Shades of gray over 50

Shades of gray over 50

by digby


Dara Lind at Vox published this helpful chart to see the progress of President Obama's graying hair:


As you can see, it's not a serious story.  In fact, it's quite funny.

But it does raise a point that I've been wanting to make for years. At about the time any president becomes a lame duck everyone starts to remark how much the office has aged them.  Their hair has gone gray and they look much more haggard than they did when they came into office. Now I'm sure the office does take its toll. A normal person can't even imagine the stress, even for the ones who didn't seem to be all that engaged in the details like Reagan or W.

But the sad truth is that aging for everyone starts off slowly and then it seems to happen all at once.  And that coincides with the age that most presidents are in office.  President Obama came into office at the age of 47. And he's now 54.  Most of us take on a lot of gray during those years. So yeah, presidents look a lot older when they leave office than when they came in. But everyone their age looks a lot older. It's just a sad reality of the middle aged person. (You too will find this out grasshopper ...)


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