Last Updated on May 10, 2020 by Robert Price

Like it or not, the Bush’s represent America. They’re a heroic and deeply flawed family, but I’m not here to analyze the Bush presidencies from a historic perspective. No, I’m here to analyze the Bush family hairlines!

I feel like they’re a good case study for a variety of reasons. I think it’s safe to say that George HW Bush was perhaps the “dominant” figure that determined both Jeb and George W’s follicular fates. Jeb is still holding onto a Norwood 2, I’d say, while GW has receded bigly to about a Norwood 3A pattern since he left the oval office.

George HW Bush, A Norwood 3 for Life

The picture above shows George HW Bush in college, if I’m not mistaken. You can see his hairline corners are eroding and he’s moving toward a Norwood 3 hairline. George Bush the elder has literally been a Norwood 3 for about 70 years now! That’s absolutely crazy. He started receding while still in college during the second World War. Norwood 2 was just a quick pit stop for him, as it is for many men who experience early hair loss.

But his hair loss never really progressed much after the age of 23 or so, which is relatively unusual. I actually have a friend who experienced a similar case of hair loss and receded to a Norwood 3 in his early 20s — and that pattern is still holding steady a decade later.

Here’s Bush a few years ago, receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Obama. The hairline’s receded a little bit, perhaps to a Norwood 3A, But that’s a pretty solid head of hair for a guy in his 90s! No bald spot, either, as far as I can tell.

George W Bush – A “Weak” Norwood 2 for Most of His Life, Now Balding Quite Badly in his 70s

Here’s W with the Bush twins in his mid 30s, sporting longer hair as was the style at the time. The longer hair also disguised his slight recession.

George W. Bush never appeared to have much hair loss while he was president, at least not until he was well into his second term. If I were to evaluate his hairline, I’d say it went slightly beyond the proverbial “mature” point but wasn’t anywhere near a full Norwood 3. Kind of like Bryan Cranston with a bit less density, if I were to compare his hairline to that of a celebrity’s.

He rocked shaggy hair while in his 20s and 30s, perhaps in an effort to disguise his minimal recession. But as he grew older, he stopped caring and just let his “maturity” show.

Like this…

Catching some rays down in Africa. Good times.

Now, his hair has definitely seen better days, as has this country. Below is a picture showing the current, receding reality for the artist/former President known as Dubya.

Obviously, Geroge W. has receded significantly in recent years. This happens to most men as they age, even those who enjoy full heads of hair into their 40s and 50s. Still not too bad, considering he’s a 70 year old man now!

Let’s move on to Georgie’s kid brother.

Jeb Bush – Still a Weak Norwood 2 in His 60s

President Trump famously dubbed W’s brother as “low-energy” during the campaign. The name stuck and Jeb was absolutely humiliated, though not to the extent that Hilary was humiliated. Seriously, she had trouble beating a 75-year-old megalomaniac socialist and a 70-year-old megalomaniac sociopath?

I digress.

Jeb’s hair is hanging in there quite nicely, these days, which is more than I can say for the majority of men in his peer group. He’s lost his temple peaks, but that’s inevitable for most older men — hell, it even happened to Reagan and he had a juvenile hairline for life!

Next, I’ll take a quick detour and evaluate the hairlines of the less-famous Bush Brothers.

Ringo 1 and Ringo 2

(Marvin and Neil Bush)

Here’s Neil Bush, brother of Jeb and GW. Age, 62. Norwood status: about a Norwood 3. He may have been a 2 to 2.5 as a younger man, I’m not sure. He has no significant crown loss to my knowledge.

Marvin Bush, age 60, the youngest Bush brother. I’d also say he’s a Norwood 3, though his hairline has dipped in and out slightly over the years. This could be due to different hairstyles, or perhaps it’s an indication he went under the proverbial knife and had a hair transplant.

Taking it Back a Generation

You’ve all heard the myth: that it’s the maternal grandfather who gives us our hair loss genes, or lack thereof.

