Hoda revealed one of her deepest, darkest fears on Thursday: Going to prison — but not for any reason you might think. As it turns out, Hoda is terrified that time behind bars would reveal the truth about her (naturally gray!) hair.
While setting up a special hour dedicated to the best of TODAY’s Ambush Makeovers, Hoda revealed she started going gray in high school — and in a big way. She didn’t just get one gray strand, but a huge stubbornly gray strip.
“Like a Bonnie Raitt streak,” she said.
That led Kathie Lee, who didn’t start going gray until her 20s, to ask whether people called Hoda “raccoon lady” or “skunk head.” (They didn’t, Hoda said, because “I had nice friends.”)
Hoda said she has been completely gray for years, and she’s fine with that, except when she starts to think about one particular nightmare scenario.
“Going to prison is a huge fear. Because I will have white crazy (hair) like this,” she said, showing a picture of her pre-makeup hair in all its uncontrolled, electrified, frizzy glory.
“It’ll look like that but white. And everyone will think I did it,” she said. “I was wrongfully convicted! I didn’t do it but I will look like I did it.”
So what would Hoda — and KLG — look like if they let their gray grow? In other words, what would their “prison hair” look like? TODAY helped us all imagine it by "uncoloring" their hair in two recent photos (with a little help from Photoshop).
Hoda looked graceful in hers. “I look good gray, why am I fighting it?” she realized.
But KLG thought her own gray photo just looked... older.
“No, nobody wants that,” Hoda agreed.