A Battlestar Galactica Star Lost Her Hair When The Sci-Fi Show Refused To Let Her Wear A Wig

Ronald D. Moore's small screen reboot of Glen A. Larson's 1978 series "Battlestar Galactica" was far more successful than its forebear. The original "Battlestar Galactica" lasted for a single 24-episode season, but it wasn't renewed. It remained on the air thanks to reruns, however, and retained a certain amount of cultural cache throughout the 1990s. 

In the early 2000s, Moore, fresh off of gigs writing for ultra-successful "Star Trek" spin-off series, restarted "Battlestar Galactica" with an all-new cast and an all-new timeline. The new series began with a crackerjack three-hour miniseries and led into a complex, expansive show that audiences loved. The new "Battlestar Galactica" outstripped the 1978 series by a considerable margin, lasting for 76 episodes over the course of four seasons and spawning two special TV movies, along with a pair of spin-off shows. 

In 1978, the evil antagonist robots of the franchise, the Cylons, were chrome-plated, toaster-looking soldiers that spoke in a robotic monotone. Hence, one of the wrinkles added to Moore's reboot was that the Cylons had advanced enough to build robot models that looked and behaved like humans. Indeed, one of the main characters introduced in the show was Number Six, a Cylon agent that sexually tempted a human named Giaus Baltar (James Callis) into betraying his kind and, in turn, giving the Cylons the ability to more effectively wipe them out. Number Six was played by actor Tricia Helfer, and she was a marvelous sci-fi villain. Notably, her character sported a striking blonde hairdo. 

Helfer bleached her hair for the role, although she would've preferred a wig. During an appearance on the "Sackhoff Show" podcast (hosted by her "Battlestar Galactica" co-star Katee Sackhoff), Helfer once admitted that she had to bleach her hair so much it started to fall out from all the abuse. 

Sackoff and Helfer both remember the hair drama on the set of "Battlestar Galactica" quite well. Helfer, as one can see in the above photos, wasn't just blonde; she had hair that was practically white. Helfer reminded Sackhoff that she needed to undergo a full bleaching process every 10 days during a shooting season, using a needle-nose applicator. Her scalp must have burned on a regular basis. It was a horrid headache. As Helfer described it: 

"They dyed it for the miniseries. And then I dyed in back in between to do a different role between seasons. Then I dyed it back for the first season. I said when we came back for the first season, 'Could be use a wig?' They said, 'Absolutely not.' Every 10 days. My hair is naturally quite dark, so it would show. And then between [the] first season and second season, I dyed it dark to do a movie with Billy Zane. And I went back, and again I asked, and they said 'No' and insisted on dying it. And it was just straw at that point."

The film in question was the 2006 medical thriller "Memory," which also starred Dennis Hopper and Ann-Margaret. In that film, Helfer's hair is dark brown. Sadly, all the back-and-forth coloring took its toll. Her hair visibly thinned. Helfer remains unclear as to why the producers of the show wouldn't let her wear a wig. Perhaps someone merely thought bleached hair looked better for an android character like Number Six.

In the above photo, Helfer is wearing a wig, but it was a long time coming. It seems that in the second season of "Battlestar Galactica," her hair couldn't take it anymore, and it just all fell out one morning, without notice. As Helfer recalled:

"[I]t just kept falling out. If you look at the first episodes [compared] to the first half of season 2, you can see it getting shorter and thinner and shorter and thinner. You could see through it to my neck. And then just one day, after the dye job application, the next morning ... I went to set, and Gerald the hairstylist push[ed] a brush through my hair, and it just ... half of it fell off. And they had to overnight a wig."

"Gerald" refers to Gerald Gibbons, who was credited on nine episodes of the series. Sackoff interjected at this point in the interview to point out that a high-quality wig, acceptable for TV lighting, ran at a price of up to $10,000. Sackoff's own wigs that she wore while playing Bo-Katan Kryze on "The Mandalorian" cost about that much. It's beginning to become clear why the "Battlestar Galactica" producers didn't want to buy one for Helfer. Helfer also pointed out that when her android character had to slip into a slime-filled resurrection chamber, the slime would seep into the wig and rip the lace at its base, which required the purchase of a new wig.

Still, Helfer didn't have to scald her scalp any longer.