Cher wore a towering do to present her son, Chaz Bono, with a GLAAD award. From Phil Spector to Barbra Streisand to Richard Simmons, celebrities with really big tops.
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“I’m here because Chaz has the most courage of almost anyone I know,” Cher said this weekend after making a surprise appearance at the GLAAD Awards, where her son, Chaz Bono, won two awards. But those who saw the music diva onstage know it took quite a bit of bravado to turn back time and wear the supersize wig that Cher walked out in. And apparently all that hair went to Chaz’s head—and affected his memory. “So much fun at Glaad awards! I really surprised Chaz!” Cher tweeted on Sunday. “HE was adorable,Said wow mom i was so surprised i forgot what i was going 2say! FRO”
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As a music producer, Phil Spector was famous for his Wall of Sound. As a defendant on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2005, he became legendary for his tower of hair. In 2009 Spector was convicted of killing Clarkson, but over the years a jury could have also found him guilty of committing crimes against human vanity.
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When you call yourself Carrot Top professionally, people are naturally going to pay attention to your Titian tresses. But throughout his prop-comedy career, the man born Scott Thompson has distracted audiences from what’s on top by not only having plastic surgery, but also from developing a Hulklike physique—causing many to wonder if Carrot is juicing. He also knows how to pump up his orange Afro.
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Even Art Garfunkel’s high notes on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” couldn’t reach the top of his Afro back in the early ‘70s. A mushroom cloud of hair, it nearly obscured the fact that Garfunkel was going bald even as a young man. And while Garfunkel’s impressive coiff is gone now, he did manage to pass on the signature look to his son James.
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Say what you will about Richard Simmons, but the man is committed to his look. Since the 1970s, the exercise guru rarely appears in public without his tight tank top, tiny shorts, and giant Afro. No doubt he could lose a few extra pounds if he trimmed that back.
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With his matching bushy black hair and mustache, former Today show critic Gene Shalit looked so much like a Muppet—and frequently interviewed them—that when Henson productions made The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1974, they actually created a character for him. And when he retired from the Today show in 2010, after nearly 40 years on morning television, the 84-year-old Shalit still had his black cotton ball of hair.
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Though he co-created South Park, Matt Stone used to have a ’fro worthy of a The Simpsons’ Sideshow Bob. Stone has pruned his wild hair considerably since the days of BASEketball—especially since he’s now added a Tony Award to his trophy case for The Book of Mormon.
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As Barbra Streisand famously sang in The Way Were Were, “What’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget.” Unfortunately for Streisand, there are photographs to remind us. And since the late 1970s, her Afro will always bring back memories to the corners of our mind.
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The longtime host of PBS’s The Joy of Painting, Bob Ross taught America how easy it is to use an easel. And whether he was providing a step-by-step guide to creating mountains, trees, or waterfalls, Ross always had the presence of mind to keep his giant ’fro from blocking the frame.
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In the 1970s and ’80s, Rollen Stewart was a seemingly ubiquitous figure at sporting events—every time you watched a game, there he was holding up his “John 3:16” sign. The cameras could hardly miss Stewart, who became known as “Rainbow Man” for the Technicolor Afro wig he always wore. But the Rainbow Man story turned dark in 1992, when Rollen kidnapped a maid in a hotel room and held her hostage after he believed the rapture was days away. Stewart is now serving three life sentences for his crimes, and while the rainbow ’fro may be behind bars, many believe his message of prayer lives on in Tim Tebow. He has some big hair to fill.
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