Is MacGyver's hair natural, or cut and styled by someone?

Grimey
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by Grimey »

Annelies wrote:would it be bleached?? I dont know if he would do that, could be lots of sunlight to, he sometimes was nicely sunburnt ;)
What a nice thought, Lies!
As a kid, I was always wondering how this ecology-minded hero could like this not-natural procedure and style?
Now I know: Mac just blonded in the sun! :D :D

I like it much more when people style their hair the original way - in many cases it looks best, and you don't need so much care and repair stuff.
By the way: We call this color "Strassenkoeterblond" in German, translated it is "blond like a street tyke". :lol:
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by bftlovesRDA »

KateR wrote:
Anne wrote:Oh yeah it was bleached all right and got more and more light over the years because they (his producers or whatever) did not like his natural brown hair. And I guess he started going gray too later. So they kept making it more and more light. RDA once said he was told he looked like 'Shit on a stick' with his natural hair and so they made him bleach it :p
I don't know that they necessarily "made" him bleach it. A lot of the hair and wardrobe choices came from RDA himself. He did mention the "shit on a stick" comment in an interview once, although I think that may have been more a reference to the generic unstyled cut on a tall skinny guy, not necessarily the color alone. When I was visiting the set, I was talking to the producer's wife, who was also the publicist, and the topic came up of the changes in hair and clothing styles over the seasons. She said they would often make recommendations but that in the end they usually let him make the decisions, (the switch from the brown leather to black leather jackets, for example). Her comment: "What can we do? We like to keep him happy." :)

I mentioned the episode in which his hair changed color right in the middle of the episode. (That's a good trivia question - go back to first season and identify the episode in which he changed color in the middle of shooting and so the scenes flip back and forth from dark brown to lightened highlights in the same episode.) She said that had been right around his birthday, he was starting to show a little gray, and he decided he wanted to try lightening it a little. At the time, the mullet (or "hockey hair" as RDA usually called it) was in fashion, and so from the end of the first season on, his hair became increasingly longer and lighter, often just depending on who the hair stylist was on set. You'll also notice that his eye color lightened toward the end of MacGyver as well.

Despite the fact that many people wore mullets back then, MacGyver sort of became a symbol of the time and the style. I can remember my hairdresser back in the 80s saying that it was very common for kids to come into the salon with a picture of MacGyver and say they wanted their hair cut just like his.

Then when he did Legend, he went back to his original brown color, although he had a bit of help from the bottle to maintain his "natural" brown. (For comparison, Past the Bleachers was shot at about the same time, and his hair was already becoming silver.) He was definitely coloring it brown in the beginning of Stargate, until he just couldn't be bothered anymore, and he let the natural silver come through. I think he'll agree to hair and fashion recommendations for a particular role, but in the end, I suspect those decisions are mostly RDA's own. For better or worse. :lol:

Kate
Thanks, Kate, for that information. I don't know the episode in which his hair color changes in the midst of the episode.....now I'll have to go back and watch Season 1 again to find out. :D :D :D I think it's good to know that RDA made the ultimate decisions regarding his hair just as he did regarding the type of jacket he wore. Glad to know he had the freedom to do that. And, his Stargate hair was sooooo wonderful (just as his MacGyver hair was as well). Loved the eventual silver = salt and pepper look - that he wore in Stargate in the later seasons. He just looked sooooooo good!
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bftlovesRDA
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by bftlovesRDA »

Editing out some THUNK photos that were posted on the wrong thread. Sorry about that. :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops:
Last edited by bftlovesRDA on Sat Feb 13, 2016 10:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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katann69
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by katann69 »

According to RDA ... when the mullet was almost out of style, he didn't want them to shave it, but just cut the sides of his head and let the back grow out so it was long in back and short on the sides.

See the ... The Big Couch on Mix 94.5, with Dean Clairs, Shane McFarlane, and Kymba Cahill video... he tells about his MULLET days and how he had them cut his hair.

Go to 'NOTES from Rick' and hold the 'CTRL' button and hit the letter 'F' and type in PERTH and stroll down to 'The Big Couch' video and watch it. Kay
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Anne
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by Anne »

Ahh, he keeps telling the mullet story this way and that way on conventions, depending on how he remembers it at the time or just to keep ppl entertained. It's just the way I heard it - that they made him bleach it or that they decided he should bleach it. But I guess it doesn't really matter - but I really like the fact that he had so much input on his choice of clothes/hair etc because that makes what we see on screen more 'him'.
nenabunena
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by nenabunena »

katann69 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:11 pm According to RDA ... when the mullet was almost out of style, he didn't want them to shave it, but just cut the sides of his head and let the back grow out so it was long in back and short on the sides.

See the ... The Big Couch on Mix 94.5, with Dean Clairs, Shane McFarlane, and Kymba Cahill video... he tells about his MULLET days and how he had them cut his hair.

Go to 'NOTES from Rick' and hold the 'CTRL' button and hit the letter 'F' and type in PERTH and stroll down to 'The Big Couch' video and watch it. Kay

Hello, I'm new here and rewatching MacGyver again since I saw it as a kid & finding myself reading up on RDA & looking for his other films. I can't seem to find the Mix 94.5 radio show? can someone help direct me to it?
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KateR
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by KateR »

nenabunena wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 2:25 pm Hello, I'm new here and rewatching MacGyver again since I saw it as a kid & finding myself reading up on RDA & looking for his other films. I can't seem to find the Mix 94.5 radio show? can someone help direct me to it?
Hi nenabunena, and welcome to the Forum. :)

I think this may have been one of the interviews that couldn't be downloaded, and so I had used a direct link to the 94.5 radio website. When they removed the video from their site, unfortunately it disappeared. Unless I missed it?

