Donald Trump has never made a secret of his blond ambition, using Twitter in 2013 to proclaim: “As everybody knows, but the haters & losers refuse to acknowledge, I do not wear a ‘wig.’ My hair may not be perfect but it’s mine.”
And it’s true – like him or loathe him, Trump’s undulating custard locks have always added to the bombastic iconography – orange complexion, campy-brash Queens snarl, long red tie, Grinchy smile – that he uses to command attention. This weekend, something changed, though. American political pundit (and former Obama speechwriter) Jon Favreau noted that “Our 80-year-old President appears to have grown a new head of hair overnight”.
Indeed, while signing his executive order to curb birthright citizenship on Thursday 6 August, he was sporting a short, feathery pale candyfloss do, with both greying temples and visible (pale) scalp beneath. And yet, just two days later, at a roundtable on mining, his hair was thicker, more lustrous, turmeric yellow and as densely furry as a slab of asbestos.
The false equivalence between blonde hair and purity has long been a staple of far-right and even fascist politics, as has the imagery of long-locked strongmen ever since Samson confessed: “If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.” More recently, the blonde-bobbed He-Man entertained children of the early 1980s, Fabio graced the covers of every horny novel of the 1990s, and 40-year-old Brad Pitt gave a dazzlingly meaty turn as Achilles in back in 2004.
Where and when to see solar eclipse – and do you need glasses?
With the UK set to see a rare partial solar eclipse on Wednesday evening, here is everything you need to know ahead of the event.
What you need to know
- A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, obscuring the Sun’s light for a few minutes.
- Many parts of the country will experience between 89 per cent and 96 per cent coverage of the Sun.
- This year’s eclipse occurs in the evening, starting at around 6.15pm and ending a little after 8pm – depending on your location.
- The next total solar eclipse over the UK will not happen until 23 September 2090.
The best places to view it
People in the south-west of England are likely to get the most coverage.
For the best view, it is important to go high up. In London, this could mean Primrose Hill or the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
There will be events to watch the eclipse all over the country, including at Calton Hill in Edinburgh, Armagh Observatory, Pendennis Castle in Cornwall and the National Space Centre in Leicester.
Do you need glasses?
There has been a last-minute rush for eclipse glasses, with many high street shops and online retailers sold out. Experts have warned that normal sunglasses are not safe to use to view the solar event.
If you want to view the spectacle, you could alternatively use a pinhole camera to project the shadow of the eclipse onto a flat surface.
5 min read
We should smile at our dogs – a new scientific study reveals why
Man’s best friend can distinguish between positive and negative emotions, according to researchers at the University of Vienna.
What you need to know
- Scientists studied 14 dogs who sat in MRI scanners to see what happens in their brains.
- The reward centre of their brains “light up” with activity when shown photos of smiling human faces.
3 min read
What does this mean?
Laura Cuaya, one of the study’s lead researchers, said “This finding suggests that happy faces, even those of strangers, have a positive value for dogs”.
She added: “We can reward our dogs with treats, but also reward them with happiness.”
Firefighters work ‘tirelessly’ to contain fire
Firefighters are beginning a third day of tackling a fire in the New Forest which they say they are “managing to contain” after working “tirelessly” through the night.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service initially scrambled 26 fire engines and four water carriers to the eastbound A31 after receiving 160 emergency calls reporting a van had caught fire on Sunday evening.
How did the fire progress?
The fire service said the blaze spread from the vehicle to the central reservation before progressing into nearby heathland in a south-easterly direction towards Backley Bottom, and is in a “challenging rural location”.
An update released on Tuesday by the fire service said that a change in wind direction had “provided a challenge” overnight but it was managing to prevent “spread and escalation”.
Cows face backdrop of smoke
A closer look at the detail
A total of seven fire engines, with water carriers and off-road vehicles, were involved in the operation overnight, which continued to use water pumped through miles of pipes laid from a nearby lake as part of a high-volume pump (HVP) system.
And the A31 – the main route through the New Forest – remains closed, with National Highways saying that repairs needed to “significant” damage to the road surface can only start once the fire is safely under control.
The story in pictures
What did the fire service say?
Thanks to the efforts of firefighters we are managing to contain the fire. We have been using a mix of fire engines and off-road vehicles to damp down and cool the edges of the area involved in the fire to prevent spread and escalation.
