Oftentimes female TV performers would wear wigs to keep from having to take time to restyle their actual hair -especially on shows performed before live audiences when they wanted the laughter to be as spontaneous and genuine-sounding as possible.

I know the first season Miss Rae wore a rather obvious gigantic red wig that (but for the color) would have worked as something Marie Antoinette wore to a ball and was at least a full head taller than her actual noggin but I think there may have been some episodes in which the hair actually may have been her own (albeit colored) since it looked closer to what a 50-something woman might have grown. Of course, I can't recall a single time when she wore her hair complete down even when Mrs. G. was supposed to have just bathed/gotten ready for bed.



Does anyone know?

Was it really a wig in season 1?

She had her hair down in "The Facts of Life Goes to Paris" tv movie and on several episodes of season 7

Yeah, we've never heard of her wearing a wig, but there's been discussion here before on both sides. But I don't want it to ever have been a wig. I don't want my Mrs. Garrett illusion shattered. :lol:

Yeah, we've never heard of her wearing a wig, but there's been discussion here before on both sides. But I don't want it to ever have been a wig. I don't want my Mrs. Garrett illusion shattered. :lol:

If it makes you feel any better, every single follicle of Mrs. G's coiffures had grown out of Mrs. G's own noggin (no matter how big,tall or lengthy they appeared), the same way Lucy Carmichael's dyed red hair was ALSO grown from Lucy's scalp. However, one can't realistically claim that re the late Miss Rae or Miss Ball.

I suspect in DS and FOL S1 she wore a wig. I do believe the later seasons were her natural hair: it's darker, visibly smaller, and seems natural, with occasional loose stray hairs.

And in the Paris TV movie, she has long, beautiful curls that seem very natural.

However, only her hairdresser knows for sure! :lol:

I suspect in DS and FOL S1 she wore a wig. I do believe the later seasons were her natural hair: it's darker, visibly smaller, and seems natural, with occasional loose stray hairs.

And in the Paris TV movie, she has long, beautiful curls that seem very natural.

However, only her hairdresser knows for sure! :lol:

On DS Season 2/TFOL Season 1 maybe she wore a blonde wig but on DS Season 1 I believe she had her natural hair, on the movie "Hair" she had red hair.

Too many hair :lol::lol:

Oftentimes female TV performers would wear wigs to keep from having to take time to restyle their actual hair -especially on shows performed before live audiences when they wanted the laughter to be as spontaneous and genuine-sounding as possible.

I know the first season Miss Rae wore a rather obvious gigantic red wig that (but for the color) would have worked as something Marie Antoinette wore to a ball and was at least a full head taller than her actual noggin but I think there may have been some episodes in which the hair actually may have been her own (albeit colored) since it looked closer to what a 50-something woman might have grown. Of course, I can't recall a single time when she wore her hair complete down even when Mrs. G. was supposed to have just bathed/gotten ready for bed.



Does anyone know?

That was Charlotte's real hair. Would Charlotte wear a wig to look like Mrs. Garrett for a local interview in Wisconsin?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZkMG3jv18

That was Charlotte's real hair. Would Charlotte wear a wig to look like Mrs. Garrett for a local interview in Wisconsin?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZkMG3jv18

Sorry, but that coiffure is still WAY too thick and perfect to have been realistic or believable for a 50-something year old woman to have entirely grown from her own noggin so I think it's more likely than not another wig that Miss Rae wore. Perhaps she wore wigs on camera and in public appearances so she could go about and do her business in public with few if anyone recognizing her.

That was Charlotte's real hair. Would Charlotte wear a wig to look like Mrs. Garrett for a local interview in Wisconsin?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZkMG3jv18

Great point! lol It could just be a lot of coiffing and hairspray (after all, it was the late '70s, lol). I think I'll ask one of her girls to see if they know for sure.

Actresses more often than not have extensions.

Actresses more often than not have extensions.

Did extensions exist in 1980 and if so, were they widely used?

We also saw Charlotte Rae let her hair down in the "Paris" movie and that definitely looks like her hair.

Did extensions exist in 1980 and if so, were they widely used?


Wigs and extentions have been around since at least the Ancient Egyptians and they often were used especially on stage, TV and movies!

I just found this photo on Google. I don't know the exact year but it must have been taken during the mid 80s, maybe during FOL's seasons 4-5, without a doubt after the weight loss in season 2. I could be wrong but it looks like her normal hairstyle

I wouldn't think extensions were used much on TV in the '80s. Certainly not on FOL or Mr. Belvedere or Cheers or Alf or Who's the Boss, etc.

I find it fascinating that the ONE TIME* they let Mrs. Garrett's hair down, it's not on an episode of FOL, but a TV movie! lol

*(though in season 1's "Dieting" they formed some of her hair into that dated odd ponytail variant for some reason)

I wouldn't think extensions were used much on TV in the '80s. Certainly not on FOL or Mr. Belvedere or Cheers or Alf or Who's the Boss, etc.

Wigs were used extensively throughout the decades of TV, including the 1980s: the curls Nellie Oleson sported on Little House on the Prairie were a wig (https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/little-house-prairie-wigs.html/), the hair Flo sported on Alice and Flo was a wig (https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0391072/trivia), Peg Bundy on Married with Children wore a wig, Ted Danson wore a toupee on Cheers (https://www.distractify.com/p/is-ted-danson-bald), Chuck Norris (https://www.therichest.com/the-biggest/15-of-the-most-obvious-celebrity-toupees/) wore and wears a "toup", Dolly Parton, Cher, Elvira, and many other 1980s stars who appeared on TV. Everything in Hollywood is fake.

Wigs were used extensively throughout the decades of TV, including the 1980s: the curls Nellie Oleson sported on Little House on the Prairie were a wig (https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/little-house-prairie-wigs.html/), the hair Flo sported on Alice and Flo was a wig (https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0391072/trivia), Peg Bundy on Married with Children wore a wig, Ted Danson wore a toupee on Cheers (https://www.distractify.com/p/is-ted-danson-bald), Chuck Norris (https://www.therichest.com/the-biggest/15-of-the-most-obvious-celebrity-toupees/) wore and wears a "toup", Dolly Parton, Cher, Elvira, and many other 1980s stars who appeared on TV. Everything in Hollywood is fake.

Well, not everything (that was Julie Anne's real mouth, and Julie's real eyes, and Molly's real nose [taking this literally, haha :lol:). And I was thinking of her specific use of the word "extensions" as how I think of "extensions" differing from "wigs." Sure there are lots of wigs on TV, but lots you can tell it's their real hair as well. :cheers: Ones like Flo, Mama, and Iola (of course, lol) were definitely obvious wigs. I don't think anyone has to be told Flo was "wigged," lol. It's extremely exaggerated, but it fits her character so well! :clap:

Now, Marla Gibbs was nearly one of the best "foolers" of all time. You'd never know all of her 227 hairstyles were wigs had she not donned so many! lol

And when I said "Cheers" I wasn't even thinking of men. :lol: