Does TOS lit ever offer an in-universe explanation for why Chekov's hair is so long at the beginning of "Catspaw"? Or something along the lines of Kirk telling Chekov to get a haircut?
Chekov's hair
- Thread starter Laura Cynthia Chambers
- Start date
It's a wig. Starship navigation makes you pull your hair out. Just ask Arex and Ilia.
Or how Janeway's long hair suddenly gets short in "Parturition" but is long again the following week. There's also Kes's sudden hair growth in "Before and After," but since she's a member of a species that lives only 9 years, I can buy that her growth rate is accelerated and that her hair got curly as it got longer (as sometimes happens, I guess).
"I don't know how they do things down in the science labs and engineering, Ensign, but here on the bridge we adhere to all of the uniform and grooming standards. Get a haircut."
Or Kyle's majestic TAS mustache
Janeway? That's easy. She bought some of those hair extensions "as seen on TV." 
The explanation for the loss of the long style is in the VOY instalment of "The Captain's Table", the novel "Fire Ship".
No, as I said, I'm talking about the earlier instance in season 2, where her hair was short for exactly one week, in "Parturition," and then miraculously back to its normal length the next week in "Persistence of Vision."
A bit of an aside, but Before and After probably was the best episode to give Kes longer hair, as I assumed they were still in the future even when they were in the present since she still had "future hair." It really threw me for a loop when she still had long hair in the final scene, I was like "so this is permanent now?"
The ironic thing is that, while in Mulgrew's case her hair was actually short and the long hair and bun were a wig, in Jennifer Lien's case, her short blond hair was a wig worn over her natural long, wavy, strawberry-blond locks. Eventually she got sick of the wig and convinced the producers to let her ditch it, IIRC. And I thought it was a great improvement.
Has Riker's Beard ever been explained?
He stopped shaving it off. Does it need more explanation than that?
It was a joke. Does any of these changes in hairstyles or addition/losses of facial hair need an explanation? Not only do we have a thread inquiring about such explanations, some of it already has been explained, like the above mention of Janeway's hair from the Captain's Table.
Chekov's hair seemed messy and unruly, wild, like he'd been stranded on a planet for months and it grew out. Or he didn't use enough mousse/conditioner. Or like one of those crazy characters who chews the scenery.
Only the "Parturition"/"Persistence of Vision" one, where Janeway's hair grew a foot or more in a week. And maybe the change in the color and texture of Kirk's hair over time.
Haha, Klag jokes about it in The Brave and the Bold - The Final Artifact.
"James Kirk's hair had gone darker with age instead of lighter, as had his temperament." (Best Destiny by Diane Carey)
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