Celebrity Wig Stories.

None that I know of.

I think Jimmy Stewart who got his haircut once a month, had 30 wigs to wear for each day between haircuts. They were supposed to match the length of his hair at any time of the month.

Even when he was very elderly he wore wigs that were supposed to be "age appropriate" in that they would not give the illusion that he had a full head of hair. Rather, it was just to make him look like he had more hair than he did. So a toupee might just be a few tiny clumps of hairs, instead of a full piece.

But he still felt he needed to wear it.

R2 That is odd. Didn't realize he was that vain.

William Shatner would come in to do V/O for "Rescue 911" without his toupee. Sometimes he wore a baseball cap, sometimes au natural.

Faye Dunaway will own this thread, I'm sure.

No, Frank Sinatra does

I was in the third row at a Bette Midler concert and I saw a few hairs fall out when she was belting out "Stay With Me".

When Sandra Dee would travel with husband Bobby Darin to his Las Vegas Performances they would quarrel. Standing in the wings just as the orchestra would start Bobby’s intro music - a tipsy but shrewd Sandy would lean close to Bobby and whisper “Your toupee is crooked.” It would rattle him during the performance.

R8 Sandra wore some fine wigs herself.

Moira Rose has a stunning collection.

King Henry the Eight would chop off your head if you messed with his wig.

Stewart probably got used to needing to keep his hair a uniform length when he made movies.

Oprah allows Chris Rock to verify that her long silly hair actually IS her own.

R13 Oprah definitely wore wigs during her 25 year run.

Just guessing, but maybe RuPaul?

R14, I don't recall stating that she didn't. However, that's her own beautiful head of hair in the clip above.

R16 Certainly.

Easier to dance in.

It helps make me cum volumes.

Ann Miller had two main wigs at all times, she called them Joe and Moe.

...oh wait those were her tap shoes. Well, forget it, but I mean...

ANN MILLER!

R19 Wrong thread, bro.

"I'd try a disguise now and then , but then they'd say oh look, it's Liz Taylor in a blond wig!"

MALINA: There is a fine line between being the life of the party and being unemployable. I felt safe enough with my fellow actors that I knew if I left a small fish hidden somewhere in Allison Janney's trailer, that she wouldn't get me fired for it. Although there was one time Allison was wearing a wig and we had a scene on Air Force One where in every take she had to answer the phone. I coated the earpiece with a thick, viscous combination of, I think, sunscreen and vaseline. I didn't realise she was wearing a wig at the time and when she answered the phone she got an earful of this stuff but it also got all over the wig! That was the one time where I thought, "Oh, I've gone too far. I'm actually about to get fired." Because we had to shut down production while they figured out what the hell to do with her hair on the next take.

"I have many natural hair colors that I'm going to be wearing throughout the show tonight."

It starts at 8:14.

R24 Did she ever have a wig malfunction?

Just be natural.

R21 No Bro, Expand your Brocabulary to Sell Brotastic Brosurance.

Peter North wears a hairpiece. He explicitly instructs all of his female co-stars not to touch his hair during the video shoot.

I guess when he was previously gay pron star Matt Ramsey, he still had a full head of hair

R27 Looks real to me. I'm sure there'd be stories of him being seen without it.

Not a story but a question. Jason Bateman...that's got to be a rug on his head, yes? I'm getting so obsessed with his hair situation it is getting in the way of my Ozark viewing.

I asked this question in a similar thread a couple of years ago, but to my surprise, posters said they thought it was real.

R29 It's his real hair.

Thanks r30 This is exactly how it went on the first thread I asked. How are you able to tell ? To me, it never seems to change. It doesn't really move with his expressions, and for his age, it is really, really thick.

R31 He constantly runs his hands through. Plus, he never once showed signs of balding.

Maybe he started young? Proactively bewigged? I know, I'll shut up now.

Curses, foiled again!

Isn't Peter North that porn actor who denied ever doing gay stuff, this even though there was ample evidence?

R26 wins - here she is sans Bozo look, though

DL fave Riz Ahmed wears a hairpiece. Notice the thinning crown in this photo.

