Assignment: Toupee!

A reader sent us a tip regarding a very interesting high-definition image from trekcore.com's ever expanding collection of Trek screencaps. Upon first glance, the above image from the Star Trek episode "Operation: Annihilate!" seems to show that all is well in the fictional Bill Shatner kingdom of "Hairopolis". But that's where the beauty of high-definition comes in...


As we move in closer, we begin to clearly see a slightly detached lace line on the upper-right side of Bill Shatner's forehead (image left)...


As we move closer still, this material becomes even more apparent.

And then, when our toupologists used their touposcopes to try to move in to the sub-atomic level, something truly odd occurred!:

Our toupologists are still trying to figure out exactly what happened!


As to why in some cases, the lace line seems to be higher and in others lower...

"Balance of Terror"

...one possible explanation (only a theory at this point) may be related to Bill Shatner's willingness to shave what remaining hair he had on his head. Assuming he looked somewhat like Harry Mudd in the late 1960s without his toupee...


...there may have been an initial reluctance to shave the remaining hair above the forehead in order to allow the lace to be applied (lace glued onto hair, even a few strands, would undermine the illusion and prove somewhat painful).

Lace mesh visible (click for larger image) in the episode "Shore Leave".

Perhaps in the early episodes, the anchoring provided by the lace had to be shifted far down onto the forehead in light of this reluctance. Only later, did Bill Shatner perhaps agree to shave a bit of his real hair in order for the lace line to be fixed higher and be less prominent - and also help make it seem that the toupee hair was truly sprouting naturally from the scalp:


It's only a hypothesis at this point, but one we hope to prove (or disprove) as more empirical evidence is assessed.

Amazing lace.

So an eager young toupologist working at the WSSTS' "Department of Toupological Approximology" calls us up and says he has an interesting image for us to see - it's gonna be worth it, he adds, excitedly. "What is it?" we ask. "It's an image of Bill Shatner today but what he would look like in a 'Jim Kirk Lace'." What else could we say but: "Send it over."

Truth is though, we didn't expect much. Bill Shatner today with a "Jim Kirk Lace"? Let's be honest, it's just gonna look silly. Might be good for a laugh, we thought in all honesty, but little more. I mean, come on!......But boy were we wrong!

Click on above image for full size.

We take a look at the image and are instantly rendered speechless...shocked...stunned! The guy actually looks friggin awesome!


"It's him! It's Kirk!" shouts one of our female members of staff, barely able to contain herself. Cooler heads eventually prevail and our toupologists finally begin to calmly and methodically assess the true import of this extraordinary image. One of our top toupular psychologists later puts it thus:

"Because Bill Shatner changed toupee styles so significantly at key points in his life and career, it partially disrupted, at least sub-consciously, the cognitive semiotics of our centers of recognition in the brain. Of course we always knew it was really Bill Shatner, but the shift in toupee styles made what would be an automatic association have to become a slightly willful one. This was particularly true for many people when they were reintroduced to Bill Shatner after some years in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979."

Bill Shatner replaced by a different Bill Shatner?

The psychologist continued:

"The composite image represents a far more natural thread to a well-known mental association we have of the actor from the original Star Trek series that bypasses the jarring re-recognition needed to overcome toupee styles like the 'TJ Curly'. In a sense, looking at this image is like looking at an older version of the actor who played Kirk for the first time. That can't help but create a powerful reaction for those who have positive associations to that show and the Kirk character. Thus, 'It's him! It's Kirk!' really is an entirely natural reaction."

More on this image here.

Asides from the above psychological analysis, we actually have to add that we think the lace genuinely looks good on present-day Shats. It elongates his head a little, which counters the slight "pumpkin head" effect of his increasing years and actually seems more realistic (in a weird way) than the current "Denny Crane" look.

So, and we never thought we'd say this until we saw this image: Bill Shatner has our full blessing to return to the lace at any time should he so choose!

Agree? Disagree with our psychobabble? We're eager to read your thoughts!

On an unrelated note, a Facebook user seems to have mistakenly put our website down as his personal contact info - it's not us (we're on Lacebook)! -ST

The "Jim" just for Jim?

Here's a question: From the day in May 1966 that Bill Shatner reported for work on Star Trek's first production episode "The Corbomite Maneuver", until the very final day of shooting on the series on January 9th 1969, what other dramatic film or television appearances did Bill Shatner make?

