Lost Hair

In my article about Leslie Caron, I briefly mentioned her An American In Paris co-star’s habit of wearing a cap to hide his bald scalp: Gene Kelly almost never appeared without a wig or a cap. But there are a few pictures out there of him going “natural”.

Some other actors also lost their hair at a relatively young age. For most of them, it was a well kept secret outside of the industry. Others occasionally appeared without their toupee in public.

John Wayne even once joked about the fact that his hair was real, not his, but real. He appears on this picture signing autographs for soldiers. The war is indeed a time when stars often stop bothering about “trifling” matters like their appearance. During most of World War II, Fred Astaire gladly got rid of his wig, which he didn’t like much. The latter was designed with a visible receding hairline anyway.

Bing Crosby wore a similar kind of prosthesis and you can see him without it on this picture.

Other stars in the same condition include Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, Tony Curtis,…

Even though Sean Connery set the trend for a more natural look, to this day, actors like John Travolta show their scalp only on stolen paparazzi pictures.

 Women, of course, rarely encounter the same problem. However, filmmakers can be very demanding with their actresses. Vera Miles, among others, had to shave her head for the filming of 5 Branded Women. Consequently, she had to wear a wig for her next film and most famous role: Lila Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

But there is another area where women tend to use artificial hairs.

Lana Turner

It will come as no surprise to you if I tell you that Mae West or Jean Harlow had shaved their eyebrows which they used to replace by a stylized and quite unrealistic stroke of makeup pencil. In those days, it was all the rage.
Most stars of the 1940s and 1950s who started as starlets in those days did the very same thing. Trends changed later and actresses like Ingrid Bergman launched a more natural look that was soon adopted by all.

Unfortunately, you may not know that once shaved, eyebrows do not always grow back. The most famous story is that of Lana Turner who, in one of her early screen roles in The Adventures of Marco Polo, not only had to wear a very uncomfortable wig, but also had to shave her eyebrows, as producer Samuel Goldwyn insisted. For the rest of her life, she had to design her eyebrows with makeup.

and in 1938 in Marco Polo

Turner in 1937 (They Won't Forget)

A not so renown story is that of Judy Garland. Makeup artist Del Armstrong, who worked with both ladies, remembered : "With Judy, there was one problem - it was the same problem Lana had - no eyebrows. Because in the early days of glamor, they used to tweeze them quite a bit so they could make exaggerated shapes, and if you tweeze your eyebrows too much, then they just don't grow back. So I had some hair lace, like for a mustache or wigs, and I had some eyebrows made for Judy for this picture (A Star Is Born). You couldn't just pencil them in, because there's no dimension. A pencil is flat. Penciling is fine for a still picture, but for a motion picture, people are turning their heads and you can see that it's flat. So I put these eyebrows on Judy."

More pictures on the Facebook page. Please click "like" to receive updates!

That's all for today folks!