While the office may have indeed added some years, it has been eight years; who among us doesn't look a bit older than we did eight years ago? While certainly much grayer, Obama says he has no plans to start covering it up. He told a group of students last week at Taylor's University in Kuala Lumpur, "When I came into office [in January 2009], I had no gray hair and now I have a lot . . . I don’t dye my hair and a lot of my fellow leaders do. I won’t say who. But their barbers know, their hairdressers.”
He did make a request of the students though: “The first thing I want from young people is to stop calling me old. Come on, you hurt my feelings,” he joked.
And as for those "fellow leaders" who Obama won't name, it was widely speculated that former President Ronald Reagan dyed his jet-black hair. Former President Bill Clinton entered office with a salt-and-pepper mane and exited as an all-silver fox.
So is it the stress of the office causing our presidents to turn gray? Studies have been on the fence about the connection between stress and hair losing its color, but in general it is believed that prolonged stress lasting for several years can do it.
Readers, do you think Obama has aged much in office?
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