The case of the missing hair on Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek: The Original Series had to use wigs and hair pieces for its actors

When the second season of Star Trek: The Original Series had finished filming neither Gene Roddenberry nor Robert Justman knew if the series was getting renewed, but they knew they had to be ready. And part of that readiness came in the form of the wardrobe department having all of its parts, including wigs and hair pieces. Unfortunately, Justman had some bad news to deliver to Roddenberry on February 5, 1968 when he sent a memo, a copy of which you can read at library.ucla.edu, to the show’s creator.

According to Justman, William Shatner had borrowed all four of his hair pieces after filming concluded. Two of these were new, which cost approximately $200 each, and two of the old ones cost approximately $100 each. Justman was concerned that if Star Trek were to be picked up for a third season, the hair pieces would have to be remade because the actor would have used the four “to such extent they will no longer be photographable.”

But that wasn’t the end of the hair woes on Star Trek: The Original Series

The same memo contained news of Majel Barrett’s missing wig. Neither Majel nor the wardrobe department knew what happened to it. In addition, Nichelle Nichols wig went missing as well. According to Justman, Nichols had borrowed it when she finished working and “claims that she returned it.” But no one knew anything about it being returned.

The series didn’t have a big budget to begin with so to have to replace those wigs, along with the hair pieces, would have put a serious ding in the wallet. There was no follow up to the memo so no one knows if the wigs ever reappeared or if new ones had to be commissioned. As for what happened to the wigs after the series ended, while some of them could have been reutilized, others, like the one Grace Lee Whitney had to wear as Yeoman Rand, would have needed some serious reconstruction.