Ossama's hair salon now Obama's hair salon

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http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1372903,CST-NWS-hair12.article

PRINTERS ROW | Business way down after Sept. 11, but now it's thriving

January 12, 2009

BY SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporter/[e-mail]

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.