo of political locks,” as he was dubbed by newspapers, styled the hair of four presidents, countless Cabinet members, and other White House staff on Tuesdays and Thursdays while also working as a hair stylist in Washington, D.C.⁶ Pitts charged everyone– from members of the public to presidents– $35 per haircut.⁷

In 1985, Ronald Reagan spoke at a reception honoring Pitts’ 20th anniversary of service at the Sheraton-Carlton Hotel, telling attendees: “you know, his clientele…they come and go, but he's here for the long stretch. The rest of us are sort of hair today and gone tomorrow.”⁸ Pitts left the White House when Bill Clinton was Inaugurated in 1993 and continued to operate his own barber shop in the capital. Pitts died on December 25, 1994.⁹