Barack’s Locks: Does Gray Matter?

President Barack Obama had a busy week. He received Chinese President Hu Jintao for a state dinner at the White House, the first by a communist Chinese head of state, and delivered his second State of the Union address (which the Quad analyzed on Wednesday). But other news clogged up cyberspace and set the blogosphere abuzz: the purported color of our Commander-in-Chief’s coif.

In case you missed the hair-raising hullabaloo, several publications provided split-screen photos of Obama, with one photo from the morning of January 19 and another from that same evening, when he appeared in front of cameras for the heavily anticipated state dinner with President Hu. The nighttime version of the President appeared to have lost most of his morning grey. The intrigued outlets included Yahoo News, Gawker, Star Magazine and Radar Online. The speculation even reached across the oceans as the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail and Australia’s Bellasugar concerned themselves with Obama’s hair colour.

But the question remains: if Obama did dye his hair, what does that really say about him? The tolls of the presidency are well documented and surely some graying comes along with being the leader of the free world and under a constant spotlight. The world’s hardest job lends itself to a dye job. Perhaps Obama simply wanted to look his best for an important national visit. Or maybe his improved poll numbers – up eight points from last month to 53%,  according to a NBC/WSJ poll – have put a spring in his step and the confidence literally went straight his head. Many men and women have turned to the dye bottle with much less their plate.

A bigger question is why the country he represents (and their allies) cares in the first place. Perhaps some perspective is in order. A Google search for “Obama hair” spits back 23 million results, which seems like a lot except when you realize that entering just “Obama” brings up 167 million. In the wake of the State of the Union address, the question seems to have died down, so hopefully we can again consider more dire needs – no pun intended.