Does McGee wear a toupee?

Last updated on: April 19, 2024

It’s no secret that NCIS fans have been wondering about McGee’s hair since the show began. Fans have speculated that McGee wears a toupee, but there’s no clear answer, at least not yet. 

This article contains evidence from past episodes and interviews with cast members to determine if this is true. Here’s what we found out.

Fans curiosity

Fans have been wondering if McGee wears a toupee since the show began. In Season 1 Episode 2, “The Crank That Came to Court,” as Grissom interrogates McGee and Palmer, Grissom asks them if they have a toupee.

They deny it but later ask each other if they have one and laugh together. This is not the only time fans have been aware of this question. 

There was also an episode where a suspect sent an email to someone else saying that he knew about his secret because his friend saw him without his hat in public.

As McGee has worn a bald cap in the past, there is no reason to think he wears a toupee. It was for a joke, and he did it for Gibbs, who had run out of his hairpiece material. 

The show has made fun of the question before, but it’s never been answered definitively. McGee Wigglebottom even comments on this when he first meets McGee: “Good Lord! A hairpiece!”

It’s something that fans have been asking about for years, and since the show has never addressed the issue, we’re left to wonder whether or not McGee wears a toupee.

Though it’s unlikely McGee wears a toupee, he has worn a bald cap in the past. The show had made fun of this question and even addressed it once with a joke in which he says that he does wear one, but only because his head is so tiny.

Likely, McGee doesn’t wear a wig; however, he has worn a bald cap for some jokes in the past.

McGee seems to be somewhat sensitive about his hair.

Since the show’s inception, McGee’s hair has been a topic of conversation amongst NCIS fans. It could be because he is one of the few characters who doesn’t wear a hat or his hair in a ponytail. 

His hairstyle is also very different from other agents depicted as balding such as Gibbs and Ducky. McGee seems somewhat sensitive about his hair, especially when it comes to women commenting on it or wanting to touch it.

Weatherly question to McGee

Weatherly has been asked the question many times, but he’s never given a definitive answer. “The thing I like about it is that people are interested,” he told Yahoo! News. 

“And it’s not just [people] looking at me and going, ‘I wonder if this guy wears a toupee?’ It’s an interesting story to tell.”

It’s also not uncommon for actors to get confused with their characters in real life—perhaps people think Weatherly looks more like his character than other actors do theirs. “It happens all the time,” he said.

You may have seen a picture of him and thought he was wearing a toupee, but he doesn’t. He has concise hair that looks different depending on how it is styled and what lighting effects are used on the set.

The answer to this question is no, McGee does not wear a toupee. It’s implied that he shaved his head to please his girlfriend, Delilah. In one episode of NCIS, we see Tony DiNozzo teasing him about being bald.

McGee has been a topic of conversation amongst fans of NCIS for reasons other than the state of his hairline. It seems as though many fans are interested in what kind of relationship he has with Ziva David.

McGee’s hair has been a topic of conversation amongst NCIS fans ever since Sean Murray first started playing the character on the CBS drama. 

The question has been asked by fans for years and featured in many articles about the show, but it’s never been answered definitively. McGee has worn a bald cap in the past, as seen in this clip from NCIS Season 6 Episode 1.

The topic of McGee’s hair was even brought up in an episode of NCIS.

The topic of McGee’s hair has been discussed in several episodes of NCIS over the years. In season 2, episode 4, it was brought up again when Abby asked him if he ever considered getting a “hair transplant,” 

He replied that he would instead not put something foreign into his body. Another episode from season 5 included a scene where the characters discussed McGee’s hair. 

Abby mentioned that she had seen him without his toupee and told him that she didn’t care whether he wore one or not—she just wanted what made him happy.

McGee is far from the only person who wears a wig for various reasons; many people wear wigs because they have suffered significant hair loss due to chemotherapy treatment or other medical conditions like alopecia areata.

“Toupee or not toupee? That is the question,” says Gibbs

In one episode of NCIS, Gibbs and McGee are driving to a crime scene when the former begins questioning whether or not he wears a toupee. I mean, who wouldn’t? McGee tries to play it off, but you can tell he’s embarrassed.

It’s not just his coworkers who bring up this topic either—fans are always asking about it. You’d think by now they would know that McGee doesn’t wear one.

“Not a toupee. It’s all mine,” says McGee,

The answer to this question is complicated and has been debated since the beginning. It seems obvious at first: McGee is bald, so he wears a toupee. But there are several reasons why we can’t be too sure about that theory. 

First off, in an interview with CNN in 2013, Mark Harmon himself said that his character doesn’t wear one—and then revealed something even more surprising: “Not a toupee,” he says when asked if he ever had one. 

“It’s all mine.” This claim was backed up by international news outlets at the time and even made its way into an episode of NCIS that same year—in which Gibbs asks McGee if he wears a wig because “you know I’m going to find out eventually.” 

The writers have also made fun of this question, saying things like “the answer has never been answered definitively” or “we just don’t know.” So does McGee have hair? See for yourself below.

Still, the question remains: is all this just an elaborate coverup for a hair loss situation? Does McGee secretly wear a toupee?

If you’ve watched any NCIS episodes, you may have noticed that McGee has a bald cap. At times, he seems to have his hair parted and styled so that it looks like he has more than what’s on top of his head. 

He might even wear different hairstyles depending on his setting—for example, during an episode where he was being held at gunpoint by terrorists who wanted him to reveal sensitive information about the FBI.

Conclusion

The evidence suggests that he does not wear a toupee. It seems unlikely that McGee wears a toupee, but he has worn a bald cap for some jokes. McGee seems to be somewhat sensitive about his hair. 

Gibbs has gone as far as to don a wig himself. Weatherly gets asked if McGee wears a toupee reasonably often; in real life, the characters aren’t always distinguished from their actors. 

He doesn’t, though his hair may look different depending on how it is styled and the lighting effects used on the set.