Donald Trump's Complete Hair Transformation

Ever since he first shot to fame as a business mogul in the 1980s, Donald Trump has embraced the boujee lifestyle. From his big hair to his eternal tan, Trump is the epitome of brash new-money swag. But for all his bourgeois posturing, Trump is, truth be told, hardly famed for being fashionable. Indeed, the Trump family's worst looks include some particularly hair-raising moments from The Donald.

Despite the apparent lack of effort that he puts into his outward persona, Trump is allegedly vain and appearance-obsessed, refusing to wear a mask out of fear it would smudge his makeup and insisting on having his hair styled in an oddly specific way. While it's eye-opening to see what Trump looks like with and without makeup, it's equally daunting seeing his myriad hair transformations throughout the years. "It's ... very soft," Melania Trump said of her husband's mane in a 2005 interview with Tatler. "He's a very handsome guy and sexy. Of course, he would like his hair to be better, but we've all got something we'd like to be better, no?" But for Donald, the pursuit of perfect hair has been his Achilles heel.

Though the image of the reality star-turned-POTUS with orange skin and equally sun-splashed coiffure remains his most famous, he has actually embraced numerous hairstyles. Seeing as his hair has become as famous — not to mention as divisive — as the man himself, let's take a deep dive into Donald Trump's complete hair transformation.

In 1964, 18-year-old Donald Trump graduated from the New York Military Academy. As a young man, Trump is unrecognizable from the orangey image that has come to typify him. His hair was white blond and slicked back in a decidedly non-Trumpian way, demonstrating a thick hairline. His smile, which bears a remarkable resemblance to his daughter Ivanka Trump, also appears a world away from his brash populist brand. However, the teen reportedly had something to prove during his school days; his hair was often a source of amusement for his friends, who branded him "Flat Top."

According to former classmates, Trump was obsessed with his hair, which he styled with painstaking precision to ensure it looked fuller. His efforts paid off and he had multiple female admirers at this young age. "The type of women who were coming up to see him or he was bringing were definitely from the upper levels of New York society," his former classmate, George White, told NPR. "I mean, I remember there were so many, it was a revolving door." Believe it or not, he was once Trumpy with the good hair.

By 1976, Donald Trump was working as a real estate developer. Soon enough, he was at war with the New York City council over his fight for a 40-year tax abatement for a hotel he was building. "If you don't give me a tax abatement, I'm going to have you fired," Trump reportedly told politician Richard Ravitch, per ProPublica. Subsequently, he was slowly morphing into the image of a ruthless businessman — and he needed the hair to match. 

A far cry from his aforementioned boyish image, the future president was looking much older than his years at the tender age of 30, his hair noticeably thinner. In an apparent attempt to conceal his receding hairline, the property mogul's wispy strands were styled over his temples. His mane was also significantly darker than his pale Military Academy locks, which may be due to his tresses naturally darkening with age or an experiment with quintessentially 1970s rinses.

Speaking to Yahoo!, hair surgeon Dr. Kenneth Anderson suggested that Trump underwent treatment for hair loss at some point in the 1970s, likely utilizing plugs, which may explain the permanent bad hair days that followed him in the subsequent decades. "This method of hair restoration does significant damage to the donor area, often making future corrections impossible," Anderson said.

The transformation of Donald Trump from a dapper New Yorker to a surreal self-parody has been truly startling. In his younger years, Trump was borderline likable. Emphasis on borderline. As the 1980s approached, he was in full yuppie mode. In 1987, the businessman grew out his locks, which were now an ashy-blond shade, and went heavy on the hairspray. In snaps with his then-wife, Ivana Trump, the boujee couple seemed to be competing for the biggest hair award, though Donald's voluminous coiffure appeared to overcompensate for his ever-looming receding hairline. That decade, he also became more self-conscious of his hair loss and reportedly began seeing specialist Dr. Norman Orentreich, a hair transplant pioneer.

According to The Washington Post, the yuppie aesthetic set the template for the Trump brand, with all his future looks seemingly taking inspiration from the hedonistic decade: "Trump is frozen in the 1980s ... Everything was big — the shoulder pads, the egos, the hair." It's no coincidence that this was also the decade in which Trump became famous; in 1980 he sowed the seeds for Trump Tower, before rising to international prominence with his 1987 book "The Art of the Deal," a New York Times best-seller.

By 1992, Donald Trump's tresses had been dyed a rich auburn and his hairline was suspiciously lower than it had ever been before. The wispy strands were combed over to an alarming degree, almost resembling a wig.

