TJ Walker argues George Clooney's public talk about dyeing his hair was smart reputation management. Most men in business should skip the dye unless they can afford consistent professional care. Clooney, Rob Lowe, and Ronald Reagan show why gray hair works better than a botched dye job.
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George Clooney, the actor is back to his natural hair color. That's right, the mostly salt and pepper, but mostly gray these days is back. Hello and welcome. I'm TJ Walker and this is the Communiverse. This is where we analyze what's going on in the world, in the entire universe, and look at it through the lens of communication. What you do with your hair, what you don't do with your hair does communicate a lot about you. An actor, George Clooney spends a lot of time talking about his hair. Now, he was most recently on Broadway in Good Night, Good Luck, where he was portraying Edward r. Murrow the 1950s, passed away in 1964. Broadcaster who famously stood up to Senator Joseph McCarthy. He had very black hair. So to look natural for the part, George Clooney did have to dye his hair black. Now what was interesting is he made so many rounds on the talk shows, promoting the Broadway show and always apologizing. I feel ridiculous with my hair dyed and my kids and my wife is making fun of me. It really played well for his image of being somebody down to earth. For someone who is the most famous and richest, wealthiest, most powerful and respected celebrities in the world to be talking about the foibles of aging and not wanting to look fake or phony was very humanizing. So it works well for him. He does have an extraordinarily positive reputation. Not universally, but certainly one of the most highly respected actors in Hollywood, known for his humanitarian work as well as his creative endeavors. But interesting that he would talk. At one point he was wearing baseball caps to cover up his hat. For some reason he felt that it looked so ridiculous. Now, believe me, I'm all in favor of people saying gray hair looks good, so I'm not bashing him for that. Did he go a little bit too far with the whole shtick of this? Feels awkward. People do realize Hollywood movie stars grow their hair longer, gain weight, lose weight, change the color of their hair for roles all the time. So it's not exactly a surprise given his line of work. I suspect that one of the reasons George Clooney makes so much money in his movies and on Broadway and is so respected is that he does really care about his image, his reputation. These things do not just happen by accident. And he really likes the idea that he comes across as less fake than a lot of Hollywood people. You have to suspect, given his well known animosity with President Trump and Trump, who is well known to dye his hair a color that didn't really look much Anything like when Trump was younger, before his hair turned gray. That Clooney does this in part to contrast himself with someone he believes is the ultimate phony in President Trump. So George Clooney, I think, is essentially trying to assert his, his toughness, his manliness by saying, I'm secure enough in myself to let the natural hair show up just the way it is gray. Now, he is one of these stars who went gray fairly early in his early 30s on ER, there was already a fair amount of gray hair. It's worked for him. Now, it obviously helps that he also has a perfect head of hair, unlike some people who shall remain nameless. And when you're already good looking and you already have a head and a face built for film and your hairline is perfect, having it gray is perceived by many as just being more distinguished. Now, is that unfair, given women feel like they do not have that option? It is. We'll leave that conversation for another day. But meanwhile, the point I want to get across here is that everything you do or don't do when you're in the public eye does affect your reputation, does affect your image. I'm not saying it's always bad for men to dye their hair. For example, another well known movie star, respect TV star these days, Rob Lowe, who is about the same age as George Clooney and he's basically my age. He's about, you know, 61, 62 years old. He famously went almost completely gray by age 25. So he has dyed his hair consistently because he was still playing a teenage heartthrob at some point, it would have looked rather odd for him to have gray hair playing a teenage heartthrob when he was 24 years old. So if you are in certain professions like the movie industry, yes, there are going to be times when you have to dye your hair. In the case of someone like Rob Lowe, earlier in his career, you could make the case that it would have been virtual career suicide not to have dyed his hair, considering it was just an outlier effect. Now, for most people in the business world, do you need to dye your hair? I'm going to limit my comments right now to men in the business world because I do work with a lot of men in the business world and they do often ask me for advice. And as my wife and daughter often chuckle. People are asking you for advice on here? Yes, people do ask me for advice on here. Here's my advice. Yes, if you're George Clooney and you need to dye your hair for a part by all means, do it. If you're a Rob Lowe trying to be a heartthrob and you just gray prematurely, do it. But for most men in the business world, dyeing your hair just to look younger can be a huge, huge mistake. Because if you don't have a professional colorist working with you every single week, it's always going to look a little bit different. Nothing's worse than one of those home dye jobs and it's too black, it's too dark, or it turns red. And then people who never would have normally noticed your hair behind your back are pointing, get a load of this guy. Looks awful. It calls attention to itself. Ronald Reagan, the former United States President, famously had his hair dyed and he did that throughout his entire life. Now people say, well, T.J. how do you know that? Because when he was shot early in his presidency, they had to shave a part of his head. And when his hair grew back, it was completely white. And then he started dying it again. He had a colorist allegedly come every Tuesday morning to the White House to touch up his hair. His image was very, very important to him. And Ronald Reagan did have, be candid here. A perfect head of hair for any age, much, much less. A man in his 70s and ultimately in his 80s, a perfect head of hair. In the very later years, he did start putting in some strands of gray to look more distinguished and frankly, to look less fake and funny. Because at some point, you know, you're 75 years old and your skin loses color and your hair is completely dark, it can be a bit jarring and it can be a bit too phony looking. So that's really my advice to men, is don't dye your hair unless you are a professional. On air, personality movies, big time TV shows, and the scrutiny is such that it really is important to the role you're playing. And you have the patience, the time, the money, and the resources to get your hair dyed professionally on a weekly basis. I'll admit, long time ago, my 30s, yeah, I experimented with it, but that was decades ago. And I can tell you what little is left is either going to be gray or grayer or white, or frankly, it just might disappear.
