Donald Trump's Hair

About

Donald Trump's Hair refers to a series of jokes, memes, speculation and references to United States President Donald Trump's combed-over hairstyle.

Origin

The earliest known photographs of Donald Trump's hair are from 1976 (example below, left).^[1] In a 2015 history of Trump's hair, Vanity Fair^[2] wrote of his hairstyle (shown below, right), "In this photo from 1976, Trump shows off plans for the future Grand Hyatt on East 42nd Street to a city official. Considering the era and the man, this is a remarkably tasteful, organic-looking hairstyle. Nevertheless, the hard-charging young developer appears to be studying the older man’s pate-management techniques with an eye, as always, to the future."

Spread

In 1993, the unauthorized biography of Donald Trump, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump was published. Using the 1990 divorce deposition from Ivana Trump, the book alleges that in 1989 Donald Trump had scalp reduction surgery, which is mostly performed on patients with bald on the crown of the head.^[3] Hairtransplantmentor.com says, "The procedure, which essentially cuts out the patient’s bald spot, follows these steps: Under anesthesia, the surgeon cuts away the balding area of the scalp. Usually a portion somewhere between the crown and the vertex transitional point is removed. The remaining skin (which is able to grow hair) is sewn back together."

As described in Lost Tycoon, the pain caused by the surgery directly led to an alleged sexual assault by Donald Trump on then-wife Ivana Trump.

The book states:

"Suddenly, according to Ivana, The Donald storms into the room. He is looking very angry, and he is cursing out loud. 'Your fucking doctor has ruined me!' he screams. The Donald flings Ivana down onto the bed. Then he pins back her arms and grabs her by the hair. The part of her head he is grabbing corresponds to the spot on his head where the scalp reduction operation has been done. The Donald starts ripping out Ivana’s hair by the handful, as if he is trying to make her feel the same kind of pain that he is feeling. Ivana starts crying and screaming."

On May 11th, 2011 profile, Rolling Stone^[4] profiled Trump. During the interview, he described his hair care process. He says:

"OK, what I do is, wash it with Head and Shoulders. I don’t dry it, though. I let it dry by itself. It takes about an hour. Then I read papers and things.

…I then comb my hair. Yes, I do use a comb. …Do I comb it forward? No, I don’t comb it forward. I actually don’t have a bad hairline. When you think about it, it’s not bad. I mean, I get a lot of credit for comb-overs. But it’s not really a comb-over. It’s sort of a little bit forward and back. I’ve combed it the same way for years. Same thing, every time."

On May 24th, 2016, Gawker ^[5] published an investigation entitled "Is Donald Trump's Hair a $60,000 Weave." The article tracks the reported information about Trump's hair, mixed with research into hair transplants, as well as Edward Ivari, which they call "the man behind Donald Trump's mane." They write, "Trump, our tipster says, sought for his hair woes is a little-known, patented hair restoration treatment called a 'microcylinder intervention.' It’s only performed by one clinic that we know of--Ivari International--where our source once sought treatment, and where he says he learned of Trump’s apparent patronage. What’s more, Ivari’s New York location was inside Trump Tower--on a floor that’s now private and reserved for Donald Trump’s children’s offices."

On September 15th, 2016, Trump appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Towards the end of the interview, Fallon asked Trump if he could touch his hair. Fallon proceeds to ruffle his hair (shown below, left). The moment was a source of great controversy, with many accusing Fallon of normalizing and minimizing some of Trump's more inflammatory policies with the moment.

Several days later, on September 21st, Super Deluxe video editor Vic Berger remixed the moment.^[7] The clip (shown below, right) received more than 363,000 views in a year and a half.

Following the backlash, Fallon said, "They have a right to be mad. If I let anyone down, it hurt my feelings that they didn’t like it. I got it."^[6]

Scalp Reveal

On February 5th, 2018, YouTuber ^[8] strangervideo published a video from February 2nd entitled "Donald Trump Wig Reveal." In the video, President Trump can be seen entering Air Force One, when a gust of wind blows the back of his hair to the side, revealing his scalp. The post (shown below) received more than 4.1 million views in three days.

The following day, the video went viral on Twitter. ^[9] That day, former Gawker reporter Ashley Feinberg tweeted a gif of the video with the caption "imagine what those locks look like soaking wet." The post (shown below, left) received more than 5,000 retweets and 10,000 likes in 48 hours.

Additionally, Twitter^[10] user @goldengateblonde tweeted the video with the caption "My eyes passed away on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. Visitation will be Sunday with burial shortly thereafter." The post (shown below, center) received more than 7,900 retweets and 24,000 likes in 48 hours. Writer Jensen Karp tweeted^[11] the gif with the caption "I CAN'T STOP WATCHING THIS." The post (shown below, right) received more than 29,000 retweets and 66,000 likes.

On February 7th, several late night talkshows made jokes about the moment. On Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel featured a segment in which he showed the clip to hairstylists to get an answer as to what is happening in the clip. The first stylist said, "Someone did not glue that down tight enough." The video (shown below) received more than 640,000 views in 24 hours and reached #7 on YouTube's trending videos.^[12]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References