R36 Might use Toppik.

Nobody has any Anna Wintour stories on whether she wears a wig or not?

Bump.

Here's Steve Allen's rider. Extra care had to be given to his toupee.

Here for Julianna Margulies "Good Wife" stories.

R41 Or "Dietland".

Jay Mohr told a story in "Gasping For Airtime" how Kevin Nealon lost his toupee while playing basketball with the SNL cast. He went up for a rebound and he lost his baseball cap with his toupee in it.

Jon Hamm has plugs

R44 No, he wears a small frontal piece. Always goes without it when he's not on TV

Did ya hear the one about Helen Lawson?

R46 Dooooo tell.

Wasn't there a story about Geraldo Rivera seeing Louise Lasser the her wig off?

R44 & R45 I read something about them using tinted hair particles/ dry shampoo on him a while back, but they really floof him up for award shows, studio interviews, premieres, etc. He's gotta have a piece for that volume. The bald spot/ thinning has been well documented when he's not wearing his grubby Cardinals/ Blues hats.

R49 Toppik?

Could be.

Does Vairst Letty wear wigs?

R52 Who's that?

Any Janeane Garofalo stories?

I recall that William Shatner didn't dive in to save his wife because he didn't want to get his toupee wet.

Jon Hamm wears hair, but does not have plugs.

There maybe some Toppik or products of a similar nature action going, but that's about all.

Lots of late boomer guys are shying away from plugs after seeing the horror stories of other guys.

Hair transplants really are a viable option for filling in areas that will remain otherwise lush with hair. Otherwise sooner or later Mother Nature wins as surrounding hair thins and fades, but those now obvious plugs are still there. Worse even they begin to die and you've got those nasty plug scar marks.

Wearing hair isn't that bad; Mike Connors (of Mannix fame" wore them for duration of that series and long afterwards. No one called him out on it and his macho "Joe Mannix" reputation didn't suffer with the ladies.

IMHO Jon Hamm should consider doing more work on his body rather than bothering so much about his hair.

R56 Didn't Bradley Cooper wear a hairpiece for about a year until his transplants healed?

Does McBongo have plugs?

Joan Collins refused to have her wig get pulled off on "Will And Grace", so her part was re-written as Beverly Leslie and Leslie Jordan took the role.

La Lawson!

Steve Carell

Rafael Nadal

[quote]I was in the third row at a Bette Midler concert and I saw a few hairs fall out when she was belting out "Stay With Me".

So did I, but they weren't from her head.

R57 Alcoholics don't work out and make poor life choices. His looks have taken a nosedive this year - like really bad.

R57 Peepaw and his daughter look like they need a melanoma screening.🤮

R56 Yes, I would expect balding celeb men to do this, much like the women inject their faces with fillers. Hollyweird is not kind.

R67 He does have a big head

You can tell Jon Hamm isn't getting plugs by fact his hairline keeps moving backward, not forward. He wears pieces to cover thin or bald areas at crown, but unlike say Steve Carell, more and more of Jon Hamm's forehead real estate is becoming exposed.

Even John Travolta gave up and went from this:

To this!

JV was going for the Eddie Munster look.

Though that face plastered with slap and frozen with Botox is more like Count Dracula or some other vampire.

R71

Make that "JT", not JV....

Carry on....

R72 We got it.

Travolta looks better without the bad toupee

R73

Yes, and thank you; but I know whom I'm dealing with on DL. The "oh dear" trolls would soon be hot upon my tail for the faux pas.....

R74

JT looks like Yosemite Sam without the rug

I saw Dilly in concert. During one number she got hair in her mouth. Dolly then pulled it out of her mouth and yanked it from the wig and said, "Some woman in Kor--eee---aaaa is screaming off her head about now.

Speaking of wigs; honorable mention goes to Mr. Robert Redford!

Love Joan Collins.

Redford's wig is awful

I would pay good money to see just what exactly Robert Redford looks like without those rugs.....

Man is nearly 90 and isn't fooling anyone with those auburn/blonde wigs.....

R81 I actually think he would look better. After a certain age, the wigs look ridiculous.