Not many it turns out; the rigors of working on Star Trek evidently didn't leave too much room for other projects (Bill Shatner did however make numerous appearances on quiz, interview shows and other public events during this period). Indeed, thus far we've only found two dramatic projects: the 1968 movie White Comanche (or Comanche Blanco)...


...and the TV movie Perilous Voyage, also filmed in 1968 (but not actually broadcast until 1976). Comanche was filmed during the hiatus between Star Trek's first and second seasons, while Perilous Voyage was filmed between Star Trek's second and third seasons.

William Shatner in Perilous Voyage (1968/1976).

By the time that Bill Shatner was cast in Star Trek, the "Jim Kirk lace" had become the standard hair for almost all of the actor's appearances on film and television. Just one example, here's Bill Shatner in 1961's The Explosive Generation:

So why when Star Trek began did Bill Shatner suddenly decide to use different toupees for his other projects? Both in White Comanche and Perilous Voyage, the actor wears hairpieces lacking the famous "you can comb it back!" feature of the standard "Jim Kirk lace" - a significant shift.

There are a number of possible reasons: Perhaps Bill Shatner felt that in the character of James T. Kirk, both he and his toupee had finally found an understanding partner; thus, it was a question of fidelity - an exclusive toupee for just this role - a very noble sentiment indeed. A somewhat weaker version of this notion would have had Bill Shatner believing that audiences now strongly identified the "Jim Kirk lace" with the character that he portrayed in Star Trek - thus, the new toupees would have been a way to prevent typecasting.


Or perhaps Bill Shatner, knowing that he had, shall we say "lifted" (also see here) a few of the toupees provided to him by Star Trek, didn't want to irritate the producers by wearing them (or the same style) on other projects.

Or was it something to do with Bill Shatner's by-this-point deteriorating marriage to wife Gloria Rand? Were the new toupees a signal that the relationship was over?

Or was it legal? Did Star Trek's producers, knowing that the toupee was developing its own ever-growing fan-base, contractually stipulate that during the show's run, the "Jim Kirk lace" must not appear in any other projects?

An interesting mystery...


Note: Perilous Voyage is a movie that our toupologists have, despite our best efforts, been entirely unable to locate - it neither exists on DVD, VHS, YouTube nor any of the other Internet resources within which one can often find rare Bill Shatner appearances. So, we've decided to offer a highly prestigious honorary degree from the WSSTS to any of our valued readers that can help us track down a copy!

Update: YouTube user "Rubypearl" has posted a brief clip from this movie - watch below:

The amazing lace: you can comb it back!

Reader "ACELP" points to an interesting 1966 picture of Bill Shatner visiting the Worldcon convention (above), which underlines one of the key features of the lace frontal hairpiece - that the hair could be combed backwards. This is something that Bill Shatner evidently tried on more than one occasion, but without the attention of on-set hairstylists, the careful illusion of the toup could occasionally be undermined - just a little, as is evident in the above picture.

Bill Shatner proudly demonstrates one of the lace toupee's top features.

Poll result and more on the lace.

Thanks for voting. One factor that would be very different today would be the press. Were a young William Shatner, star of the ratings hit (today, Star Trek with the very same ratings would be considered a huge hit, in particular because of the way that audience demographics are now factored-in, rather than just straight viewing figures. Back in the 60s, Star Trek had one of the most appealing demographics out there to advertisers - but they hadn't yet switched to using a mechanism that measured this.) known as Star Trek, to be a secret toupee user, the press would have gone out of their way to reveal this. Up until at least the first year of Trek, Bill Shatner was sometimes still going around toup-less when not in the public arena. Today, a young Shatner today would face some very different choices in light of the ever-relentless paparazzi.

***

On a separate note, we welcome some of our newest readers and commenters. One particular issue that commenter "Al" mentioned was that of the frontal lace - arguing that perhaps Bill Shatner's frontal hairline was real during the early phases of toup. We try to be very careful with what and how we assert certain toupee points (for example the current plugs or no plugs debate) but in the case of the frontal lace, we can say with absolute confidence that there is a large body of strong evidence out there that on-screen, Bill Shatner's frontal hairline permanently disappeared behind a toupee around 1958 and has not been seen since (on-stage, it was about a year or so later). While Bill Shatner went bald from the back first, it wasn't long before the front gave out too.