According to plastic surgeon Gary Linkov, Trump probably had surgery for hair loss at some point in the early '90s. As Linkov posited in a YouTube video, Trump may have undergone a combination of a rotational flap, which relocates hair to fashion a complete hairline, and scalp reduction. Despite these procedures, Trump was still acting like a man suffering from substantial hair loss. "Even though Donald may have brought in a fresh supply of hair to the hairline, he's still combing it down," Linkov said. "And this might be to hide the scar."

Donald's ex, Ivana Trump, previously claimed that he did indeed undergo scalp reduction surgery around this time. However, Donald was reportedly enraged by the results of the procedure performed by his wife's surgeon, Dr. Steven Hoefflin, leaving his scalp in searing pain. "According to Ivana, The Donald storms into the room," Harry Hurt III wrote in the book "Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump." "He is looking very angry, and he is cursing out loud. 'Your f***ing doctor has ruined me!' he screams."

In the aughts, Donald Trump enjoyed newfound fame thanks to "The Apprentice," with his catchphrase "You're fired!" reverberating across the decade. Following the show's debut in 2004, Trump once again showcased a new 'do. Indeed, his hair on the reality series would become his signature: a bizarre mix of pumpkin hues and white highlights.

According to "Apprentice" hair stylist Amy Lasch, Trump implemented some pretty strict hair rules on set. "It's as if he got ready somewhere else first," Lasch told the New York Post. "If I noticed a flyaway that the camera was sure to pick up, I would hold a large mirror up to Donald and ask, 'Do you want me to fix it?' I knew damn well — ask before I raised a finger to that hair."

Despite the seemingly amateur styling of Trump's hair, he actually paid a fortune to perfect his locks, forking out a whopping $70,000 on haircare during the run of "The Apprentice." One of Trump's favorite products is reportedly Farouk Systems' "CHI Helmet Head." "Donald loved the smell," a source, who worked with Trump around this time, told the New York Post. "He doesn't like people touching his hair — he's a germophobe."

In 2011, Donald Trump returned to the ashy blond color he sported in the '80s, albeit still paired with white highlights. His excessive use of hairspray also appeared to be stiffening his mane, with Trump starting to look like a parody of himself.

That year, he sat down with Rolling Stone and was asked about his haircare routine. The future president explained that he uses Head and Shoulders then lets his hair dry naturally, before segueing into a rambling rant about Jerry Seinfeld refusing to perform at a benefit for his son's charity. "OK, so I've done all that. I then comb my hair. Yes, I do use a comb," he said following his Seinfeld tangent, before clearing up some misconceptions about his hairline.

Asked whether he tended to comb his hair forward, the reality star insisted that he didn't, before — in true Trump style — admitting that he did. "I actually don't have a bad hairline," he said. "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."

In 2015, hair — or lack thereof — took center stage throughout Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Looking vastly different from his "Apprentice" heyday, Trump's hair was several shades lighter, with the GOP hopeful sporting a lemon, rather than orange, combover that appeared to have been spritzed one too many times. He did, however, often cover his tresses with a MAGA hat, perhaps to avoid hair-raising embarrassment (more on that later).

Speculation grew as to what exactly Trump was using on his hair to create such a monstrous coiffure. "He uses a weird bottle of hair spray. He tried to give it to me once, as a friend," a former Trump political adviser told the New York Post. "It's bigger than the biggest can of beer."

Subsequently, hair specialists offered Trump some advice to rectify his meme-worthy flaxen image. "Presumably he dyes it, but the problem is that light-brown hair often goes warm and gingery in the sun," celebrity stylist George Northwood told The Guardian. "White hair is very porous, it doesn't hold colour correctly." Northwood suggested that Trump would have been better off bleaching his hair entirely, rather than stubbornly sticking to unflattering rinses.

Donald Trump has no shortage of awkward moments caught on camera, and his hair is often at the center of these slip-ups. In a moment that both men likely lived to regret, Trump allowed Jimmy Fallon to tousle his locks during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" in 2016. This was an apparent attempt to prove that Trump doesn't wear a toupee (that year, New York Daily News claimed that Trump's hair is simply the result of a bad combover and hair transplant).

"Can I mess your hair up?" asked Fallon. When his reluctant guest relented, Fallon exposed a large bald spot amid the Republican candidate's '80s-style mane, which Trump immediately tried to smooth back down. The stunt led to a hefty backlash, with critics accusing Fallon of attempting to humanize the contentious reality-star-turned-presidential-nominee, allegations which Fallon denied.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter two years later, Fallon said that he regretted the infamous hair tousle. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry if I made anyone mad," he said. "And, looking back, I would do it differently." In true thick-skinned Trump style, the then-president responded to Fallon's penitence on X, telling him to man up. "@jimmyfallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous 'hair show' with me (where he seriously messed up my hair) ... Be a man Jimmy!" he wrote.

