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).
