Former US president Barack Obama has appeared at a Democratic party fundraiser looking … shall, we say, distinguished. Which is a polite way of saying that his hair has gone “Gandalf-grey”, perhaps suggesting that a few bottles of hair dye featured in his presidency.
There has been prying, unwarranted speculation on this matter, mainly by people like me, who, as lifelong hair-tinters, know an artificial hue when they see it. Certainly, Obama wouldn’t be alone, either in dyeing his hair (I recall it being fairly obvious that David Cameron was no stranger to Nice’n Easy: Natural Light Brown) or the phenomenon of rapid onset ageing of previous political leaders.
This wouldn’t affect, say, Jeremy Corbyn, who pre-empted the syndrome by loyally sticking to his “depressed supply teacher eating a lonely packed lunch in a temporary classroom” look. However, take power away from some men and they seem to deflate like forgotten party balloons. Even the Peter Pan of international politics, Tony Blair, started looking a mite desiccated post-power. The real issue is Donald Trump’s hair – if it looks this odd now, what’s going to happen post-presidency?