Here's Bill Shatner in 1959 wearing his beloved frontal lace, with its characteristic thick swoosh:

Bill Shatner in CBS's The Story of a Gunfighter (1959)

In the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, the lace line was described by Star Trek producer Bob Justman thus (see here for more on this book):

"My gaze shifted to his (Shatner's) hairline. Examining balding actors' hairlines was a habit I'd picked up over the years. The 'lace' that anchored the front of his toupee glistened. I made a mental note of it to tell the makeup man about it before we filmed again."

A gust of upward wind highlights the frontal toupee, which was anchored by a v-shaped very thin lace "skin" (visible in high-quality remastered prints) that protruded slightly down along the forehead.

Interestingly, Bill Shatner still had a frontal hairline as late as 1958-1959's New York stage production of The World of Suzie Wong. Indeed, we believe that this may have been the last ever public appearance of Bill Shatner sans toupee - by this time, he was already wearing a toupee on-screen and on-stage touping-up soon followed, perhaps even during the play's (often stressful) two-year run.

Bill Shatner in The World of Suzie Wong late 1958 - early 1959. Still no frontal toup.

Spray, combing or a brief undocumented period of using a rear-only toup? See this clip from Cheers to see how they work.

So, on-screen Bill Shatner started wearing a frontal lace a little earlier than he absolutely needed to. While his hair at the back thinned, the frontal hairline likely remained in some form through to the early 1960s.

If there is one famous person who's pattern of balding appears to match Bill Shatner's, then it is perhaps Britain's Prince William who at 27 actually appears to be about three years more severe in pace than Bill Shatner:

This would probably match Bill Shatner, circa 1960.

This would probably match Bill Shatner circa 1962.

Anyway, we've examined this issue many times at this site - over the festive season, when we won't be posting as much, we'll try to take some time to improve our listing and indexing of old posts in order to make them easier to locate.

Shatner's toupee and the laws of physics.

Shatner's toupees can be used as a focal point for all knowledge in the universe. Let's take basic physics - in this case, the principle of reflection. We'll demonstrate the concept by taking a few stills from the Star Trek episode "Operation -- Annihilate!" that reveal the thin transparent "skin" that extended to the forehead, which helped to hold Bill Shatner's lace in place.

Now, the makeup person would have tried very hard to make sure that the lace "skin" as well as Shats' forehead were both in perfect synch and demonstrating diffuse reflection - which means light not reflected directly (as shine), but rather scattered (by millions of fragments of "pancake" makeup) in order to amplify the luminance of the skin tone.


If both the real forehead and the forehead covered in the "skin" were out of synch, then one would exhibit diffuse reflection (luminance on skin tone) while the other would display specular reflection (the mirror principle - returning light back to its source).


The barrier between these two different surfaces would then become visible as a border or line between two areas with different reflective properties.


Now, imagine clenching your fist and rubbing a little glue on the taut top of your hand. If you waited for the glue to dry and then unclenched your fist, the glued area would crunch up in a different way from the rest of your skin because the skin would have different tensile properties or "elastic modulus".


That, added to the above principles serves as a kind of magnified example of diffuse reflection in that an uneven but reflective surface (the crunched up lace "skin") sends light in multiple directions. And now to be even more mind-bending: because the lace "skin" is transparent, it can also demonstrate refractive properties, acting like a contact lens and deforming the perception of Shats' forehead underneath by an infinitesimle amount. And there are probably principles of polarization at play somewhere in all of this too but that is a little too complicated to deal with.

We thought physics was boring too until Shatner's toupee came to the rescue! Next time, with the help of the William Shatner School of Toupological Studies, we will look into the laws of...we'll think of something...

The full report "William Shatner's Toupee - A Study in Reflection" will be published in next month's edition of the journal Science.

Disclaimer: we're not sure any or all of the above makes sense.

Shatner's hairpiece - extracts from Inside Star Trek book.

Herb Solow: "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)

Bob Justman: "My gaze shifted to his (Shatner's) hairline. Examining balding actors' hairlines was a habit I'd picked up over the years. The 'lace' that anchored the front of his toupee glistened. I made a mental note of it to tell the makeup man about it before we filmed again. I was tempted to ask Bill if he had ever found the so-called missing hairpiece. But no, discretion was the better part of valor." (page 341)