Allison Janney's wig game is strong. No stories about her though.

Allison Janney is about twenty years younger than Robert Redford, and she's a female.

Call it a double standard if you will, but females have long gotten a pass for wearing hair regardless of their age.

Liza M like late Chita Rivera is going to her grave with same dark hair of her youth, and same GD hairstyle she's had since 1970's or whatever.

Cue that Helen Lawson clip yet again.....

R84 Liza M has shitty hair, so the wigs do her a favor.

"Call it a double standard if you will, but females have long gotten a pass for wearing hair regardless of their age."

Women are expected to use artificial means to enhance their appearance, and in some circles it's considered slovenly to appear in public with natural hair or breasts on display.

But too much concern with one's appearance is considered unmasculine, manly men are not supposed to give a shit about flaws like graying or absent hair.

R86 R84 It's actually more that white women get a pass for wearing wigs. Almost every wig gag/wig reveal/wig scene you see in TV/Movies involves a woman of color.

R87, black women wear lots of wigs, probably more than white women (other than actresses). How do they not get "a pass"?

R88 You never see anybody talk about a white woman wearing wigs. But black woman wearing wigs all over the news and TV.

Well white women never admit to wearing wigs, not until they're at full Drag Queen or are Dolly Parton.

I guess the social convention is to pretend that her hair is naturally six inches deep.

R90 Notice that "Valley Of The Dolls" is last time you saw wig action with a white woman.

I loved Julie Christie's wigs in Shampoo. Well, the one at the end was terrible. But the scene in the lavender dress - that was an amazing wig.

George Maharis had four. He'd rotate to make it look like his hair was growing. Now 91, wonder if still has them?

In his autobiography ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE, Alan Jay Lerner tells a story of Rex Harrison's toupee getting caught on a chandelier that had been lowered too far during a performance of MY FAIR LADY.. Then when the chandelier was raised, the wig went up with it. According to Lerner, Harrison played the entire scene as if his hair wasn't floating three feet in the air.

I call bullshit. Even though I've never worked in the theater, I know enough that if a chandelier hits an actor on the head he's going to end up unconscious on the floor. It's not going to gently land on his head and somehow attach itself to the actor's toupee without giving the actor a serious concussion.

Charlton Heston refused to take his toupee off when he starred in "The Last Emperor" on Broadway. They simply put the wig over his wig.

One of Berry Gordy's ornery sons says that as a 10 year old, he was with his father at some Vegas hotel the Supremes were playing when he found himself with Diana on an elevator. She was going to the theater as it was nearing showtime. He says the elevator doors opened on another floor when two white couples got on and immediately recognized Diana. They were going to the show, too. They started oooing and aaawing over her saying how pretty she looked, etc. They reach the destination floor and as the elevator doors opened, the boy jumped up and snatched Diana 's wig off her head, exposing her buckwheat platts in front of the others, leaving her horrified with embarrassment. Brody reprimanded the boy before clutching his chest and dissolving into fits of riotous laughter.

Now THAT'S a celebrity wig story!

R96 That takes the cake.

Dame Joan Collins--the Queen of Wigs--has snatched hers off herself several times in public forums. In this clip, it's for 'Mamma's Back'. She also snatched it off in a film she did just a few years ago called 'Time of Their Lives', for which she should've gotten more recognition.

Saying black women get targeted over their wigs is petty...our beloved "Black Meryl Streep", Viola Davis, made it a plot point to snatch off her wig in the first season of 'How to Get Away With Murder'. She wanted viewers--black and white--to see her without her wig on. There's no shame in the game. To say black women get targeted more is yet another divisive DL-er trying to create controversy. Women--and men--have worn wigs for generations. It's not a racial thing...someone needs to take a history lesson.

R98 Joan didn't take her wig off in "The Time Of Their Lives" on camera, it was implied.

R99, you might want to rewatch the film...she took it off and tossed it in the ocean. Nothing implied by that, dear.

R100 I stand corrected.

I must admit Vairst Letty’s present hair is considerably better than before. Looks entirely natural. Perhaps extensions ?

Okay, R96's little boy HAD to grow up to be a Datalounger!

