Crowning Glory
Early…………… it was curly.
Throughout his school years, photos show Michael with short, slicked back hair.
In college there was to be a change though. Michael had already started wearing his hair a little longer than was the fashion. After watching the movie “Samson and Delilah” in which Samson had great strength because of his long hair, Michael came to believe that his strength (for throwing the javelin) came from his hair. In college he grew it even longer. One day after practice, some of Michael’s athletics team mates held him down and shaved his hair off. The following day at practice, Michael damaged his arm trying to throw his usual distance, he believed the loss of his hair caused him to lose his strength.
During the run of Bonanza there was a return of the curls. Throughout those years it went from short and slicked back on the sides to slightly longer and then grey and shaggy. (There was even a sideburn thing going on). Michael went grey in his twenties and as a joke his wife Lynn gave him hair colour as a present.
Lynn Landon, talking about Michael: “With fans he has to keep his temper. Occasionally some of them will be very rude. He has a full head of wavy hair and some women will yank at his hair and ask, ‘Is that really yours?’ Most men would really blow up. Mike just says, ‘Please don’t.’ 1966.
To see the long and short of the Bonanza years, click on the link above.
Little House On The
Prairie saw a return to dark hair, Michael wanted Charles to be a young looking
father.
From an article in 1988. Michael Landon takes a break from editing NBC’s ‘Highway To Heaven’ scripts to slap a sheet of white paper against his forehead. “This is what my hair would look like without dye,” he says. “The whole middle would be white like a skunk.” When ‘Grapevine’ suggests it might be God’s way of sending him a message, he unleashes his trademark loony cackle. “All the time I did Little House, I dyed it myself. I used that medium ash brown Clairol, but out in the sun on location in Simi, it would turn a bit lavender after three days, so they were always whispering, ‘Try to get that back light off the top of his head.’ I got tired of that crap, and now a gal comes over and does it with all the tin foil bags. It scares the hell out of the kids, but they love it.”
According to an article piece, one day, during filming of “Highway To Heaven.” Michael ran from his dressing room to handle an emergency on the set - without first taking out the sponge curlers he was wearing.
In an interview after she joined, “As The World Turns” Jennifer Landon talked about her father, she said when he was having treatment for cancer he was worried about losing his hair, but he didn’t. Jennifer said, “I think he had his roots done right to the very end. Hair was his thing. He believed that it gave him strength when he was young. So he had to the very end, tin foils on the hair.
