News & Politics

Timeline: A Brief History of Jim Vance’s Hair

Vance courtesy of NBC.

We’ve tracked Jim Vance’s evolving hairstyles—from his days as one of the first African American news anchors in the 1970s, all the way up to his acceptance of the Board of Governors award at the 2014 Emmy Awards.

Vance began anchoring for News4 in 1969, sporting an evenly rounded Afro and full mustache. In 1976, when Vance was named “Washingtonian of the Year,” his Afro got a little shorter and his mustache grew in fuller. Today, after almost a half century, one of Washington’s most popular news anchors is impressing with a classy fade cut and goatee.

In addition to the timeline above, take a look at this article, which includes a fun caricature of Vance and a few archival Washingtonian issues featuring Vance.

This article appears in the October 2015 issue of Washingtonian.