Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Early TJ Hooker picture.


Circa 1947 - after his first year at McGill University, Bill Shatner spent a summer hitchhiking across the US.

A reader points to a great early picture (sourced here) of Bill Shatner in which we see his (real) curly hair in all its glory. We've noted before that we think Bill Shatner's real hair was curly and that he had it straightened, as was customary for many men in the era of Brylcreem.

So why is this important? Many of you have told us how you were surprised by the brazen thickness of Bill Shatner's suddenly curly hair in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Indeed, for many, this dramatic shift in hairstyle provided a strong clue that Bill Shatner had turned to the powers of the toupee. Yet, despite the excessive thickness of the "TJ Curly" look, this was a style that better mirrored the actor's own curly hair, as is evident from the real bits at the sides we've seen over the years (for example, here).

8 comments:

  1. Great pic!
    I think Bill’s hair wa thinning even then. But his hair could be wet too...

    ReplyDelete
  2. A number of people, including myself, have hair that is normally straight, but becomes curly in the heat/humidity of summer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Suffered the viewing of an old Hooker episode recently, one just can't stop looking at the hair, it was so bad really and ended up covering down the sides also as time went on. Maybe he went for the full curly piece look to regain that lost youth naturalness??

    ReplyDelete
  4. From this view one can see the work Shat's doctor's did to enable his multiple hair transplants.
    http://media.photobucket.com/image/william%20shatner/Rep13/Annie%20Awards%2006/IMG_0544.jpg?o=224

    ReplyDelete
  5. One can only imagine with as much ego as Shatner, hair loss made barely a dent to his psyche. For others, this is a solution, and is inexpensive and organic.
    Fill a spray bottle with one part apple cider vinegar, one part pure aloe vera, then two tablespoons of cayenne pepper, some splashes of lavender oil, then tea tree oil. Three x a week, shake, then spray on scalp and hair, and wear a shower cap. Leave on for three hours, or overnight. Do not store in a refrigerator, room temperature only.
    Use only Dr Bonners to wash your hair, never regular shampoo. In two weeks, hair will be thicker, and eventually will grow back where it fell out, noticeably. Continue this habit for the rest of your life.
    It sickens me that vulnerable men resort to chemicals and pills to restore hair - this concoction works, and isn't expensive.
    A vegetarian diet is also recommended.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We've been trying to encourage non-registered commenters to select the "Name/ URL" option (in the "comment as" tab) and type in a username (anything at all). This eliminates the "anonymous" tag and helps other commenters to know who is saying what, which enables toupological conversations to take place. Thanks! -ST

    ReplyDelete
  7. can I leave out the cayenne? I'm allergic.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mods!

    You know what I've always been curious about? Did William Shatner COLOR his hair? When did it start? What was his natural color?

    The picture above shows a blonde. In Trek, he was more like a light, golden blonde. Then in the Trek movies, he was a brunette.

    I always wondered if he dyed his hair (bleached it) as a young man so he fit the profile of blonde, blue-eyed leading man.

    Any ideas/photos/evidence?

    ReplyDelete