What's that at the back?

Recently, a reader pointed out an interesting patch of sparse hair at the back of Bill Shatner's head visible in the 2002 DVD documentary Mind Meld - Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime (see here for more on Mind Meld and buy here).

So just what is that strange bald patch in a part of the head that even in Bill Shatner's case, is likely still covered with his own real hair?

Was it a source site from which hair follicles were extracted and "plugged" into the rest of his head (a common procedure in hair transplants) to replenish areas where transplanted follicles had fallen out? Or is it an area that was left untouched by surgery?

We simply don't know...

Now, finally some more general analysis of the "Denny Crane look":

Bill Shatner in July 2000,
still wearing a tight-fitting weave or hairpiece.

William Shatner, we believe, ended his "TJ Curly" weave or hairpiece use between 19th July and 7th September 2000. Incidentally, this is the same time that he began seriously seeing what was to become his fourth wife Liz. A connection? Very likely. After the tragic death of his third wife Nerine a year earlier, perhaps a new hairstyle to impress a new girlfriend (and we don't mean that frivolously in any way) seemed like the logical choice - a way to spruce up to impress a new lady. And why not?

Bill Shatner with his future wife Liz in early September 2000,
following what was likely an expensive hair transplant.

To see more on how we came upon the above dates, look at the middle of the page in the Getty Image sequence here.

UPDATE: A reader asks, if the above is the case, then how come Shats appeared to return to the toup during 2006 (and possibly in a few other instances too)?

That's an interesting question. Perhaps the new style needed some tuning-up and so Bill Shatner decided to very briefly resort to a hairpiece again. In the above picture, Shats is very likely wearing a piece on top of his plugs. And as another reader points out, surgical work could be undertaken, perhaps in stages, while a toup concealed the entire effort. As to whether it's a hair transplant (plugs) or a new kind of toup, that remains an open question...

Disclaimer: we have uploaded two watermarked Getty Images in this post - we're uncertain if the company's watermarked images are freely available or not. Nonetheless, if Getty asks us to take them down, we will certainly do so.

Shatner at Dragon*Con: "Don't touch the hair!"

On Friday 4th September 2009, Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appeared onstage together as guests at the Dragon*Con sci-fi convention. There was one moment during the two actors' endless banter when Nimoy seemingly attempted to place his hand on his pal's head. Guess what Shats' did? Nobody touches the hair! Clip below:

The full fascinating and very funny exchange between these two men can be watched in seven segments starting here. It is well worth watching and not just for the humor.

In a sense, this session reveals both the Shatner that people love and the one that some people hate. On the negative side, Shats, while in his on-stage hyper-persona can come across as a bit self-centered and even dismissive of others (he hasn't watched his friend's performance in the new Trek film, if only to compliment him - he clearly hasn't thought of it that way; Patrick Stewart could also be insulted by some of Shats' comments; so could the people of Atlanta!).

Yet, the flip side is that despite these antics, one never senses any malice from Shatner. Indeed, he comes across as almost child-like; acutely sensitive, in constant need of praise and attention and easily hurt. He was hurt that he wasn't in the new Trek film - and Shatner wants you to know it when something hurts him! And the funny thing is that he also keeps mentioning George Takei. On the surface, it may be that he is making fun of him, but the deeper impression is that those bad vibes hurt him too.

Of course, for the most part, he is just joking around and Nimoy is quick to interject when Shatner seems to go too far, for example making fun of an audience member's southern accent.

Many of the "lesser" Trek stars have grumbled against Shatner's antics during the 60s show, yet they have also all admitted that they never confronted the actor at the time - they never did what Nimoy does several times during the above segment in a very light-hearted manner; instead they bottled up their feelings and turned them into resentment. Why? Probably because they feared that they would be fired at the behest of the tyrannical leading-man.

Shatner is a little crazy - we all know that - and the Dragon*Con exchange is probably very similar to the way he goofed around on the set of Star Trek. Yet it is really just a show; a fun and harmless way to let off steam. Had the actors really talked with Shats about their concerns, they likely would have found the other Shatner very receptive - not the goofy Shatner, but the normal and very likeable and charming Shatner that loves Leonard Nimoy like a brother and whom Nimoy loves the same way.

