Donald Trump's Pet Peeve Led To Change in Water Flow Efficiency Standards in Showerheads

Donald Trump's hair is a real deal for him, the former president's pride in his healthy and lustrous locks prompted him to propose a new rule at the Department of Energy. The 77-year-old moved the United States government to ease the showerhead standards because Trump wasn't satisfied with the water flow to maintain his "beautiful hair." 

In August 2020, the Trump administration released a proposal to ease the water efficiency standards for showerheads to the Energy Department of the U.S. This was followed by Trump's relentless public grievances about the water flow, which included his inability to wash his "beautiful hair properly," per CNN. 

The proposal explained, "Under DOE's proposed definition, each showerhead included in a product with multiple showerheads would separately be required to meet the 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) standard established in EPCA," taking reference from the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. It targeted the maximum flow rate set by Congress in 1990, which was 2.5 GPM. 

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes told the outlet, "President Trump promised the American people that he would reduce onerous federal regulations on the American consumer, and this proposed rulemaking on showerheads does just that." Prior to this proposal, Trump publicly announced his pet peeve during an event at the White House. 

The former president ranted, "You go into a new home; you turn on the faucet; no water comes out." He complained, "You turn on the shower – if you're like me, you can't wash your beautiful hair properly." The Republican front-runner lamented, "So what do you do? You just stand there longer, or you take a shower longer?" 

He emphasized, "Because my hair – I don't know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect." Trump stressed that environmental regulators were looking into home appliances like faucets, sinks, and toilets to revise better rules for water and energy consumption in America. The Trump administration insisted they are safeguarding consumer choice. 

The 2024 presidential hopeful continued, "People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once." However, consumer groups disapproved of the proposal, saying the current energy-saving rules have helped people save money. Andrew deLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, called the idea "silly." 

"The country faces serious problems," said deLaski. "We've got a pandemic, serious long-term drought throughout much of the west. We've got global climate change," criticizing, "Showerheads aren't one of our problems." 

Another critic, David Friedman, who is the vice president of advocacy Consumer Reports and former acting assistant secretary for the Department of Energy, urged that this proposal would waste water and increase utility bills. "There is absolutely no need to change current showerhead standards," Friedman declared. 

The curious case of Trump's hair led to speculations of several hair transplants. In 2015, Vanity Fair published a story: "Illustrated history of Donald Trump's hair." It compared the politician's hair transformation over the years. One of the photos revealed a bald patch at the back of his head. New York City-based cosmetic surgeon Gary Linkov believed Trump had undergone at least five separate hair-transplant surgeries, per Newsweek.