The Bald Women of Sci-Fi

In the upcoming "V for Vendetta", actress Natalie Portman loses her locks during an on-screen head shaving. At the Berlin Film Festival, she told reporters she was even looking forward to the transformation:
"I was really excited to get to shave my head -- it's something I'd wanted to do for a while and now I had a good excuse, it was nice to shed that level of vanity for a girl."
Portman isn't the first actress to play a bald Sci-Fi heroine, it seems future has yet to solve the riddle of female hair-loss.

In the Lucas Film "THX 1138", Maggie McOmie plays LUH 3417. Her character is a faceless cog in an uncaring social machine. When she stops taking the Government issued medication, she begins to notice romantic feelings for her roommate, Robert Duvall's character THX 1138. After the films release, McOmie decided not to pursue a career in film.

The late Indian Actress Persis Khambatta played the bald Lt. Ilia in "Star Trek The Motion Picture". Her character, a navigator aboard the Enterprise, was killed and replaced by an android double. Khambatta began her career as a model and was crowned Miss India in 1965. Through out her life she starred in numerous Hindi and Hollywood films including Nighthawks with Sylvestor Stallone.

Feminist icon Lt. Ellen Ripley crash lands in the much-maligned "Alien 3". Set in the future on a prison colony called Fury 161; all residents are required to shave their body hair due to a persistent problem with lice. Begining with the original 1979 "Alien", Signourney Weavers portrayal of the headstrong Ripley paved the way for other actresses to play strong female leads.

In "Minority Report", Samantha Morton plays a psychic named Agatha whose visions of the future allow police to stop crimes before they happen. As a "pre-cog" Agatha doesn't get out much, her life is spent floating in a special pool while technicians monitor her brain. The British born actress then went on to star, still close cropped, in the Sci-Fi Romance "Code 46".