How much parents could save from new school uniform rules
A new law coming into force in September means parents in England will save money by having to buy fewer branded items of school uniform.
What does the new law mean?
From September, uniforms will be limited to three items with a school logo, like a blazer, jumper or sportswear – plus a tie for secondary schools.
The government says the changes will save some families “up to £50 per child”.
How will the law be enforced?
Who is affected?
Around 23 per cent of secondary schools will have to change their uniform lists by September.
How will it be enforced?
The education secretary has legal powers to direct schools to comply.
The rest of the UK
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not have a cap on uniform items, but are encoureged to keep uniforms costs minimal.
How England could eliminate hepatitis C
England is “on the cusp” of becoming one of the first countries in the world to eliminate hepatitis C, health officials have said.
What have the health officials said?
Global health leaders have set out plans to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030.
NHS England said the nation is one of a handful of countries globally to have already exceeded the World Health Organisation benchmark of treating 80 per cent of all known cases.
It said that deaths from the virus have reduced by 36 per cent in the last 10 years.
What is hepatitis?
- Hepatitis C is spread through contact with blood infected with the virus.
- Many people have no symptoms but if it is not treated it can cause serious, and potentially life-threatening, liver damage.
- A treatment course of antiviral drugs for eight to 12 weeks cures more than 95 per cent of cases.
- NHS England said that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C.
The expert view
With C curable in more than nine out of 10 cases, we are committed to finding and treating everyone who needs support and would urge those at greater risk to come forward by ordering a free and confidential home-testing kit online.
Professor Frankie Swords, NHS national medical director
Why August is the worst month for drink driving
August is the worst month of the year for drink-drive crashes as summer events create “more opportunities” to get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol, according to new research.
What does the research show?
RAC analysis found an average of 721 people were injured or killed in drink-drive crashes in August between 2014 and 2024.
Before July, there was an average 704 casualties over the 11-year period.
December, which is often associated with drink driving, had an average of 663 casualties.
The expert view
Drink- is often seen more of a Christmas issue, but our shows collisions involving drivers who have consumed illegal levels of alcohol are actually far more common during the summer.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams
Williams added that warmer weather, longer evenings and “festivals and barbecues” create “opportunities and temptation” for people to drink and then get behind the wheel.
5 min read
2 min read
Are you having as much sex as everyone else?
It’s natural for libido to wax and wane due to life events, dating status or hormonal changes.
And it can be hard to say what a “normal” sexual frequency is. But research and case studies give us a rough idea.
The statistics
When it happens
61%
A 2023 survey concluded that almost two thirds (61 per cent) of us wait until night-time to have sex.
Only 14 per cent opt to get busy in the early evening, and 10 per cent in the morning.
Research from 2019 suggests that the average number of times British live-in or married couples have sex per month is three.
Are Gen Z having less sex than older people?
I see my partner on the weekends and have sex with others in the week.
Leanne, a 27-year-old influencer from Bristol has sex three or four times a week, but only sees her long-distance partner on the weekends. They have agreed they can both sleep with other people during the week.
35-year-old Rebecca usually sleeps with her partner once or twice per week due to not having much child-free time.
Clare, 32, says her job is busy and she has to schedule sex with her partner on weekends, or some afternoons twice a month. “Occasionally this slips and I do worry that it makes us not as connected,” she says.
I haven’t had the issue of my sex life drying up with menopause. I’m more aroused now.
I’ve been married for 15 years. I love my husband, but our sex life is non-existent, and has been for about five years.
I’m not really motivated to seek out partners; I vaguely like the idea of it but not enough to take any action.
I’ve been married for 20 years and sex has become something of a rarity. We maybe have sex once a week on a Sunday morning as we’re both relaxed and I can take Viagra late on Saturday night – without it, I can’t perform.
JACK, 63, OFFICE WORKER, KENT
The seven rules that could save your marriage
Keep your sense of self
I did what I thought I was supposed to do and forgot my needs and wants. I think it’s really important that you’re an individual and not just a person who is married.
KATIE STRATFORD*, A 55-YEAR-OLD MUM OF TWO, WHO DIVORCED ATER 19 YEARS
Seven rules to save your marriage
The small things
Small things, like being brought a cup of tea or saying thank you, make a big difference.
Karen Deulofeu, who ended her six-year marriage, believes all couples should seek support, even before they think they need it.
Listen properly by repeating what you have heard and ask if you’ve got that right.