During his tenure in the White House, Donald Trump seemed to become increasingly insecure about his hair. In 2018, his bouffant became ever more voluminous in the front and the pumpkin hue was somewhat softer — perhaps even golden — which may have signified the president's attempt to cast aside his unfavorable orange image.

Such insecurity was exacerbated, perhaps, by a number of embarrassing bad hair days. As he boarded Air Force One in 2018, for instance, Trump's hair got caught up in the wind, causing a mop of orange locks to billow wildly, thereby exposing a large bald spot.

Moreover, that year, some unflattering insights into Trump's mane were published in Michael Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury." According to Wolff, Ivanka Trump frequently joked about her dad's hair with her pals. "She often described the mechanics behind it to friends: an absolutely clean pate ... surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the center and then swept back and security by a stiffening spray," Wolff wrote. Ivanka also claimed that her father hadn't been a natural blond in years, and used Just for Men to color his gray locks.

Following the horrific Virginia Beach shooting, which killed 12 people, in May 2019, a solemn Donald Trump attended a memorial service to honor the victims. Startling onlookers, The Donald debuted a radical new look: his fair hair, which bore only the faintest orange tinge, was combed back and looked uncharacteristically neat — save for some straggly mullet wisps at the back.

Eschewing his signature combover for a slicked-back 'do, it was undeniably jarring to see Trump looking so different. His new hairdo was reminiscent of a bizarre coalescence between an off-duty mafia boss and an aging Patrick Bateman. Inevitably, social media erupted into memedom after witnessing Trump's anomalous experimentation with anything other than a spritzed pumpkin combover. "I'm sure they might say he took off his hat and it just looked like that," hairstylist Dhiran Mistry told The Daily Beast. "But [to get that style] you have to put your hair back first and then put your hat on, so he knew what it was going to look like."

More surprising, however, was the revelation that Trump is nowhere near as bald as widely thought. "I was surprised to see that he still has that amount of hair," said editorial stylist Patrick Kelly Kyle. "He does have some bulk. If he was super, super, super balding, that wet look would have made him look like a noodle, and he did not. I definitely think he has some thinning, though."

During his final presidential term in 2020, Donald Trump's hair became a washed-out ashy color. It also grew a tad longer, fashioned into a bizarre proto-mullet. According to experts who chatted to Vogue, Trump likely didn't embrace the gray of his own volition. "Trump is loath to change his physical appearance, so he likely listened to his aides who told him he needed to do something dramatic," explained historian Alexis Coe.

During this time, Trump's priority appeared to be his tresses, as opposed to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at a manufacturing plant in Ohio, the president opened up about his hair struggles. "You turn on the shower — if you're like me, you can't wash your beautiful hair properly," he said, per CNN. "'Please come out,' The water – it drips, right?" Subsequently, the president revealed the secret to his mane: strong water pressure.

But since moving into the White House, which reportedly had some plumbing issues, he had been struggling to keep his locks in pristine condition. Earlier that year, he discussed his ongoing battle with sinks and showerheads. "So, showerheads — you take a shower, the water doesn't come out," he said. "You wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer, or you take a shower longer? Because my hair — I don't know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect."

In 2023, Donald Trump was arrested on election fraud charges. Trump's unflattering mugshot, which body language experts say was highly calculated, went viral. Demonstrating his thinning flaxen mane, which had clearly been combed over within an inch of its life, Trump appeared self-assured despite his uncertain fate.

It would prove a hectic couple of years for The Donald, who had to juggle court appearances with his bid to become president (again), and his ongoing hair crisis. During Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, he stuck to the lighter locks and even added a slight curl to his coiffure. According to insiders who chatted to Page Six, the dramatic variations in Trump's hair color are the result of his patience levels when sitting in the barber's chair. "Friends say he's so impatient that he rarely gives the stylist the 30 to 45 minutes ... they need to keep his color consistent," the source claimed. "The shorter time he gives them, the more orange his hair gets, as it takes time to get the darker blonde locks he associates with his younger years." Moreover, his hair reportedly gets lighter with each wash.

Speaking to The Guardian, politics professor Tim Bale argued that Trump's increasingly ridiculous hair is central to his popularity as an idol for the alt-right. "When we're talking about these populist politicians, it almost adds to their lustre with their supporters," Bale explained. "Their hair is a kind of visual 'f*** you' to the establishment."