White House credits LED lighting at Red Rock Casino for change
President Donald Trump took the stage Wednesday in Las Vegas with hair that looked different from his usual style — brighter than it had been a day earlier and carrying more volume. The change prompted an avalanche of online memes.
The memes included AI-generated images of Trump taking questions near Marine One with a massive blonde bouffant, another showing Trump with flowing hair from a 360-degree angle, and one depicting members of Trump’s cabinet with full-volume blonde coifs. Names for the new ‘do came directly from the headlines, such as the “Strait of Hairmuz.” The episode drew comparisons to the collective examination of a president’s style that followed Barack Obama stepping into the White House briefing room wearing a tan suit.
Senior White House officials chuckled at the internet’s reaction, The Wall Street Journal reported, and said Trump’s hair looked different under the unique — and more flattering — LED lighting at the Red Rock Casino, which hosted his speech. “Lighting is everything,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Getting to the root of the change is difficult. Trump’s most recent memo about his annual physical made no mention of any use of prescription hair tonics. In the past, however, Trump’s doctors have said he turned to pharmaceuticals to help his hair. Harold Bornstein, Trump’s longtime doctor, said in 2017 that the president had used a small dose of finasteride, a hair-growth medication. In January 2018, Trump’s first-term White House doctor, Ronny Jackson, reported that the president took a regular dose of the drug. There has been no mention of the medication in any of the other White House memos about Trump’s health.
Trump has long described his hair in superlative terms, comparing it to a “work of art,” calling it “perfect” and declaring of his hairline, “when you think about it, it’s not bad.” Asked by Barbara Walters what he dislikes about his appearance, he quipped, “Other people would say, you know, it’s my hair.” He once let Walters tug on his hair on camera. “It’s a funny thing, I’ve always combed it this way,” Trump said, inviting her, “Come on Barbara, get over here.” Walters later said, “I still think it’s a hairpiece.”
During his last appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show before he was sworn into office in 2016, the late-night host asked if he could do something unpresidential. Trump consented, and Fallon reached across the desk and mussed up his hair. Trump told Rolling Stone in 2011 that he shampoos his hair with Head and Shoulders. “I don’t dry it, though. I let it dry by itself. It takes about an hour,” he said, during which time he watches television and reads newspapers. Then he combs it. “But it’s not really a comb-over,” Trump told the magazine. “It’s sort of a little bit forward and back. I’ve combed it the same way for years. Same thing, every time.”
Trump has also kept a close eye on the hair of others. At a dinner in South Korea last year, Trump told New Zealand’s bald prime minister that his hair was “beautiful.” “It can’t look any better,” Trump said. He has been known to compliment male reporters’ hair, including some who worked at The Wall Street Journal. He blasted Time magazine last year for photographing him from below, saying the magazine “disappeared” his hair by choosing an unflattering angle.
His interest in hair has at times reached into policy. During his first term, Trump repeatedly complained that federal water efficiency standards were producing unsatisfactory shower pressure, saying it was affecting his hair. “My hair…has to be perfect,” he said. His administration changed the showerhead rule in 2020. President Biden reversed the change, but three months after returning to the White House, Trump signed an executive order rolling back the restrictions again, explaining he needed adequate water to maintain his “beautiful hair.”
Trump has several times over the years invited audience members or those seated next to him to touch his hair to confirm that it is real and not a toupee.