Don’t lose communication
People don’t talk about the deep issues; nobody else is going to do it for you. You don’t want to ask questions because it might rock the boat…you have to keep talking, and talk about what it is that you want within the relationship to keep going forward.
KATIE STRATFORD
Seven rules to save your marriage
Remember that things change
“What you see on social media and what friends say is quite often the nice version. Everything is a phase,” says Deulofeu.
Look at yourself first
“Focus on what’s in your control and what you can do differently, rather than the other person or a situation that you can’t control. Invest in understanding yourself,” she adds.
While younger men will be turning to long-term looksmaxxed-approved options like microneedling and minoxidil to stave off male pattern balding, or even booking trips to Turkey for discounted hair transplant procedures, Trump seems to have gone for a far swifter option. So what has he been up to?
And what does it say about his politics at a time when he’s trying to simultaneously broker deals with Iran and Israel amid a global fuel crisis and, er, reflecting on the rushed job of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool?
Men’s stylist Nick Hems told The i Paper: “Trump has always understood the power of his personal brand, which has been built around strength, success and control.
“Hair is one of the strongest visual markers of ageing in men, so maintaining a fuller head of hair helps protect his identity and the brand he has spent decades creating. His hair, tailoring and tan are all part of the Trump brand, and he will fight to maintain them all, I suspect, because they make him feel confident, powerful and in control of how he presents himself to the world.
“With a career built on visibility, and not being shy of criticism or ridicule, he knows it all keeps him recognisable and talked about.”
Meanwhile Paul Cochrane, who runs Cochrane and Co, a London-based hair systems styling business, says that this is more than a dye-job, adding: “It does look like he may have an interlaced hair system”, which “ is something like ladies wear, and lots of the old big rock stars used to wear them from the 70s and 80s”.
“It’s a lace-based system with hair sewn into it, then this is placed on the head, his natural hair is pulled through the holes, and it is all blow-dried expertly to give it volume and style.” The part of Trump’s hair that makes Cochrane suspect this system is it being “quite heavy” around the temples, and “suspiciously too good…not many people of 80 years of age have a great head of hair”.
Cochrane cites that Trump has for decades required “long hair at the back to cover up the scar” he reportedly acquired during a botched scalp reduction he underwent in the late 1980s, as claimed by his biographer Harry Hurt III.
So we have a decent idea of the aesthetic choices that are being made atop Trump’s bonce, but what are the political implications?
Thomas Gift, associate professor and founding director of the Centre on US Politics at University College London, says that Trump’s approach to personal aesthetic really is redolent of his political strategies. “Trump’s hair is essentially the physical manifestation of his foreign policy: bigger, more unpredictable, and apparently unconstrained by any law of nature.”
“More seriously,” Gift adds, “Trump’s hair has always been part of his larger than life personality. It’s deliberately conspicuous, slightly absurd, and impossible to neglect. In that way, it’s strikingly consistent with the man himself.”
Jon Sopel, a presenter on political podcast , has been “very up close and personal” with Trump’s hair during a Republican presidential candidates’ debate in August 2015, when he was the BBC’s North America correspondent. “We all just converged on him, and it was film crews, reporters, radio mics, boom mics, and my nose was in his neck, and all I could smell was hairspray.”
“He’s got this kind of 1950s kind of quiff style rock’n’roll bad boy sort of image, and the other day it looked like he had a syrup on his head.
“To him everything’s about winners and losers, you’ve got to look like a winner. He cares massively about this stuff – you just have to see the foundation that he wears, he won’t go anywhere unless he has a full foundation base on,” claims Sopel.
“He doesn’t care that people take the piss out of it, it’s just part of who he is, the confected part of how he wants to sell himself to the world…I’m not surprised that when you get photos of it looking all thin and wispy, that the vanity of the man wants to project that he’s not 80 years old…what the hair looks like is vitally important.
“You never think that he must be too busy to think about the mundane stuff of life – that is what animates him and drives him. The detailed negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz and what’s happening with the IRGC [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] are, frankly, occupying very little of his brain space.”
Well, at least the brain steering much of the world’s oil prices, geopolitical stability and trade potential is being kept cocooned by new hair. Over the weekend, as Trump attended the LIV Golf tournament in New York, he kept a white and gold “USA” cap atop whatever he’s done to whatever is left of his hair, before returning to a windy Washington airstrip with the same cap in place.