Kate
Rosely Teles
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Re: Is Mac's hair natural or styled and cut by someone??

Post by Rosely Teles »

bftlovesRDA wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2016 4:20 am
KateR wrote:
Anne wrote:Oh yeah it was bleached all right and got more and more light over the years because they (his producers or whatever) did not like his natural brown hair. And I guess he started going gray too later. So they kept making it more and more light. RDA once said he was told he looked like 'Shit on a stick' with his natural hair and so they made him bleach it :p
I don't know that they necessarily "made" him bleach it. A lot of the hair and wardrobe choices came from RDA himself. He did mention the "shit on a stick" comment in an interview once, although I think that may have been more a reference to the generic unstyled cut on a tall skinny guy, not necessarily the color alone. When I was visiting the set, I was talking to the producer's wife, who was also the publicist, and the topic came up of the changes in hair and clothing styles over the seasons. She said they would often make recommendations but that in the end they usually let him make the decisions, (the switch from the brown leather to black leather jackets, for example). Her comment: "What can we do? We like to keep him happy." :)

I mentioned the episode in which his hair changed color right in the middle of the episode. (That's a good trivia question - go back to first season and identify the episode in which he changed color in the middle of shooting and so the scenes flip back and forth from dark brown to lightened highlights in the same episode.) She said that had been right around his birthday, he was starting to show a little gray, and he decided he wanted to try lightening it a little. At the time, the mullet (or "hockey hair" as RDA usually called it) was in fashion, and so from the end of the first season on, his hair became increasingly longer and lighter, often just depending on who the hair stylist was on set. You'll also notice that his eye color lightened toward the end of MacGyver as well.

Despite the fact that many people wore mullets back then, MacGyver sort of became a symbol of the time and the style. I can remember my hairdresser back in the 80s saying that it was very common for kids to come into the salon with a picture of MacGyver and say they wanted their hair cut just like his.

Then when he did Legend, he went back to his original brown color, although he had a bit of help from the bottle to maintain his "natural" brown. (For comparison, Past the Bleachers was shot at about the same time, and his hair was already becoming silver.) He was definitely coloring it brown in the beginning of Stargate, until he just couldn't be bothered anymore, and he let the natural silver come through. I think he'll agree to hair and fashion recommendations for a particular role, but in the end, I suspect those decisions are mostly RDA's own. For better or worse. :lol:

Kate
Thanks, Kate, for that information. I don't know the episode in which his hair color changes in the midst of the episode.....now I'll have to go back and watch Season 1 again to find out. :D :D :D I think it's good to know that RDA made the ultimate decisions regarding his hair just as he did regarding the type of jacket he wore. Glad to know he had the freedom to do that. And, his Stargate hair was sooooo wonderful (just as his MacGyver hair was as well). Loved the eventual silver = salt and pepper look - that he wore in Stargate in the later seasons. He just looked sooooooo good!





Hello.

I hope to be of help on this topic. I believe I discovered it when RDA lightened his hair in the middle of an episode of the first season: Episode 18 of the first season.

Whoever can do it again is really worth it. It wasn't a radical change, but a subtle one, but anyone who follows the details of Rick work will be able to notice it.

Thank you very much for the space. ;)
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LTTPlits
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Re: Is MacGyver's hair natural, or cut and styled by someone?

Post by LTTPlits »

I'm so glad that you revisited this topic, Rosely, and that you quoted Kate's informative post from 2016. It had slipped my notice and I really enjoyed reading it! I confess to being intrigued by the many moods of his hair! ;) :lol: Thanks as well for finding the MacGyver season 1 episode with the mid-episode hair color switch! I will have to check it out. I am more familiar with SG-1 and was interested to see his hair's evolution in the first two seasons. I think he looked best as Jack when he let nature takes it course! :D
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Rosely Teles
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Re: Is MacGyver's hair natural, or cut and styled by someone?

Post by Rosely Teles »

LTTPlits wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:48 am I'm so glad that you revisited this topic, Rosely, and that you quoted Kate's informative post from 2016. It had slipped my notice and I really enjoyed reading it! I confess to being intrigued by the many moods of his hair! ;) :lol: Thanks as well for finding the MacGyver season 1 episode with the mid-episode hair color switch! I will have to check it out. I am more familiar with SG-1 and was interested to see his hair's evolution in the first two seasons. I think he looked best as Jack when he let nature takes it course! :D


Hello.
Thank you very much.

Following Rick's work is not only an admiration but a great learning experience for me....
I'm more familiar with the MacGyver series and the films, but I'm watching the STARGATE SG-1 series, and I'm loving it, not only the ease Rick professionalism, but the entire cast, direction and production...it's incredible!!!
And I agree with you, in STARGATE the naturalness of Rick's hair is striking, and naturalness is always beautiful... but I confess that I'm still impressed by his dark hair in the first season of MacGyver, even in the first episode I saw, episode 16 I was a child... and its essence remains the same with any hair.
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