A "TJ furry" and the side hairline.

Recently, a reader pointed to an interesting image (above - sourced here) of Bill Shatner wearing a "TJ Curly" toupee in the 1980s. The picture underscores just how extraordinarily thick this particular kind of hairpiece was.


As we've noted before, the "TJ Curly" very likely had several sub-phases, the most prominent of which was a division into a mere top-piece era (circa 1976-1983)...

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

...and a fuller era in which the toupee also went down to the sides...

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

This expansion of the toupee into hitherto untoupeed areas likely had a lot to do with stability. A top-weave is less stable and given Bill Shatner's physical antics in T.J. Hooker, extending the toupee down to the sides of the temples likely created a more durable look, with fears over seams showing or even an unfortunate disconnection reduced - but other problems could arise (see here for more):


The change can essentially be characterized as this:


Instead of this:


But did the toupee at the sides reduce believability?


The toupee going all the way down the temples is something that has evidently continued ever since this switch. Yet, arguably, this harsh line at the sides is even more of a giveaway that Bill Shatner's hair isn't real than what has been going on on top.


It's been with us for years...


...changing in intensity depending on the given style:


When this change occurred, the thin strip of toupee was likely attached just in front of Bill Shatner's real hair at the sides. But at some point, probably coinciding with the later circa-2000 transition into the "Denny Katz" look, the sides may have been completely shaved to accommodate the new shorter hair - the old principle of placing a strip of toupee in front of existing hair at the sides was no longer a viable option.

Bill Shatner at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver - the Canadian Maple Leaf: a strategically placed symbol suggesting that new foliage can continue to sprout?

The toupee was growing and consuming areas of the head that had previously remained off-limits!


The conclusion we can draw from all of this is that Bill Shatner has been concealing an entirely real hairline (at the sides) for almost thirty years. Deciphering where fake ends and real begins - or if any real is left at all - is not a job for the faint-hearted!


See zaini666's large Bill Shatner picture album here.