"The Breck girl" -- that was Rush Limbaugh's nickname for John Edwards when he still had a political future.
Turns out that Rush was wrong. He should have nicknamed Edwards the "HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo for Fine, Fragile Hair" girl.
Not as snappy, but more accurate.
Edwards' "butt boy," Andrew Young, the aide who covered up for Edwards, protected his beloved boss by claiming paternity of the baby Edwards fathered with his wacky mistress Rielle Hunter. Young describes, in his new book, The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down, the scores of chores he did for Edwards, cutting the "made in USA label out of his suit and sewing it in Edwards' "made in Italy suit," changing the light bulbs in the Edwards' house -- and making certain that Edwards always had a supply of the only shampoo he would use -- HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo for Fine, Fragile Hair.
Edwards cared a lot about his looks -- the perfect white t-shirt, the perfect jeans, the perfect weathered shirt, sleeves precisely rolled up -- but about his hair he was a loony perfectionist -- as archived in the famous YouTube primping video. We know about the $400 haircuts for the man who lectured us about poverty and the "two Americas."
When I saw the news from Young's book about HairTec Thick & Strong Shampoo for Fine, Fragile Hair, I rushed to drugstore.com. My intent was not to buy the stuff for myself -- although Edwards' hair always has a nice shine and it never looks dry or frizzy -- but to find out how much it cost.
Drugstore.com didn't have it. Neither did Ultra or Sephora. When I Googled the brand name I found that it was available, but only in Malaysia, and I couldn't be sure of the price.
Anybody who knows where to find this stuff, please tell me. Is there a reader in North Carolina who knows of a local salon that carries it? Andrew Young, will you reveal your supplier?
If I were the manufacturer of the shampoo I'd be out with a national advertising campaign pronto. There's not much that John Edwards could sell to anyone these days. But he indisputably has a nice head of hair.
Oh, one last question, when he went to Haiti to help in the relief effort, did he pack his special shampoo?