It was hard not to laugh at Rudy Giuliani's hair malfunction – but it's time to stop equating looks with character | Emma Beddington

The vision of what appeared to be hair dye running down the politician's face provoked glee. But, as a bald woman, I know linking physical appearance to morals is a lazy trope

Weren't the pictures of Rudy Giuliani's hair malfunction last week wonderful? I was transfixed by footage of him bug-eyed and ranting at a press conference, as dark rivulets of hair dye (or mascara, expert opinion was divided) ran down his sweaty cheeks. The incident spawned a delighted outpouring of comment and mocking tweets. He was a Scooby-Doo villain unmasked; a gargoyle, a comic-book grotesque, and it felt so apt. For critics, it was as if corruption, lies and moral turpitude were finally oozing out of him as a tarry discharge.

It is the same satisfaction we feel as we dissect the brittle spun-sugar edifice of Trump's hair, the harshly theatrical lines of his makeup (una naranja espantosa", a scary orange, as a White House housekeeper described it to the Washington Post) or his cack-handed panda-eye concealer habit. It is delicious when the facade cracks, especially in one so obsessed with surface. It feels like poetic justice when a man who built a gold tower, regularly comments on his daughter's looks and mocked a disabled reporter is caught looking diminished and ridiculous.