Special to STARTREK.COM by Deborah Fisher

Chief Star Trek hair designer Josee Normand is as much responsible for the Star Trek look as any of the production personnel that daily swarm the set. She has shaved Patrick Stewart's head, trimmed Jonathan Frakes' beard, slicked back hairdos for Nana Visitor and Rene Auberjenois, sharpened Robert Duncan McNeill's Starfleet sideburns, airbrushed Ethan Phillips' wig, and transformed Jeri Ryan into a torch singer. Working closely with Makeup Director Michael Westmore and Costume Designer Robert Blackman, Normand has created hundreds of human and alien hairstyles that transport us in another time and place. How does she do it? With stuff like pea pods and shark fins and Q-tips and a fabulous crew and alot of enthusiasm -- the latter very necessary since she reports to work everyday at 4 a.m.

"I get to do many things on this show you don't get to do on others," says Normand. "I go from the futuristic to the past, always working with new guests, creating new looks for every show. It's very demanding and very rewarding."

The path to Normand's career started with a 15-year old girl growing up in Montreal who decided to defy her mother. "My mother was a French dressmaker," recalls Normand. "We didn't have enough money to send me to college, but my mother at least wanted me to have a trade. My grandfather had been a hairstylist in Paris with his own shop. At 15 you never want to do what your parents do so I decided to become a hairstylist. I became in love with the art of hairstyling and to this day, I still love it."

Normand entered the Hollywood trade the old-fashioned way. She was 22-year old stylist when she moved to Tinseltown and answered an ad she saw in the Hollywood Reporter for apprenticeships at the Universal studios. Out of 500 applicants, she was one of five chosen. Coincidentally, as Normand carried on her family tradition of hairstyling, she met another young apprentice carrying on his family's tradition in makeup -- Michael Westmore.

"I had learned the basic structure of cutting hair and I was a very good color technician," says Normand of her early training as a commercial stylist, "but I only knew the hairdos of the time. At Universal I learned hairstyles from the beginning. I also learned how to make wigs which is a very important part of this business."

Normand demonstrated her talents early and often in her career, eventually winning an Emmy for her work on Moonlighting. She actually had a very early brush with Star Trek, too, working on "The Cage" for Gene Roddenberry. "I had just started in the business and I worked on both Susan Oliver (Vina) and Jeffrey Hunter (Christopher Pike). That was about it."

Until 26 years later. Chief hair designer Joyce Zapata was working on Star Trek: The Next Generation and invited Normand to come and join the crew starting in the show's sixth season. Since then, Normand has risen through the ranks to become the chief designer and along the way, won Emmys for her work on ST: TNG's "Time's Arrow" and Voyager's "Fair Trade." Earlier this year, Normand and her crew -- including Charlotte Parker, Gloria Montemeyor and Vivienne Normand -- won Best Character Hair Styling and Best Innovative Hairstyling awards for Voyager's "Bride of Chaotica!" The latter awards were the first ever presented under the aegis of the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards.

But what is Star Trek hair? "Somewhat exotic but also natural," says Normand. "Sometimes it depends on the alien of the day. That's what's great. We go from the 40s to futuristic. You can do a person that's dying or burned up. You do people who work in a ditch, but then you do exotic aliens from other planets. To define Star Trek hair in one word would be difficult."

As well as hairstyling all aliens and guests, Normand is responsible for designing and maintaining the look of all Star Trek regulars. She and her crew keep all the male stars' haircuts trimmed up, the womens' wigs, falls and extensions ready to go, the alien appliance's -- when coupled with hair -- in good shape. Wigs like those worn by Roxann Dawson's B'Elanna Torres are handmade, one hair at a time. Normand shapes them and the stylists maintain them. And things evolve.

"During the first season of Voyager, Kate's hair (as in Mulgrew) was a dilemma," recalls Normand. "The producer's were trying to find the right hair for her. What's ironic is that they really didn't like the first hairdo I proposed, but now she's wearing something close to that."

Normand has also had a lot of fun with designing aliens, especially the bad guys. One of her personal favorites was the female Cardassian judge in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's second season "Tribunal." "I thought she should have something unique because she was the first." Normand not only consults with her peers on their makeup and costume designs, but she visits the sets to get a feel for the mood. "In 'Tribunal,' the room was very dark. I tried to help create a character that was not just austere, but commanded a lot of presence."

Normand has created Borg and Vorta and Kazon. Of the Kazon, Normand laughs "I certainly got comments on that one! People either hated it or loved it. I wanted something for the Kazon that had not been used before. They were creatures, ferocious. I wanted them to have an organic look and not be so much of this world."

Besides incorporating many historical styles, Normand just seems to find inspiration everywhere. "People say of me that you don't want to leave anything around because Josee will have it in your hair." She has, in fact, used sharkfins bought at the market, feathers, peapods, airbrushing, multiple, multi-colored wigs and hairpieces, as well as other shapes and forms including baldness.

"I go to the stores and look at things. I pick things up and I know, somehow, one day, I'll be able to create something. I also like to just work with hair, too. I like to do a casual daylook, very unpretentious. I like to make a person's hair look like it hasn't gone to the beauty shop. That's also very challenging."

In spite of the long, long hours working on Star Trek, Normand has never lost her enthusiasm for her job. "I have a wonderful team," she says. "We have a lot of fun together and that's so important. Just about everything inspires me. It's in my head and I just let it come out."