Washington  - Just six weeks into one of the toughest jobs in the world, could US President Barack Obama be getting some grey strands?

The prospect of the 47-year-old Obama showing some grey hair took the US media by storm on Thursday. The New York Times carried a front page story that prompted networks like Fox News to compare then-and- now pictures of the youthful president.

Some tracked down Obama's Chicago barber, Zariff, who acknowledged to the Washington Post that the president had developed "a few strands" of grey over the past year.

That may have come more from a gruelling election campaign than the past six weeks as president, in which Obama has confronted everything from a crumbling economy and financial industry to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama launched his presidential campaign in February 2007, embarking on a journey that took him through one of the closest - and longest - primary races in history against Hillary Clinton, followed by an intense race to the finish against Republican John McCain.

Zariff rejected speculation among internet bloggers that Obama was greying his hair intentionally to look more "distinguished," a charge that was already levelled during the 2008 campaign.

"I can tell you that his hair is 100-per-cent natural," Zariff told the New York Times said. He wouldn't get it colored."