updated: 22/11/2007
Featuring actresses who have played characters suffering hairloss through chemotherapy, alopecia and other illnesses.
In this section there is a mixture of the appearance of hairloss being achieved through makeup and bald-caps (eg Susan Sarandon in Ice Bound) and through actresses actually having had their heads shaved for the role (eg Martha Plimpton in Silence Like Glass and Marie Zielcke in Der Schrei Des Schmetterlings).
It’s not that unusual for an actress to appear bald with a bald-cap but a surprising number of actresses have undergone a transformation that goes beyond makeup and had their heads shaved bald to portray a hairless character. This is a transformation into character that goes beyond makeup. It may take four hours to have prosthetics applied; the makeup may be uncomfortable; the only food over a fifteen-hour day may come through a straw; an actress may not even be able to go to the toilet without help while wearing hand or body prosthetics – but, and it is a great big but, at the end of the day the makeup comes off!.