Conan O’Brien’s signature pompadour was nowhere to be found during his latest podcast episode — and viewers are baffled. The 63-year-old’s hair was slicked back instead of in its usual towering wave on Monday. O’Brien shared the inspiration behind his hair in a 2010 60 Minutes interview, explaining that he invented the pompadour look when he was in high school. After joking that his hair is crafted by a “Belgian dessert company that makes a whipped topping,” O’Brien praised the structurally sound style. “If there’s an earthquake and you’re in the Pacific Northwest, get under my hair,” he said at the time. “It’s the safest place here.” During the COVID quarantine, O’Brien posted on social media that his pompadour was collapsing. “It’s crumbling as it grows, crumbling under its own weight,” he said. “I have consulted with a structural engineer. He said there’s too much on top and the pompadour can’t sustain the gravitational pull.” The former talk show host predicted then that the wave would “eventually collapse completely and crush my skull.” So far, O’Brien has completely ignored the comments about his new slicked-back hairstyle, refusing to provide an explanation for the change.
