Anderson Cooper Shows Off Surprising New Look & Questions Whether to Keep It

Anderson Cooper may be best known for his silver hair and bare face, but the CNN anchor teased that he could be ready to incorporate a new element to his on-air look.

“Heading back to work soon. Shave or keep?” Cooper captioned a Thursday, August 7, Instagram Story of himself sporting a gray beard and mustache. The Anderson Cooper 360 host smiled at the camera while sporting glasses, a navy polo shirt, and a matching New York Yankees baseball cap.

Cooper has previously sported facial hair while reporting the latest news on CNN. Fans had strong reactions when he appeared on-air with a light beard and mustache back in 2019. “Anderson Cooper has a beard, and just no,” one X user jokingly wrote alongside a screenshot of Cooper on TV. Sharing a differing opinion, another person replied, “He looks scruffy and sexy lol.”

During a 2016 episode of Live With Kelly and Mark (at the time Live With Kelly and Michael), Cooper said it’s “luxurious” not having to shave when he’s on vacation. “I try in my time off to grow a beard because I’ve never actually grown a beard, and I secretly want to look like Wolf Blitzer,” he quipped.

Courtesy of Anderson Cooper/Instagram

At the time, he went on to poke fun at an Instagram pic of himself with his then-boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani. “This is me after a week,” he said. Poking fun at his small amount of facial hair, Kelly Ripa joked, “Sweetie, that’s like me after a week of not shaving.”

“I was like, ‘When am I gonna hit puberty?’ As soon as I hit puberty, I feel like I’m gonna be able to grow a beard,” Cooper continued. “But, like, it’s so sad. I’m 49 years old. I can’t — it’s, like, little patches.”

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Cooper recently appeared clean-shaven on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert‘s July 21 episode. He and other TV hosts — including Andy Cohen, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, and Jon Stewart — showed their support for Stephen Colbert following news of the show’s cancellation by mocking the infamous Coldplay kiss-cam scandal. The stars had their own over-the-top reactions to being shown on camera in the audience.

Cooper reacted to The Late Show‘s cancellation on CNN last month. “I’ve had the pleasure and honor of being a guest on [The Late Show] with Stephen Colbert more times than I can count. And I just wanted to take a minute and say how shocked and truly saddened I am by the news that this show will be cancelled,” he said on July 17. “Stephen Colbert is smart, and he is funny, and he has actual conversations with people on his program.”

He continued, “I was going to show you a bunch of funny exchanges that I’ve had the pleasure of having with him on his show over the years…but I think the thing that many of us love about Stephen Colbert is that he is, at heart, an incredibly decent human being with an amazing wife and family and strong faith.”