Confess, whoever you are!!!

Many white celebs use hairpieces for volume, etc. A very poor example, but I doubt Kirstie Alley's hair is as thick as it was during her 'Cheers' days (yet it looks very full). Faith Hill was one of the first white celebs to begin wearing extensions in the early 00s (back when they were terribly expensive), but even decades before her, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and--of course--Dolly were wearing wigs, falls, hair pieces, etc. Girls like Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson take their extensions in and out like they change underwear...I follow Jessica on IG and she admits when she takes the extensions and hair pieces out, and says she feels so much better without them. She gets more compliments when she takes them out as well, it seems.

AA women have been wearing hair on stage, film, television, in concerts, performances going back to 1950's or so.

Not every AA woman is blessed with "good hair" like say Lena Horne. Everyone else would have had to either resort to the harsh lye based relaxers, or hot comb/press and curl. Either way one or both did a number of their hair. Add the damage from hot and harsh stage lighting and you've a recipe for fried hair.

The Supremes wore hair. Aretha Franklin wore hair. Diahann Carroll as "Julia" wore hair.

When it comes to film and television virtually all women if role requires wears hair; it is just easier than dealing with the damage that can come from constantly bleaching, dying, and everything else done to hair as part of filming. Marilyn Monroe had wigs or pieces for when her hair didn't look on point, as did nearly every other actress in Hollywood.

Actress Jackee in an interview tells how when she arrived in Hollywood veteran actresses took he aside and gave advice; one of them was to have one or two wigs always ready in case there wasn't time or whatever to have one's own hair done.

DL fave Delta Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker work hair all the time on Designing Women.

Here is Delta Burke again wearing more hair as Suzanne Sugarbaker.

R106 That was just for that scene.

R107 That's Delta's real hair.

Don't know what Mahalia Jackson was thinking here...

Does anyone know where I can get a Janeane Garofalo wig for Halloween?

Hey, that's her real hair!

You have to see the following gif

I win!

What a terrible nose job on Janeane Garofalo..!!!

WHY did she ever get a nose job, there was nothing wrong with her nose!

R113 I'm trying to figure out when she got one. Or if it just looks like the because of weight loss.

Keep the wig gossip/stories coming.

Jon Hamm was on Fallon earlier with considerable volume up top. Can the powdered particles do that or have we crossed into plugs/ wig territory? His face also looks extremely made up....

R116 It's for movie promo. Generally the studio will send hair/makeup. He'll be back looking scruffy shortly.

Pamela Sue Martin wore wigs for her entire DYNASTY stint. I forget the reason why, but her hair started falling out after the show started. I always wondered why her hair looked like shit compared to the other female cast members. Even Linda Evans had nicer hair than her.

Speaking of DYNASTY, Diahann Carroll wore them too. But her reason why was that she wanted to protect her natural hair from a hot lights and perm relaxers.

I need Jon Hamm’s makeup & hair team.

Lady Bunny's wig hairs keep growing. Are they getting their growth nutrients from her scalp?

Jimmy Stewart had an age appropriate wig? Don't think so.

R121 Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wig

I'd like to get a wig. Often thought that. At this point it's too far gone. I'd have to go for very obvious one like Warhol or lady bunny.

How about Courtney Love?

Cover story for last Sunday's NYT magazine was on three "divas"; Patti LaBelle, Barbara Streisand, and Dolly Parton.

Every single one of them is wearing hair...

Dolly is wearing a wig

Patti working a hair weave

Barbara went with extensions

R125, Babs is wearing MUCH more than extensions. She's suddenly developed cowlicks in her thin flat hair. She appears to have more hair now than she did 50 years ago. Life magazine 1970:

Anything was better than that Jewfro she allowed Jon Peters to talk her into wearing. It doesn't work on someone with Streisand's strong nose. I guess the dick was good.

R127

" I guess the dick was good."

And how...

Yeah baby!

I WIN !

They must be very natural R15. Nobody that I know has noticed...

R13

Oprah started wearing wigs ages ago now, ever since she stopped wearing weaves most of the time.

