Did Lyle Menendez really wear a wig? The truth behind Monsters’ toupee

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story delves further into the brothers’ relationship, playing into a heart-wrenching scene in which Kitty Menendez rips his son Lyle’s wig off to expose his bald head. 

It’s shown as one of many ways the parents bully Lyle and Erik, and a moment that pushes the brothers closer together. In Episode 3 of the Netflix series, the Menendez brothers are sent to jail, where Lyle has a hard time maintaining his toupee. 

By the time of their second trial, he gets a telling off from their defense attorneys for ordering a $2,500 wig, despite their dwindling funds, And earlier on in Monster Season 2, we learn why Lyle had a wig in the first place – it was at the behest of his father, Jose. 

But, given co-creator Ryan Murphy has been slammed by true crime fans – and even the Menendez family – for “inaccuracies” in the show, this detail has raised the question of whether or not it’s the truth. 

Did Lyle wear a wig?

Lyle Menendez did wear a wig, having started experiencing hair loss as a teenager. As he revealed during his testimony, five days before he and Erik shot Kitty and Jose in 1989, he and his mother got into an argument over his hairpiece.

“She was completely out of control, flailing her arms and screaming at me about how I was going to be the cause of her father’s death,” he said. At one moment, Lyle said she lunged at him and he covered his face. “She reached and she grabbed my hairpiece and she just ripped it off,” he said.

When asked how the toupee was attached – another detail that’s depicted in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story – Lyle replied, “It’s attached by a solvent glue.” He described it as ‘painful’, as you’re “supposed to use this blue chemical to detach it.”

Elsewhere in his testimony, Lyle opened up about how he started to notice losing his hair from the age of around 14. 

Lyle also described how it was, in fact, Jose Menendez who urged him to get a toupee at around age 19, as he thought it would be a “good idea” for his appearance at Princeton. 

Where the situation appears to differ from the Netflix show, however, is the severity of the hair loss. In Monster Season 2, Lyle is shown to be completely bald by this age.

Netflix

However, in his testimony, he revealed that it “wasn’t very noticeable,” but that they had to “shave” the entire area where the hairpiece would sit. 

Following the argument, Lyle stated that the situation brought him and Erik closer together. While putting the hairpiece back on, Erik allegedly opened up to Lyle about how their father was still sexually abusing him. 

“Clearly he was coming to me, wanted me to do something about it, and it was true because my dad never denied it when I talked to him about it,” he said. 

Theory suggests Lyle lost hair due to stress

While genetics play a significant role in hair loss, a leading theory as to why Lyle started losing hair at such a young age is due to the stress of the alleged abuse at home.

As stated by one Redditor, “Lyle Menendez was losing his hair BECAUSE of the abuse. That’s a huge distinction the boys overlooked… It wasn’t just that his hairline was receding – it was falling out in clumps due to stress.”

Highlighting the dozens of witnesses who testified for the defense, another said, “There were many behaviors witnessed by teachers, coaches, friends, and family members which were consistent with sexually abused children.”

The list includes losing hair at 14, as well as “extreme dissociating; bedwetting as a teenager; hypersexualized behavior at a young age; playing with stuffed animals up until the age of 17; extremely high anxiety; sensitivity to touch; and frequent night terrors and nightmares.”

It’s important to note that none of this has been proven and is just speculation, but it adds to the belief of many within the true crime community that Lyle and Erik were victims of abuse. 

Lyle could only wear the hairpiece for trials

Although Lyle wasn’t allowed to wear a wig in prison, he was permitted to do so for the trials. To this day, hairpieces aren’t allowed in prison. 

Now, Lyle has embraced his bald look, with recent photos – including the profile picture on the Facebook account run by family members – showing him without the toupee. 

Both Erik and Lyle Menendez are serving life sentences at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California. They are currently aged 53 and 56, respectively. 

As is depicted in Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, they were separated after being found guilty of first-degree murder. They weren’t reunited until 2018, when their request to be together was granted. 

They are both now fighting to have the first-degree murder charge re-assessed, with the aim of obtaining manslaughter. If you want to learn more, find out what a series of legal experts said about the appeal. You can also take a look at what happens at the end of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.