The Oscar-winning Hollywood legend was still a budding actor in New York City when he took part in an advertising campaign for Remington's Hot Comb in the early 1970s, reports contactmusic.com.
A copy of the poster ad, thought to date from 1973, a year before De Niro's Academy Award-winning turn in "The Godfather: Part II", has been unearthed by US film critic Roger Ebert.
It shows the actor suffering several hair disasters in an open-top car, on a tennis court and in the middle of a rainstorm.
Pictures of De Niro looking finely-groomed and with a woman on his arm appear at the bottom of the ad with text explaining that the Hot Comb will prevent the user from "looking like the nation's number one disaster area".
Published 08 November 2010, 02:15 IST