The woman is sixty-six and surely has something between 50% to 80% (if not more) white hair by now. That causes problems for African American women on several fronts.

First and foremost AA hair in general tends to be fragile. It cannot take double processing (such as relaxing and permanent hair color), but as grey hair becomes more and more white permanent hair color is only thing that will reliably cover and give lasting results. So at some point AA women have to make a choice go natural and thus be able to use permanent hair color, or relax their hair and either let it go grey (white), or put up with whatever results rinses, semi or demi permanent color can give.

Most make the decision that Oprah did; give up relaxers and thus can have white hair permanently colored. From there they can wear hair in various forms, full or half wigs, pieces, or weaves.

If you look very close at some pictures of Oprah where she has long masses of hair, like the picture of Patti LaBelle above the hairline goes back a bit, then the long hair starts. This allows for coverage of white hair at hairline with permanent color, the rest can be colored or not, but is braided and wefts of hair woven in. When done well from a distance it looks very natural.

Of course Oprah has more money then God and can afford to have her hairdresser on beck and call 24/7 as needed. She, Patti and the rest like all actresses can expense cost of all this hair work long as it involves business/professional reasons.

Oprah like many other AA women today also has gone back to doing press and curl on natural hair when they want it straight. Modern products and tools like ceramic irons are a bit better than hot combs and Marcel irons heated on stoves of yesterday. Long as the woman in question doesn't sweat too much, avoids moist weather and certainly swimming results can last a week or longer.

Nicolas Cage, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn & John Travolta own this thread.

R133 Loretta Lynn?

Cher has worn her real hair in public several times. It's past shoulder length and dyed black. Her natural hairline is quite distinct as she tends to almost always wear wigs that are perfectly parted down the middle or give her a bit of a widow's peak.

Cher looks like she uses Kiwi Shoe Polish.

If Charlton Heston had to wear a wig for a movie he'd insist that it be put over the wig he wore 24/7 rather than on his (bald) head

Charles Boyer is wearing a rug in all his movies. He hated wearing one

Sean Connery was bald from a fairly young age, he's wearing rugs in all the Bond films

That is fascinating, R6, and even more fascinating is that when I googled Sinatra's hairpiece lady's name I found she'd been written up in Walter Scott's Personality Parade more than a year before Talese interviewed her. "A month ago Sinatra hired Helen Turpin, crack Hollywood hairdresser, at a salary of a week to apply his hairpiece and keep it in good condition."

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has extremely fine, dry hair with little body; she has taken to wearing extensions and hairpieces. It helps.

Fred Astaire wore wigs

If Satan every goes bald there is going to be Hell Toupee.

It's a good thing that Astaire could dance, because he sure wasn't easy on the eyes. As long as he was moving, he was okay.

Phyllis Diller had a wig room in her home also

Jason Alexander

Country music stars of the 1960s and 70s, like Dolly Parton, all wore wigs. The thing is they never claimed it was their natural hair. Nobody has ever thought Dolly's hair was her own because she's always worn wigs.

How about Bobbie Gentry?

Diana Ross and the Supremes own this thread

[quote]Diana Ross and the Supremes own this thread

Agreed- Mary’s Blond Wig

In the 1960s, DL darling Barbra Streisand was rarely seen without a wig or hairpiece. Her thin, straight, flat hair just wan't made for those times. Here she is on a rare occasion without:

Kristen Wiig puts an extra "i" in hers. So there.

R148

Think we can cut African American female actresses, entertainers, performers, etc... of all sorts some slack. Unless like Lena Horne such women were blessed with "good hair", their own (to various degrees) of nappy hair just wasn't going to cut it in terms of image and other things.

AA hair is fragile enough, and back in the day there were only two main ways to get that "white" straight hair look; use conch (both men and women) which basically was a very harsh lye relaxer. Or go with the old standby of hot comb and Marcel iron (press and curl).

Problem with press and curl is moisture will cause kinky hair to revert. Under hot lights of studio or stage performers/actors sweat so there goes straight hair. You cannot heat straighten AA hair often or it will become a damaged mess.

