There are arguably three main late night talk show hosts in US television: Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and David Letterman.
Each, entirely coincidentally, has a hairstyle that mirrors a phase of Bill Shatner's hair. Conan's hair closely resembles the old "Jim Kirk lace" (1958-1969); Jay Leno's hair resembles the "T.J. curly" toups Bill wore from 1976-2000, while David Letterman's hair (some suggest not entirely thanks to nature alone) resembles the current "Denny Crane plugs" look.
So it is perhaps interesting (or not at all) that of these three hosts, Bill Shatner has developed a close (often surreal) bond with Conan O'Brien.
Recent and frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien featuring readings of Sarah Palin's tweets and so forth have only solidified this apparent friendship. Most recent was an appearance several days ago in which Bill Shatner was there to plug (no pun intended) the latest season of Shatner's Raw Nerve. The interview included Bill Shatner donning a fake pair of vampire teeth.
Anyway, could Bill's friendship with Conan be rooted (again, pardon the pun) in O'Brien's very Jim Kirk-like hair, frontal swoosh (entirely natural in this case) and all? Does this reveal a slight nostalgia for the good old days as Bill Shatner reflects back upon a long and productive life filled with various toupees? "You know, Conan - you, and especially the hair, remind me of me when I was younger!"
Watch Bill Shatner's latest Conan appearance here and visit the Shatner's Raw Nerve website here.
I'm not certain I totally agree, but the way you've put screenshots of Shatner alongside similar poses/headshots of the talk show hosts, is enough to sway me.
ReplyDeleteWell done. Keep up the good work!
Yeah, but Bill will never reach the level of baldness of of good ol' Letterman
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure Paulo. There were some pictures of Mr. Shatner from a horse-riding from this past summer/fall, and it's clear that some of the plugs/transplants are falling out. The frontal hairline was be intact, but his scalp was fairly visible.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible for hair transplants to fall out? I thought they take the hair from areas that are resistant to hormones (and thus falling out) & that's why some hair transplants looks so awful -- ie., somebody gets a hair transplant before their real hair has completely fallen out, their real hair continues to fall out, and they're left with spots where the transplanted hair remains and looks artificial.
ReplyDeleteIf the Shat did get a hair transplant, I doubt the transplant was ever very thick --- you need to have enough donor hair to cover the bald areas, and I doubt the Shat ever had enough donor hair to actually cover his bald spots to the extent where you couldn't see his scalp. I bet in shots where his hair looked thicker, it was just the lighting or he had used sprays/smaller toups/weaves to thicken it up.
regarding hair transplants
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/y937lns
@RM - thanks for the info - I guess it confirms what I thought. I suppose it's a bad idea to get a hair transplant when you're young, but the Shat didn't have to worry about that!
ReplyDeleteI also doubt that what we are seeing is a hair transplant for that important point said above - there has to be some donor hair to remove to cover a probably large area, you don't get something for nothing, and I'd also doubt there'd be enough to completely cover the scalp - where's all that donor hair coming from?! It could be he tried it unsuccessfully just as Elton did years ago but quickly resorted to a shorter style "full cap" that's now starting to get a little ratty looking! I bet it will miraculously thicken up again suddenly in the future. Those are very expensive pieces of work he now wears!
ReplyDeleteOh, he did get a hair transplant. The tell-tale sign is that the hair is much thicker at the peripheral boundaries than in the main section at the top of the head. This is unlike what one would see with normal male-pattern baldness.
ReplyDeleteThey use so much thickening powder in his hair, it makes it look almost as artifical as a toupee. On the recent Conan O'Brien appearnace, Shat's hair almost looked it like it was painted onto the top of his head.