Anderson Cooper Is an Unwilling Silver Fox: 'I Wish I Still Had Brown Hair!'
Anderson Cooper is almost as well-known for his distinguished silver hair as he is for his skill as a reporter and news anchor, but if he had his way, you’d know him as a dashing brunet.
“I don’t really like my gray hair. I wish I still had brown hair. It’s not my thing,” Cooper, 49, told Kelly Ripa on Live! With Kelly as he co-hosted Wednesday morning. “If I could, I would probably color my hair, but I couldn’t imagine sitting in a salon with tin foil in my hair reading old issues of Rosie for hours. At this point it’s too late — the cow has left the barn.”
Ripa was surprised by the Anderson Cooper 360° host’s admission, arguing that his hair was perfect for him. “But you’re the silver fox,” Ripa said. “Silver is your signature color — you were born to be silver.”
“I used to have brown hair and then in my thirties, [I had] salt-and-pepper hair, and now I keep thinking there has to be pepper somewhere in there,” he said. “Every time I look in the mirror, I still, in my mind, think I have brown hair and then I’m like, ‘Who is that old guy?'”
He continued, adding: “I’ve started to look like a White Walker from Game of Thrones with the paleness. It’s a little too much. As soon as the White Walkers came on Game of Thrones, I’m like, ‘Hmmm, I’m related to them.'”
A photo posted by Megumi (@meguminniepan) on Jun 20, 2016 at 1:57am PDT
RELATED VIDEO: Anderson Cooper Was How Old When He First Went to Studio 54?
RELATED PHOTOS: Celeb Hair Makeovers: Better Before or After?
His close friend Andy Cohen (himself a silver fox type) thinks Cooper resembles a different pop culture icon.
“Andy Cohen makes fun of me, and says it’s like, Katniss Everdeen’s ‘hair on fire,'” he quipped. “I don’t blend in a crowd very well. People used to say to me I’m prematurely gray, but that doesn’t happen anymore. I’ve caught up with myself.”
As for Ripa, the blonde (who’s experimented with bold shades, including blue, pink and even opal) says she’s gray too — but she started coloring her hair the moment she saw her first silver strands.
“I was 27 and just gave birth to my first child and literally woke up with a gray streak of hair,” she said, adding that her gray roots will start showing within days. “There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
What do you think of Anderson’s White Walker comparison? Share below!
–Sarah Kinonen
Follow @sarahkinonen