Does Data need to cut his hair?

Question

There have been various questions about the android Data, how human-like he really is in his needs and behaviour, but none of them address something I started wondering as soon as I first saw him.

Look at that sleek, well-groomed hairstyle. As far as I've watched in TNG (which admittedly isn't very far at this point), I've never seen him with a single hair out of place. Is it just fixed-form bioplast sheeting in a different shape from his skin, or does it grow and need to be cut regularly and combed each day like human hair?

The same question could apply to his fingernails and so on, of course, so my general question is:

does Data's body change over time and require regular care, or not?

Answer 1

Data did grow a beard at one point (TNG: "The Schizoid Man") so I guess he needs to cut his hair.

Alternatively, he can chose when to grow the hair or the beard.

After some search I found that in episode "Birthright, Part I" (at 11:05), he says he can control the rate of his hair growth. So judging from that information, it probably means he may need to cut it if he goes a little wild in his decision to grow it.

Answer 2

This question was directly addressed in the episode Birthright, Part 1:

                BASHIR
        Data... may I ask you a personal
        question?

                DATA
        Certainly.

                BASHIR
        Does your hair grow?

Data thinks a moment, taken aback by the question.

                DATA
        I can control the rate of my
        follicle replenishment. However,
        I have not yet had a reason to
        modify the length of my hair.

"Birthright" script (txt file)

Answer 3

Data's hair definitely does not require trimming.

In the episode "Data's Day", Data visits the barber shop while Geordi is getting his own cut. He tries out the following joke with Geordi:

My hair does not require trimming you lunkhead!

Even though Data is not the best at jokes, this definitely implies that Data does not need the services of the ship barber.

Answer 4

No, Data was asked this by a child in Star Trek:Insurrection. See the quote below for more details. He more or less states that things about him don't change like they will for the child over time.

Although he doesn't come out and actually say it, he implies that he doesn't need the same 'maintenance' as a person would.

UPDATE: Below is the conversation about this between Data and Artim in Star Trek:Insurrection:

DATA: My legs are exactly eighty-seven point two centimetres in length. They were eighty-seven point two centimetres the day I was created. They will be eighty-seven point two centimetres the day I go off line. My operation depends on specifications that do not change. I will never know the experience of ...growing up or ...tripping over my own feet.

ARTIM: But you've never had adults telling you what to do all the time, ...or bedtimes, ...or having to eat food you don't like.

DATA: I would gladly accept the requirement of a bedtime in exchange for knowing what it is like to be a child.

Answer 5

I'm only going to address your general question, as I think the hair aspect has been thoroughly covered.

Regarding the general question, I see two sub-questions:

1) Does Data's Body change over time?

The answers already provided are all wonderful, but there is one other point I'd like to make. Observe Data's appearance in Season 1:

and now in Star Trek Nemesis:

Between 2364 and 2379 (15 years), we can see signs that Data has aged. This is more of a visual confirmation of @Jack B Nimble's answer where Geordi briefly mentions that Data does have an ageing subroutine.

So, the answer is YES

2) Does Data need regular care or not?

This is actually addressed in my answer here. To summarise it:

• Data has a bio-mechanical maintenance programme that is 'self-sufficient'
• He is capable of running self-diagnostics

So, he doesn't need regular care - he can perform his own self-maintenance if required; only when something goes seriously wrong does he need to seek help from others.

So, the answer is YES, but only by himself. He doesn't need regular care from other people.

Answer 6

In Star Trek: First Contact you can see Data's hair has become loose on his altered side.

Geordi says that Data ages.

Just in case you missed it:

LAFORGE: It's part of her aging programme. Not only does she age in appearance like Data, her vital signs change too.

Although I don't know if this means that his hair grows or not.

There is also the time Data says he occasionally ingests "semi-organic nutrient suspension in a silicon-based liquid medium" to lubricate his bio-functions. Which suggests that his body requires some regular care.

Answer 7

In "Measure of a Man," Data says, "My condition does not change with the passage of time, Commander." Since this is responding to small talk asking how he is, he might mean his emotional condition or lack thereof. But he is typically quite literal. He also does not appear to have aged twenty-five years into the alternative future timeline of "All Good Things," and once got sent back five hundred years into the past, and had his head rediscovered and reattached in the future, with no lasting effects.

There is, as other answers have mentioned, evidence from other episodes that he does age.