It’s always easier to play Monday morning quarterback with political decisions than it is to make the right call in the moment. Nobody understands this better than Hilly Clinton, somebody whose lifetime of shrewd political decisions culminated in a narrow defeat against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
After that, many people looked back and tried to figure out the different things that might have turned potential voters away from her. There are plenty of possibilities, of course, but there’s one that many people have overlooked: her hair. Specifically, Clinton has changed her hair style up repeatedly over the years in ways that caused damage to both her career and her general public perception.
Don’t believe us? Keep reading to discover Hillary Clinton’s hair transformations that nearly destroyed her career!
Bringing the ‘80s back in the worst possible way
These days, the 1980s are all the rage. Just look at the success of Stranger Things and other shows and films that capitalize on our nostalgia for that heady decade. However, it obviously took time for that nostalgia to build up. And during one memorable incident, Hillary Clinton brought the ‘80s back way too early in a most unexpected way: her hair.
Back in 1994, Clinton debuted a new hairstyle, one where her mop has been teased and curled to within an inch of its life. We first saw this new ‘do when she attended the National Infant Immunization Week Proclamation. Chances are that she wanted to look dignified as FLOTUS, but the new look immediately prompted comparisons to Nancy Reagan…never a good idea for a prominent Democrat.
Weirdly enough, this look kicked up new controversy in 2015 when Matt Drudge and other rightwing figures began accusing Hillary Clinton of wearing wigs. She denied it, of course, but when it came to that Nancy Reagan ‘do, we were left asking why she willingly did that to her real hair!
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This poodle perm should have stayed in the dog house
That Nancy Reagan hairstyle wasn’t the only time that Hillary Clinton was apparently doing homage to someone else’s lovely locks. For example, in 1993, she debuted a poodle perm that would normally have been right at home. This was an era when everyone’s hair was as big as their dreams, so Clinton was most likely trying to show her fans (not to mention her husband’s supporters) that she knew how to style herself for the moment.
As usual, there was just one problem. At the time, the legendary painter Boss Ross was still very much alive, and an entire generation had grown up watching him offer very relaxing words while painting happy trees. In short, everyone ended up comparing Hillary’s new look to Boss Ross, rendering her attempts to look stylish and chic both null and void. And, of course, being compared to a man by countless people didn’t help the criticisms that Hillary (famous for wearing pantsuits over dresses) was not feminine enough.
Betrayed by hair gel
It can be difficult for most of us to sympathize with politicians like Hillary Clinton. After all, she has wealth and power we can only dream of. But it turns out she has something very important in common with those of us outside her tax bracket: she is often betrayed by her haircare products at the worst possible time.
In 1993, Hillary served as the spokesperson for her husband’s health task force. Perhaps fearing flat bangs, she used a bit too much hair gel to hold her hair in place. The look was weird enough at the time, but when There’s Something About Mary came out five years later, many ended up comparing Clinton’s look to an infamous scene where the titular Mary’s hair is similarly held up because she mistook semen for styling product!
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When looking good goes bad
Again, it’s hard to sympathize with a figure like Hillary Clinton, but there are times when this career politician seemed doomed no matter what. For example, this entire article is about the awful hair transformations she has had that did serious damage to her political career. But in 2008, when she first campaigned for president (before the DNC selected Barack Obama to run), she arguably sabotaged her career because her hair looked too good.
During that campaign, she had a feather front flip-up that was very flattering. Sure, it looked like she was biting Carol Brady’s style, but online chatter about the new ‘do was very positive. That proved to be a problem, though, because everyone wanted to chat about how good she looked rather than what her policies and platforms were like. That ultimately ended up being just one more reason that it was Obama rather than Clinton who ended up running for president that year.
Obama ended up serving two terms. When you think about it this way, this haircut helped hold Clinton’s presidential ambitions back for the better part of a decade, only for her to lose to Donald Trump. That must have hurt even more than the 2012-era online chatter about how ugly her hair scrunchies looked!