President Donald Trump’s wispy combover was sent into disarray as he stepped out for the IndyCar race around the National Mall.
The 80-year-old president appeared to have carefully assembled his trademark blonde coiffure before making his appearance at the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix on Sunday.
But as he made the rounds greeting attendees and racers, the wind began dismantling his signature sweep, leaving his blonde strands whipping in every direction.
One large flap was repeatedly blown up above his forehead, while the strands carefully swept over his thinning crown were scattered, exposing what lay beneath.
The wind proved especially unforgiving as Trump spoke with Fox Sports’ Jamie Little, sending his signature sweep flapping as he touted his role in making the race happen while bizarrely referring to himself in the third person.
Trump’s beleaguered hair soon got a reprieve when he climbed into “The Beast,” the presidential limousine, for an honorary lap around the track.
Trump, whose medical records indicate he used to take the anti-balding drug Propecia, has faced fresh scrutiny over his hair after showing up at a Las Vegas rally earlier this month with a noticeably fuller and darker head of hair, prompting chatter about whether he was wearing a wig.
The aging president himself seemed to get oddly specific about hair last week, when he brought up hair products that give the impression of having “4 percent” more up top while telling a group of law enforcement officials in Garden City, New York, that certain items in pharmacies are placed on shelves that can be locked to prevent theft.
“Every shelf has glass on it, and it has a lock and a key. I said, ‘Why do you do that? How do you live like that?’ You want a toothbrush or a little toothpaste, or you want to get a little Dove soap,” he said. “You want a little of that good hair that can puff up your hair a little bit more, so it makes it look like you have 4 percent more than you had—they charge you for it.”
According to Trump biographer Michael Wolff, Trump is using elaborate styling tricks to cover up a bald spot.
Wolff wrote in 2018’s Fire and Fury that Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, “often described the mechanics behind [her father’s head] to friends: an absolutely clean pate—a contained island after scalp reduction surgery—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 secured by a stiffening spray.”
And, according to a book by Stormy Daniels, the former adult film star, Trump once acknowledged how “ridiculous” his hairstyle was, but said he was keeping it because it was his “trademark.”