Also until relatively recently there really weren't that many good to excellent choices for AA hair care. This includes everything from milder relaxers to shampoos, conditioners, and so forth. Most hairstylists for films or whatever were white and had no idea how to work with AA hair.

It was just easier to wear wigs (which also saved their own hair from being abused), which could be taken to any hairdresser for care.

"Unless like Lena Horne such women were blessed with "good hair","

R152, Lena Horne did not have good hair, she had a good hairdresser. And a room full of wigs.

[quote]Here she is on a rare occasion without

Egads, what is that thing in the middle? Please kill it! To think that anyone ever thought that was sexy is beyond me. Did she not believe in basic makeup?

Bump.

Kevin Nealon.

😴 Fascinating.....not !

Carol Burnett flips her wig.

^^^That's why I love Carol Burnett so much - no pretension at all....

R159 Right?

I'm convinced EVERY figure in the public eye has worn a wig/hairpiece/extensions/enhanced hair at some time.

Even the Queen, for god's sake.

If I were a 94-year-old making daily public appearances, many of them on-camera, I'd have a rotating collection of the best wigs money can buy, too.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has baby fine hair with no body; she wears extensions and wigs often.

bump.

Honk.

Cher talking about her wig at 11.15. Dame Edna’s is natural, no wig. Only woman on planet with purple bikini line, very unusual.

During an exclusive interview with OUT magazine, Cher remembers Aretha Franklin, and the quite literal wig-snatching moment that happened when Franklin came to see Cher perform.

When first asked if they ever performed together, Cher answers, "No, no."

"But I had something so terrible happen to me, and it was worse because it was her, I think it would have been horrible if it were anybody else, but it was catastrophic because it was her," she reveals. "I was in Detroit, and she actually came to see my show. I didn't know it then, thank God, but my wig fell off. And one of my dancers dipped me, and my wig fell right on the floor, and then later I was told that she was in the audience, and I was banging my head against the wall going, 'Oh my God, how could she have seen me do that? This is the most embarrassing moment of my life.'"

Diane Keaton. That is all.

r23 I dislike pranksters, they are passive agressive assholes. Mel Gibson used to love pranks on set, Clooney too.

Josh Malina is a psycho

Allison Janney getting her wig put on for the last time.

Love Janney for her lack of vanity (and seriousness), R170. She's acknowledged wearing wigs for public appearances as well, as her own hair is fine and thin.

It would be fun if more performers acknowledged wearing wigs and hairpieces, at least some of the more obvious ones. Besides Wendy Williams, I mean.

I never know what's on Caitlyn's head. He always had straight thin hair as Bruce. Perhaps there is male pattern baldness now. Maybe a combo of a piece, weave and some natural hair?

I don't think we've seen Caitlyn's natural hair since she began transitioning. Probably a good thing. (Bruce used to have an amazing head of hair, but that was 40-odd years ago.)

I'm sure her wigs are custom-made and expensive, but I don't think the style and color is flattering. She's 71 years old, for heaven's sake.

Judy Collins shaved her head and wears full wigs now

R174 is correct. Miss Collins shaved her head for a medical procedure, and didn't like the way it grew back.

So this may not be her best look, but at age 82, I still think she looks pretty good.

(We love you, Judy.)

[quote]Lena Horne did not have good hair, she had a good hairdresser. And a room full of wigs.

And a mouth full of MUFF.

Honk!

Why would a wig require climate control? It’s just nylon and plastic?!

The ones that are climate controlled are the pricey human hair lace fronts that can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Gross

Bump.

Faye Dunaway wore a wig in "Network". Bet you didn't' know that.

The little homosexual boy at R182 is lying. Again.

R183 Not at all.

Are we really nearly 200 replies into this thread without a mention of Mike Nichols?

R20, Ann did travel with wigs, especially the Sugar Babies era. I can’t remember where I read it, but Ann herself relates a story of seeing a dozen “gay boys” doing a tribute to her. They all had so much fun, she loved it! Maybe the Bobbie Wygant interview.

Ann Miller’s lacquered wig saved her life the night a steel beam fell on her during a performance of Anything Goes.

^^^ Ann Miller interview.

Bump.