Shatner's hairpiece, Letterman and Nimoy's discomfort.

Leonard Nimoy featured as a guest star in a May 2009 episode of The Late Show with David Letterman and partook in a Letterman "Top 10" - in this case the top ten lines never before said in a Star Trek film. Shockingly, at number one is "I find your choice of toupee highly illogical." Perhaps there is a tinge of discomfort evident on Nimoy's face. This could be the only time he has ever referred to his friend's lack of real hair (what else could that reference mean, after all?). Watch the clip below and thanks to a reader for alerting us to this unusual moment!:

William Shatner makes another oblique toupee inference.

The 2008 autobiography Up Till Now - written by William Shatner with David Fisher.

There was an incident during the run of the original Star Trek that caused some friction between William Shatner and co-star Leonard Nimoy. The pair quickly made up and have since become very close friends, but back in 1967, William Shatner took exception to a makeup room photoshoot in which the application of the Spock makeup would be made public. The incident has been dealt with in several Trek-related books and Bill Shatner has previously conceded that his own jealousy of Nimoy's popularity (who is the star of this show?) was at the root of his angry reaction. It is something, he says, that he had to struggle to come to terms with in the early days of Star Trek.

But was the anger not just about popularity but also about Shatner's toupee?

The photoshoot that caused friction between Shatner and Nimoy. Sourced from www.mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com

In his brilliantly entertaining 2008 autobiography Up Till Now William Shatner tells the story with an additional twist he has never alluded to before. There is a secret at play. What might that secret be?:

"Leonard felt that Freddy [Phillips, Star Trek's makeup artist] had prevented Spock from becoming some kind of visual joke. So when a magazine wanted to do a photo story about his makeup process, featuring Freddy, he agreed. But nobody told me about it.

"We began filming every morning at 8 a.m. Leonard reported to makeup at about 6:30, but I got there about forty-five minutes later. One morning I came to work and found the photographer in the makeup room snapping away. I didn't like that at all; I was concerned all of my little makeup secrets were going to be revealed. And no, I can't tell you what they are. That's why they are secrets. So I asked someone, justifiably, I thought, 'What's the photographer doing in the makeup room?' (emphasis ours)

"The photographer quietly left the room. Leonard and Freddy waited for him to return but he never came back. Eventually Leonard was told that at my insistence an assistant director had forced the photographer to leave. Leonard was furious. He immediately came to my trailer to confront me. 'Did you order the photographer out?' he demanded.

'Yes,' I admitted, explaining, 'I didn't want him there.'"


Now what were those secrets? It it very likely that Bill Shatner is referring to the fact that he would come into work bald, sit down next to Leonard Nimoy in the makeup room, and then have his hairpiece applied. He understandably didn't want those secrets (Captain Kirk is bald!) appearing in some magazine.

If we do the simple maths: Bill Shatner arrived at makeup a full forty-five minutes before he was due on set and forty-five minutes after Nimoy arrived to have his latex ears arduously applied. If he just had basic makeup applied, then he could have come in later. But during that forty-five minutes, the intricate process of laying on the rug was also undertaken.

In the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story Desilu head of production Herb Solow recalls the same incident:

"Jimmy Doohan was there too. He recalls that 'Bill's hairpiece was being applied. The top of his head was a lot of skin and a few little odd tufts of hair. The mirrors in the makeup room walls were arranged so that we could all see the laying on of his rug.'" (page 236)

So in summary: Again we see that Bill Shatner is slowly thawing from the days of outright toup denial - instead peppering his recollections with inferences, albeit still oblique ones, to his hairpiece. Perhaps he had read Herb Solow's account of the Nimoy incident and didn't want to lie about or ignore the toupee factor.

Who knows, maybe in a few years he will openly discuss his baldness in an interview without the subject hitting Shatner's raw nerve.

By the way, we haven't read any of the biographies by the "gang of four" (Doohan, Takei, Koenig and Nichols). If anyone out there has and spots a toup reference, please let us know.