9 TV stars who wear wigs

1. Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"

Remember Margulies in her curly-haired days as nurse Carol Hathaway on “ER”?

Those of us who still do were surprised to see her hair so straight when she debuted as circumspect attorney Alicia Florrick on “The Good Wife.” Not only did Margulies decide to play Alicia as someone who keeps her own counsel, she also decided to wear a wig. 

2. Sherri Shepherd, "The View"

Shepherd does not keep it a secret that she wears a wig on the morning chat show. She’s so proud that she has designed a line of wigs. You, too, can look just like her. Shepherd recently created a high fashion wig collection, “Luxhair Now by Sherri Shepherd™” which consists of 12 wigs in various lengths, from short pixies to long and luscious waves, and come in 18 colors.

3. Ashley Benson, "Pretty Little Liars"

The actress started out as a blonde on the ABC Family mean girls drama. But then she decided to go brunette, so in the most recent episodes, which aired this summer, she had to wear a blonde wig. “Pretty Little Liars” will be back with a Halloween special—and Benson will still have that wig on.

4. Gretchen Mol, "Boardwalk Empire"

For her role as a Gillian Darmody in the 1920s Prohibition drama, Mol wears a wig. There’s nothing wrong with her own hair. It’s just easier for some actors to get the right styling for the character.

5. Tom Mison, "Sleepy Hollow"

Sometimes when an actor gets a job, things happen really fast. The producers cast you and then you have to start work three days later. When British actor Tom Mison got the role of Ichabod Crane on Fox’s new hit drama “Sleepy Hollow,” everything was right — except his hair. Mison’s hair was too short for a character who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. So they slapped a wig on him and sent him out on the set. Says Mison, “A week after I put myself on tape in London I had a screen test. Three weeks later I was in Charlotte [North Carolina] filming the pilot…I used to have long hair and I looked ridiculous. This wig is much better than my real hair.”

6. Wendy Williams, "The Wendy Williams Show"

Like Sherri Shepherd, the sassy talk show host has her own line of wigs, in 40 styles. “I started wearing wigs about 15 years ago,” Williams told The Huffington Post. “I have one for the gym, one for around the pool.” She said she wears her natural hair at home.

7. Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"

As anyone who has seen Smith in “The Exotic Marigold Hotel” knows, she has short hair. Her grand upsweep on “Downton Abbey” is a wig. It was customary for women of the time to have acres of hair and Smith’s is in keeping with the aristocratic station of the Dowager Countess of Grantham.

8. Emilia Clarke, "Game of Thrones"

With her mane of blonde curls, Emilia Clarke cuts such a striking figure as Daenerys on “Game of Thrones.” When she starred on Broadway in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” she had her natural dark hair and looked like a different person.

9. Megan Boone, "The Blacklist"

For her role as FBI agent Elizabeth Keen on the NBC drama “The Blacklist,” which premieres Monday at 10 p.m., Boone, who has a chic short haircut, wears a chin-length wig that makes her seem much more businesslike and ready to work with a team of hard-bitten FBI guys.