And yes, as I say in my hair loss 101 post, that myth is total BS, as most myths are!

Here’s Jeb and George W. Bush’s maternal grandfather:

Marvin Pierce, grandfather of George W. Bush. Just about as bald as Dr. Phil or Mr. Clean, Pierce appeared to be a full type 7 on the Norwood Scale! 

Not one of the Bush brothers got hit the Norwood 7 hammer and they all suffered from pretty minor hair loss, relatively speaking, despite having a follicly challenged grandpa. So that’s good news for all of you guys worried that you’ll inherit your hair loss pattern from your grandpa, I’d say.

More on the Genetics of Hair Loss

Then again, if both your dad and maternal grandfather are bald, you probably will be too. Sorry!

From what I’ve gathered, men are most likely to “take after” their fathers when it comes to hair loss.

However, early-onset balding in particular is frequently associated with the X chromosome, which you get from your mom’s side. So if your dad isn’t bald and grandpa is and you’re starting to thin out at 20, obviously there’s a good chance grandpa’s to blame.

Bottom line:

Balding is a super-complex puzzle, consisting of over 280 genetic pieces according to a recent study! It can come from either side of the family, or both sides, and it can skip generations entirely. So, even if everyone in your family has hair, you could go bald. That’s actually quite common, believe it or not! Similarly, baldness could affect everyone in your family except you — and who knows, maybe one day you’ll join President Reagan and my grave-digging Swedish great grandfather in the Norwood-1-for-life club! I wouldn’t count on that outcome, though.

Next, we’ll review the paternal follicular lineage of the Bush’s.

Here’s the Bush clan’s paternal grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush:

Prescott Bush, father to George HW Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush. A weak Norwood 2, like George W. was for most of his life, by my estimation.

This is the man responsible for the Bush’s overall lack of balding — and arguably, for the George W. Bush presidency!

Why? Because there hasn’t been a severely bald president since Gerald Ford in 1974, and he only became President because Nixon resigned! The American people have spoken, and they prefer Norwood 1s or 2s as presidents. 3 is acceptable too. It’s unfortunate we’re such a shallow society.

Now we have the comb over commander-in-chief in office, so who knows, maybe all bets are off now.

Had George W. been a full-on cue ball like his grandpa, odds are, we would have had 8 years of President Al Gore!

Al Gore, by the way, has a hair loss pattern NOT shown on the Norwood Scale.

Moving on…

Who Gave You Your Hairline?

That’s what this post is really about: YOU. And it’s about your hair loss, if you’ll go bald, and if you do, who’s to blame!

Answer this question for me:

Who do you most resemble most, right now, in terms of your hairline? You probably won’t be able to answer this unless you’ve either already lost some hair or are about 30 or so.

Most men seem to have one dominant figure, in my experience, who they inherit their balding patterns (or lack of baldness) from. In the case of the Bush family, it appears that both W and Jeb took after their dad in the hair department, who also likely took after his dad, Prescott Bush.

Yes, the Bush boys’ hairlines are slightly different than their dad’s, but hundreds of genes are involved in the balding process which could explain the minor deviations.

If you follow one relative’s balding “trajectory” over a period of time, chances are you’ll end up with a similar pattern as that relative. So, for example, say your dad started thinning at 25 and is a Norwood 5 in his 50s. If you’re also starting to thin at 25, there’s a pretty high likelihood you’ll follow in your dad’s folicular footsteps. You may not have his exact pattern on the Norwood scale, but your hairline will probably resemble his hairline, to some degree, eventually.

That’s all for now. Hopefully you learned a few things about the genetics of hair loss and now have a better idea of what your own follicular future may bring. Good luck!

Robert Price

Robert Price is a writer, consumer advocate, and hair loss researcher with thousands of hours of experience in the field. His goal is to keep you out of the hair loss rabbit hole, underworld, or whatever you want to call it. He founded Hair Loss Daily, the unbiased hair loss blog, in 2016. You can learn more about Robert in the my story section of this website.