Why write a book about presidential hair?
Because hair is a wonderful tool for historians, for re-narrating history in a fresh, engaging, and moving way.
You have a chapter about people collecting presidential hair …
Collecting hair has long been a way of remembering lost loved ones. The last thing Jackie Kennedy did when viewing her husband in his coffin was to cut locks of his hair as precious keepsakes. Three presidents even wore hair rings as a source of inspiration, rings containing hair from George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.
You were most surprised to learn …
That a heartbroken Calvin Coolidge pressed a locket of his mother’s hair into the hands of his dying 16-year-old son to reassure him he wouldn’t be alone in heaven; that John Kennedy had [people] give him special hair treatments for maintaining his refined, Ivy League hairstyle.
President’s hair you most admire?
George Washington’s, not because it’s handsome but because he put country before style. Though many leaders then wore powdered wigs, he didn’t because he thought wigs reflected monarchy and kings. He thought wearing one would send the wrong message as historic first president of the United States.