Is Bald Beautiful?
Posted by John Campeaon 22. 05. 2008in Features
As I was scanning around all the news this morning, I came across a story about a new Cameron Diaz movie where she plays a mother who shaves her head in support of her daughter who is being treated for cancer. In the story there is a picture of Diaz who is apparently bald (she copped out and wore a bald cap instead of being committed to the role and shaving her head… but I’ll get to that in a minute). Personally… I think Diaz looks HORRIBLE bald… I mean… REALLY bad.
But then again, I generally don’t even like short hair on woman (with a few exceptions obviously), let alone bald. But seeing that picture, it got me thinking about other women how have shaved the old noggin for a role and they looked pretty hot still.
Ok, so first up is the aforementioned Cameron Diaz. Let me rant for a second… call me crazy, but if you’re playing the role of a woman who shaves her own head in a sign of support for your daughter who is battling cancer, and other actresses have committed themselves to their roles where their baldness was much less a key point to the story by shaving their heads… I’m a little bit let down that Diaz would just cop out and put on a skin cap to make it LOOK as if she was bald. Anyway, enough of that.
I used to think Cameron Diaz was the hottest mortal on the planet way back in the “The Mask” days when she first got started. But holy crap I think she just looks hideous bald. Seriously… it makes her face look like she’s a school bully giggling after taking some kids lunch money. I’m going to have bad dreams over this.
Now on the totally opposite end of the spectrum, let’s take a look at Natalie Portman (looking at Natalie Portman is always a good thing to do. It makes the world a better place). When we all heard she was taking the female lead in “V For Vendetta” we were all a bit shocked and didn’t like the idea of her shaving her gorgeous head.
But holy freaking hell… when the first couple of picture of her sans hair started to appear most of our jaws dropped. She looked so HOT. It’s like the absence of her hair made you appreciate just how beautiful of a woman Queen Amidala really is. She could have copped out too and just worn a skull cap… but no no no.. she shaved that puppy and dove into that role for the movie and it paid off in spades! To this day she probably remains as the hottest bald actress I’ve ever seen in a movie and made V for Vendetta all that more enjoyable to watch.
When talking about actresses who went ahead to shave their heads for a role, the very first one that I can remember jumping out at me was when Sigourney Weaver accepted taking the clipper to the head for her role in the Aliens sequel it felt like I was looking at two suns in the sky… it just didn’t feel right at all. But after I got past my shock, I realized how hot AND STRONG Weaver looked in the role with the hair gone.
Back on the whole “committed to the role” thing, I remember once hearing Weaver talking about why she shaved her head for the movie. She first mentioned the money she was being paid… and then she talked about how a true actress goes through a transformation for her character that goes beyond makeup or wigs. Her commitment to the character really showed in all those films (even the ones that weren’t all that great). Weaver is such a beautiful women, and for some reason, in that role, the shaved head thing just accentuated that fact even more.
Anyway, there are other actresses out there who did the whole shaved head thing… some worked (Demi Moore in GI Jane) and some didn’t. So I’ve got these questions for you guys:
1) What other actresses do you remember going bald for a role? Did it work? Not work?
2) Do you remember any actresses that you think actually looked BETTER bald?
Demi Moore looked pretty hot bald for G.I. Jane. I didn’t think she looked better though.
Cameron looks fine bald – I don’t see the ugliness.
Oh, Robin Tunney looked okay bald but she looked much better with hair.
I think a woman has to have a really beautiful face to pull off the bald-look.
Cameron doesn’t really wear it that well. Sigourney on the other hand, she has a very refined look and the lack of hair underlines her distinguished features. Nathalie Portman of course could carry a bucket of dog-shit on her head and still be stunning.
But the most beautiful bald girl is and always will be Sinead O’Connor (not an actress though).
Oh…and an honorable mention goes to Persis Kambahta from STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE.
I think Alyssa Milano can pull off being bald.
Man… keep that bully away from me… ha ha ha
Cameron looks Awful!!!!!!!!! I do agree… there was
a time (the Mask) she looked Gorgeous…hands down!!!
But now… bald or not… uhhhh… Age not really going so
well for her these last few years I’ve seen her on screen… :(
I’ve always thought she had a duck face…:( With the picture
of her bald, kind of looks like a psycho duck… ha ha ha
Oh well…
Also… Persis Khambatta was freakin HOT Bald… :)
~B
I love my women bald and … oh, you mean their head? Nevermind.
um John??
when in the history of mankind did Sigourney Weaver ever look good?
and cameron diaz looks like a female version of mr clean XD
She looks odd because the bald cap makes her head bigger. IMO
a bald/buzzed girl can always look hot. lori petty in tank girl wasn’t that bad.
in the fifth element there’s a girl with a shaved head and tat on her scalp. she was gorgeous.
i think it’s the bald cap that makes diaz’s skull disproportionately larger therefore throwing off the symmetry of her usual loveliness.
