Angry barber reveals Edwards' $1,250 haircut

The hairdressing flap that engulfed the presidential hopeful John Edwards earlier this year has burst back to life with the Beverly Hills stylist at the centre of it all revealing that he once charged the former senator much more than the $400 that was originally reported. A single trim in Atlanta cost $1,250.

The stylist, John Torrenueva, kept his counsel when news first broke in April about the pricey cuts he had given to Mr Edwards. But now the barber, who has tended to the likes of Marlon Brando, is blabbing and the details threaten to inflict even greater damage on his former client.

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For instance, he reports first meeting Mr Edwards in 2003 as he was preparing for his first presidential run. It was in a Los Angeles hotel and he wasn't the only one invited. Also in the room were a bevy of other fashion experts all recruited to spruce up the senator's look.

"He has nice hair," the stylist says. "I try to make the man handsome, strong, more mature and these are the things, as an expert, that's what we do."

Since then, he has cut the Mr Edwards' hair about 16 times, most recently in March, one day after his wife, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with recurring cancer.

Mr Torrenueva allowed himself to think that the two of them had become friends. It didn't sit well with him, therefore, when in April Mr Edwards downplayed the relationship referring to Mr Torrenueva as "that guy" and professing not to realise how much his services had cost. That is what stirred him to reveal all in an interview with The Washington Post.

While hair aesthetics is not a matter as weighty as the war in Iraq or health care, the topic could still be a potent political pothole for Mr Edwards, currently polling third in the Democrat field behind Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Vanity is not a plus-point with many male voters.

"I'm disappointed and I do feel bad," Mr Torrenueva said. "If I know someone, I'm not going to say I don't know them. When he called me 'that guy' ... it hurt."

Even before the cost of his haircuts became public, Mr Edwards was being lampooned for paying too much attention to his looks. A YouTube video showing him primping for the television cameras was accompanied by "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story.