#33. Dorothy Hamill

The Ultimate 50

33. Dorothy Hamill

2006 Update

Just in time for the "Torino" Winter Olympics and her new Fox TV series, Hamill did an interview for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider in late January. She showed a short, tight sidepart with rather lengthy bangs. Here they look long enough to touch her eyelashes. Could they possibly be too long?

The reality series Skating with Celebrities is allowing Hair Fans the opportunity to see for themselves. This vid-cap from the opening show shows bangs in choppy slicked-down strips -- one of them long enough to come well down the bridge of Hamill's nose.

Week two of the show found no trimming -- and the bangs hanging even lower. The tips here look long enough to hit her right eye!

And this vid-cap leads us to reach to a conclusion we never thought we'd make -- Hamill's Super-Hair has fallen to defeat, after 30 years of excellence. The culprit was not a wicked winter wind, or a Hair Fan bent on a historic conquest. Hamill's own styling defeated itself, which to us is a sad shame.

We bid farewell to Hamill with an Entertainment Tonight vid-cap of how we want to forever remember her, and we suspect the same is true of many Hair Fans. This is a 1983 picture of perfection in short hair - in the lines, the cut and the face. Hamill's wedge remains one of our most popular searches. In her prime, her short style was absolutely undefeatable -- and we believe it would be a match for the most long-lasting celebrity styles today.

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2004 Update

The newest Hamill photo we could find (without an annoying online subscription to the Los Angeles Times) is from a 2003 event at The Academy of Achievement. It appears she actually adapted a sidepart, and it's as precise as always. While it's still on the tight side, as opposed to full-bodied hair, you wonder what a breeze aimed at her right ear might do.

The Academy's web site has a six-page interview with Hamill about her skating success -- yet believe it or not, you won't find the word "hair" in it anywhere. It's a great source, however, for historical photos of Hamill's styles through the years, along with a streaming video clip. As of this writing, Hamill is preparing for a "Champions on Ice" tour in several North American cities, so you can see her still-undefeated style in action.

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2002 Update

At first glance, the Hamill hair might not look much different now compared with years gone by. But we're disappointed to report her style is a lot flatter these days. It may stick to the head better, but the bounce that was intrinsic to the wedge's success has disappeared. That change, especially as it's appeared in TV commercials for Vioxx, cost her a Top Ten ranking in 2001.

Hamill now has her own web site, where you can read how the wedge developed in her own words. But the photos there don't really show her hair that well. The best gallery we've found is at the Sportsgirls site, for good looks at the wedge old and new.

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