John, you are half right about Alien 3. Weaver shaver her head during the original filming but insisted on a clause in her contract saying if there was any re-shoots, she was to be paid something like $35,000 extra.
Production did everything they could to film enough so this wasn’t a problem, but it happened anyway.
Instead of paying up such a large sum, they concluded it would be cheaper to just make her a hand made ‘Weaver Wig’ which she wore during re-shoots.
So, half of what you see (probably more) in Alien 3 is real, the other half not.
I am not trying to be anal, mind you, just a fun fact I got from watching the Alien 3 bonus features.
Oh God I’m lonely…
one word: conehead (is that one word or two?)
Same question: women with armpit hair, or not? Honestly, it’s all cultural in the end. Can you survive without gasoline? Well, you will when you have to.
And no, I don’t really care for armpit hair. But I have gasoline.
Yeah how is Demi not the first picture? Dropped the ball on this one.
lol. that mellon head is lame.
is it a sci-fi channel movie?
Weaver kicked ass as a bald character in that film…and yes it suited the transformation in all films EXCEPT Alien: Ressurection. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can save that film. Thats why I won’t even buy the so-called Quadrilogy…because of that dirty rank piece of shit.
Sorry…I really hate that film.
Alien3: One of the most underrated movies of all time. I’d love a review of the assembly ut John.
Please?
Assembly Cut, ahhh blast you wireless keyboard!@#
Samantha Morton looked way better when she was bald in Minority Report.
I agree with Mozzerino though that Sinead O’ Connor is still the hottest bald actress. What?? She “acted” in her music videos.
Remember that Cameron has all her Hair under that Bald Cap. So maybe, just maybe she wouldn’t look terrible if she shaved her head.
As for other woman going bald. I knew everyone would say Demi & possibly Robin
but did anyone see Cate Blanchett in the film Heaven? (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246677/) she looked OK bald.
Samantha Morton – Minority Report ‘Nuff Said.
Well, Cate Blanchett wasn’t bald per se. It was more like a crew cut.
Samantha Morton though – Total Skinhead
I was watching American Idol last night and I saw a movie trailer that I thought was produced by Ford, did anyone see that trailer? Do you know the movie website?
Tall chicks can’t rock bald heads. Portman not only has a pretty face, but she’s tiny, so she doesn’t look like a freaky dude-chick like some other folks. It also depends upon head shape. Again, Portman lucked out and had a nice head. Others, not so much.
Man, everyone pretty much covered it. So… I have to be stuck with…oh lordy lordy lordy what am I stuck with?
*Maggie McOmie from George Lucas’ THX 1138;
*Bai Ling in Anna and The King;
*Toni Collette in 8 1/2 Women
and
*Embeth Davidtz in Schildler’s List
Follow up: Wasn’t Halle Berry supposed to lop off locks for ‘Nappy’?
Ellen Page shaved her head in Mouth to Mouth…No bald Cap
In Hard Candy you can just see it growing back
Is it just me or does she look way way younger than she really is…
In hard candy she really looked 13 or 14 but was 19 or something. Maybe it is just me
For a moment I thought Cameron Diaz was filming a remake of Alien Nation.
Bald can be sexy, but never bald caps.
Porn actress Belladonna looks beautiful with her shaved head.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Weaver cut her hair because of a hair lice issue?? I’m going to scour the net to find that out, but I swear I remember that being a reason…odd!
Oh, thats in the movie! Hahaha, ewps :)
The only three cranium shaved sweetie pie bitches that I liked were:
1. Sigourney Weaver
2. Demi Moore
3. Natalie Portman
Everyone else just looked plain awful.
bald or not “the Mask” was the only movie in which Cameron looked smoking hot after that her looks really took a dive. I liked the film something about mary but that’s because it was funny and sure as heck not because of Cameron’s looks. She didn’t look bad but she was nowhere near as hot as she was in the Mask.
Sigourney Weaver is a surprisingly attractive women, I say this because I was only familar with her Aliens’ roles but then I saw her in Galaxy Quest (funny movie) and she looked really good in a night gown.
Natalie Portman…all has been said about her. A classic beauty in the style of Audrey Hepburn.
I think it’s a great look personally, I actually have a bit of a fetish for it (I think it started with Persis Kambahta), I think any chick with a really good face and a well shaped head can pull it off. I know thats odd to most people. But I never understood the big difference between women doing it and men doing it, it’s acceptable when men do it, I know hair has always been a beauty trademark for women, I actually admire women who just break the rules. Women tend to have better shaped heads than men anway so I actually think they can pull it off better, it’s an obscure look but it’s certainly not ugly IMO, it’s just hair, what use does hair have? Theres more cons to long hair than pros really, and taking care of it is a pain in the ass, and for what? For something that serves no real function other than to look good? C’mon. You’re never curious to know what a girls head is atually shaped like?
And the reason Cameron looks bad is because it’s such a ridiculously fake bald cap. And what a cop out too, any real actress would be committed to such a role.