All eyes were on the Menendez brothers’ trial in the 90s, and Monster: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story relives the grueling days of their parents murder and the extravagant months of spending that followed. One particular fact about the convicted siblings that shocked the courtroom was Lyle’s state of the art hair.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were arrested after murdering their parents José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez in 1989. The trial began on July 20, 1993 and became a national sensation when it was televised on Court TV. Though they were trialed simultaneously, they received different juries who could not reach a consensus if they were going to be charged on manslaughter charges instead of murder charges. By 1996, were both convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and they were sentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
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Lyle’s hair was a considerable factor as to a motive in the case— with many people in the courtroom marveling over it’s style…but the real question is: was it real?
Did Lyle Menendez wear a wig in real life?
Yes, Lyle Menendez’s hair was a marvel for anyone who walked into the courtroom. Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunn recounted Lyle’s use of expensive realistic wigs to hide the fact that he was balding. “First-time visitors to the courtroom would invariably ask, ‘Which one is the one with the wig?’” the reporter wrote.
Kitty accidentally removed Lyle’s toupee and it caused a lot of embarrassment. But it also caused Erik to become vulnerable and confess that his father was sexually abusing him. Lyle was losing hair from an early age and kept it a secret from his brother. Sources close with the brother told Dominick that Lyle was “consumed with his hair,” and that “he seemed to worry more about his toupee than about the outcome of the trial, and that he was deeply upset when he was informed that it was off center one day in the courtroom.”
However Jamie Pisarcik, Lyle’s ex-girlfriend told the jury that his brother knew about the toupee all along. “He was kind of joking because he was amazed that Lyle all this time had the hairpiece,” she said. “He was amazed because Lyle’s hair always looked so perfect.”
He ordered his first wig from the Hair Replacement Center on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1988. He ordered a replacement wig after he wasn’t satisfied with his first due to shedding. The newer model he had cost $1,450 ($3,854 today). Sources who sold the wigs to him told Dominick that he insisted on using 100 percent human hair and had a total of three wigs. One with a permanent wave and another with sun streaking and higlights. When he complained about hot hot a nd perspiry it was, he told the employee, “I have an image to keep up. My father told me I had an image.”
Today, wigs aren’t allowed in prison and Lyle sports a bald look in his current mugshots. Lyle was eventually moved from Mule Creek State Prison to the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in California, which is where both brothers are now.
