Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow is the 76th episode of Gilligan's Island and the eighth episode of the third season. It aired October 31, 1966.

Synopsis
Gilligan has been doing the laundry for everyone on the island, but one morning he wakes up with white hair. The Skipper takes him to see the Professor to find out why, but he has no idea himself. He just tells Gilligan to go on as if it's nothing, but the sight of it causes Mary Ann and Ginger to faint into his arms. Suspecting the Professor might have an idea, the Skipper returns to the Professor for answers, but he just responds that Gilligan has follicular albinism, which is nothing but a fancy way of saying Gilligan has white hair. As Gilligan wanders by, he overhears the Professor tell the Skipper that there is a very rare chance that he has deteriorated into a very old man. Overhearing that, Gilligan takes the suggestion to the extreme, sitting around the Boy's Hut in glasses with a shawl over his shoulders while talking like an old man. Everyone humors him along until he leaves his possessions to them in his will, including his body to the Professor. Mary Ann tries vamping Gilligan to make him feel young, but she fails to snap him from his delusion. Mrs. Howell soon suggests fixing the problem by dyeing Gilligan's hair brown in secret, but the following morning, Gilligan wakes up to discover his hair has fallen out, leaving him bald. Ginger and Mary Ann faint again at the sight of him, and the Professor worries that his handmade dye is what caused his hair his baldness. The awkwardness soon forces Gilligan to leave camp to live alone from everyone, even as Ginger and Mary Ann try remedying the situation with amateur wigs. That night, as the Skipper worries, he realizes he has lost his hair too. He moves in with Gilligan in the cave, but the Professor shows up with two professional costume wings that the Howells wore as George and Martha Washington before the shipwreck. With nothing more to lose, Gilligan and the Skipper return to camp for dinner, but the wigs prove to be an unavoidable distraction. When the Professor discovers a large hole burned into Mr. Howell's trousers, he determines the problems are caused by the crude bleach that Gilligan and the Skipper have been using while washing the castaways clothing. Upon hearing that, Gilligan rushes to get a blanket to cover Ginger, confessing he used a lot of bleach on it, just before it falls to her feet under the blanket. A few weeks later, both Gilligan and the Skipper have their hair back, as well as long beards and whiskers due to the bleach over-stimulating their scalp follicles.

Credits
Main Cast
 * Bob Denver as Gilligan
 * Alan Hale Jr. as The Skipper
 * Jim Backus as Mr. Howell
 * Natalie Schafer as Mrs. Howell
 * Tina Louise as Ginger
 * Dawn Wells as Mary Ann
 * Russell Johnson as The Professor

Guest Cast
 * None

Trivia

 * Ironically, long after he left "Gilligan's Island," Bob Denver's dark hair actually did turn white, although it was dyed back for the movies.
 * It's unrevealed as to why the Skipper and Gilligan don't just reuse the wigs from Don't Bug the Mosquitoes. They also had plenty of wigs in Castaways Pictures Presents and for Ginger in The Second Ginger Grant.
 * If one looks closely, the seams of the skull caps worn by Gilligan and the Skipper can be seen.