1957 article confirms Shatner toupee purchase.

Studio One - The Defender (1957). The first toup appearance? In this production, Shatner is apparently wearing a quality studio-supplied toupee, but he would soon purchase one of his own.

There is a great article here at Google Docs, which is a reprint of an October 1957 Maclean's Magazine profile of the young William Shatner. The article contains the following very interesting paragraph:

"...Mel Balarino, MGM's casting director...looked Shatner over. What he saw was a splendid young bobcat of a male, with a close cap of cinnamon hair, tufted eyebrows and white teeth bared in a grin of undisciplined charm...[Gloria Rand and William Shatner] had both begun watching their diets again: steak, fresh fruit, yogurt. While others in their apartment block lounged by the pool with gin drinks and suntan oil, Shatner would withdraw into a corner and skip an imaginary rope. Then he'd dive into the pool and later, when he'd straightarmed himself out, would report to Gloria, 'Fifteen lengths that time. Best exercise there is.' He had already ordered a toupee to camouflage a thinning spot in the cinnamon hair." (Emphasis ours. The money for this purchase would likely have come from his salary from the movie The Brothers Karamazov which was filmed in 1957.)

Thanks to a reader for alerting us to this! We sincerely appreciate the detective work of all you Shatner toupologists out there!