Sheppard - the hair


Just finished re-watching sg-1 seasons 1-10, then went to Atlantis for season 1-5 and just can't get over this.

Sheppards hair ----- what were they thinking? It's hard enough to take that cardboard cutout seriously to start with, but that hair....... can't be done.

Any thoughts? xD

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What? That's Flanigan's hair. Not much they could do about it, and when he agreed to cut it to regulation at one point the production (?MGM?SciFi?Writers?) told him he couldn't.

Similarly with Ronon's hair. When Momoa cut off the dreads between seasons towards the end, TPTB made him wear a wig.

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I actually thought Ronin's hair was always a wig after seeing that photo of Robert Picardo wearing it. I didn't realize it was real earlier.

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It was both. Originally it was his real hair, but it weighed some 5 pounds or so and was causing him neck pain. As a result, he finally decided that he needed to cut it and approached the producers about it. They decided to have the character lose his hair as well and were all set to have it happen in "Broken Ties," but at the last minute (so to speak) the network overruled the move because they considered the dreadlocks to be a signature part of the character's look (ironically they were against him keeping the dreadlocks when he was first cast and wanted him to cut his hair then). After the decision was made they had a custom wig designed that he wore for the rest of the season and which you saw Robert Picardo wearing (that or it was the stunt wig).

Since they initially intended to have the character cut his hair 3 episodes into season 5 and since Jason Momoa already had his hair cut between seasons, they didn't have a custom wig made for those few episodes. Instead the plan was to have his own chopped off hair methodically sown into his then current hair for the first three episodes. The process supposedly took 9 hours and was extremely painful. Hence it lasted about a day before he couldn't take it any longer and they switched to the the stunt double's wig. He wore that for two episodes. By "Broken Ties" the professional $10,000 wig arrived, which incorporated parts of his original hair into the design.

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There's a youtube video out there of Flannigan saying that's just how his hair is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdRM0epepQ

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Now that's funny :)>

Thanks for that, it explains a lot - the poor bugger :).

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I liked* his hair. His character's ego sometimes, not so much, but his hair was nice.

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I must be the only person that liked Sheppard's hair. I sort of lump it with his character. It makes me think of him as a Flyboy and not a marine. Maybe thats just me though.

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You are definitely NOT the only person to like Sheppard's hair. Back in the day there were memes devoted to it "Do Not Touch TEH HAIR!"
Entire fanfics and multiple posts on Gateworld and other fansites have been devoted to it. :)

....nostalgia.

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I used to jokingly call him, 'Captain Hair,' as opposed to Captain Kirk.
If he really said something all disciplinarily, I would just mouth off all, "You're just all hair anyway."

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I love the hair. I don't think about or care what may or may not be meet army regulations, if that's the problem people have with it.

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Well, maybe a flyboy who flew with the windows down.

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That and he's kind of a rebel, remember that he disobayed orders to save a stranded soldier when he flew choppers and he always had his own code on the show. He said himself in the one episode that he couldn't lead Atlantis because then he'd have no "man" to rebel against.

In all honest I never really noticed the hair itself but likely would have if it changed.

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Exactly, cmtaylor, that's what I said. He's got the pilot attitude/follicles down pat.

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Um.. what is wrong with his hair? Why are you not pointing out Ronan's obviously ridiculous hair?

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Because Ronan was a former military that spent 7 (seven) years as a runner and survived. Not US military.

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Lots of US military personnel have hair that long and beards as well.

Just pointing it out.

I remember getting a briefing before our Bosnia deployment from an 18 series soldier (special forces) who had hair as long as Shepard's and I recall a couple guys I served with in ordinary infantry units who always pushed the edge of grooming standards and after four or five weeks in the field their hair would look worse than Shepard's as well.

I don't have a problem with Shep's hair. He's kind of a renegade, it fits to his style. He's not a gung-ho Ranger type who goes for a 'high and tight' as a default. He's more like a special operator who views rules as bendy things that hamper him more than help him.

'It's a work of art and there's really no "right" interpretation...' RDM

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I don't know about "lots". Maybe under certain circumstances some military personnel can get away with it while deployed. Once state-side again I'm betting that beard is gone.

I was in the Navy, and while I think our grooming standards were more lax than the other branches, I could never grow my hair as long as Shepard's. Even when at sea I still had to get a haircut every 3 weeks.

I think SG-1 tried to keep it close to military standards. Sometimes O'Neill's would get a little shaggy but then RDA would get it cleaned up.

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You look at any picture of Army Special Forces, Army Delta Force, Navy SEALs when they are deployed- they got beards and long hair.

It does happen.

Shep's hair wasn't that long really. True it was outside the grooming standards of OUR military but he was on Atlantis most of the time and could easily get away with it.

While deployed to Bosnia, my hair got almost as long as his at one point (my hair grows fast and it is thick). While you got your kevlar on your head, nobody can really notice it. Plus we didn't really have a barber shop ready to hand where I was. It was just other guys in the platoon taking a pair of clippers to your head. I skipped that noise as long as I could until the First Sergeant saw me with my helmet off one day and almost crapped a brick.

Still, I got away with longer hair for quite a long time and have seen other soldiers do the same during actual or training deployments.

The key here is 'deployed'. I never would have got away with that in garrison.

I don't think Shep's hair is anything to get worked up about.

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My overriding thought is I want to ride him like a horsey. The hair is perfectly acceptable.

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His hair is so cool I remember back in the day trying to do my hair like shep. Also don't get the 'cardboard cutout' reference, I think he's an awesome actor and awesome character.

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His hair doesn't bother me.

If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.-Loki (Marvel's Avengers)

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They went overboard with the gel sometimes, it looked liked something Peter Wentz would wear.

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Sheppard's borderline Flock of Seagulls hairdo is a joke. I can't ever take him seriously. Spiked in the rear, swooped over to one side, and just sticking out everywhere else. He should have grown that out or just taken a jarhead cut.

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