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 first 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 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 her dress, 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.

Message

 * "Giving others advice is easy; taking it yourself is difficult."

Highlights

 * Ginger and Mary Ann fainting
 * Balding references
 * Ginger loses her dress

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

 * For this episode, the Castaways' Pedal-Powered Washing Machine is located under a lean-to near the lagoon; it's usually placed in the hut area.
 * At night, the exterior of the Season Two Boy's Hut with exterior lights on bamboo posts is used, but during the day, the exterior lights are missing. Maybe the Professor goes through in the morning removing them?
 * Coincidentally, long after he left Gilligan's Island, Bob Denver's dark hair actually did turn white, although it was dyed back for the movies.
 * In his will, Gilligan leaves the Skipper the laundry business and one unclaimed sock, the Howells his stack of comic books, Ginger and Mary Ann his jewelry and the Professor his body.
 * It's unrevealed as to where Gilligan suddenly got the rocking chair and old man glasses.
 * Mary Ann lets her hair down to try flirting with Gilligan.
 * Ginger reveals she has a sister she has never mentioned before.
 * When Ginger and Mary Ann fail to make Gilligan feel younger, the Skipper alludes to Eva and Zsa Zsa Gabor when he says "The Gabor sisters struck out."
 * Gilligan and the Skipper don't just lose their hair; it vanishes completely or else it would have just fallen out in their hammocks.
 * 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, particularly on the Skipper where it wrinkles at the back base of his head.
 * Ginger's "only dress" (as according to the Radio Announcer in Two on a Raft) gets destroyed by Gilligan's strong bleach in this episode, but he must have only burned through the seams for Mary Ann to restore it because it returns whole in later episodes.
 * In most episodes, the communal table is before the Howell's Hut or the Supply Hut, but in this one, it appears before the Girl's Hut, possibly so Gilligan has access to a blanket for Ginger.

Quotes

 * Skipper - "You've got to get some sleep!" (Gilligan dozes off.) "But not when I'm talking."


 * Gilligan - (old man voice) "Don't know what the world's coming to... Young un's got no respect for old folks..."

Mary Ann - "Your Manny Moose watch!" Gilligan - "His antlers tell the time." Ginger - "Your high school graduation ring? From Girls' High?" Gilligan - "Some mothers keep their boys in curls a long time."
 * Gilligan - "To Ginger and Mary Ann, I leave my jewelry."

Gilligan - "Yeah, it bounced off my head and blinded you."
 * Mrs. Howell - "Oh, the sun must have been in my eyes!"

Professor - "I think he means palmetto."
 * Skipper - (reading Gilligan's letter) "Dear Skipper, I'm going away so nobody has to look at me. I am funny-looking even to me, but I don't laugh because to me it's not funny. Don't bother looking for me because I'm in the one secret spot no one will think of looking... in the secret cave near the two palm trees and pimento bush." (Pauses) "Pimento bush?"

Skipper - "Well, if there is, it won't work on Gilligan."
 * Professor - "To get him out of the cave, there must be a reasonable, logical, sensible way of getting him out of there."