Hank's Bad Hair Day

Hank's Bad Hair Day
Air date	April 9, 2000
Written by	Jon Vitti
Directed by	Gary McCarver
Episode guide
Previous	"Won't You Pimai Neighbor?"
Next	"Meet the Propaniacs"

"Hank's Bad Hair Day" is the seventy-ninth episode of King of the Hill. It was first aired on April 9, 2000. The episode was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Gary McCarver.

Summary

When Hank's regular barber starts losing his stability, Hank turns to Bill for a haircut but is billed nine hundred dollars by the U.S. Army.

Plot

Peggy is cutting Bobby's hair when Hank suggests he is now old enough to visit a proper barber and offers to take him when he goes. Hank's barber, Jack, has been suffering from unusual behavior, and he gives Hank an unsatisfactory haircut. Bobby declines to have his hair cut, noticing the erratic behavior. After suffering some ridicule, Hank returns to request a free touch-up. Jack accidentally or maliciously uses peroxide on Hank's head, giving Hank an embarrassing bright blonde spiky appearance. After being sent home from work, he cannot find an opening at any barber shops, but he refuses to let Peggy cut his hair. With some reticence, he allows Bill to cut his hair on the base. Bill does a good job and so, although he is not set up to accept payment, Hank insists on paying him, so Bill says that he will arrange it. Hank then receives a bill for $900.00 from the United States Army for the tonsorial procedure. The general explains the bill is accurate, saying that the barber's chair alone costs tens of thousands of dollars, but that purchasing it gets them a discount on bombers and the like.

After protesting this, Hank allows his hair to get long and unkempt in the meantime, but he is banned from the Strickland Christmas card shoot (taking place in the middle of the year for scheduling reasons). Hank's protesting of the haircut bill exposes fraud, waste and fiduciary abuse on base. Bill loses his job due to the abolition of the army barber service. Hank receives a $3,900 check from the savings to thank him for exposing the fraud. Bill is reduced to working in recruitment, which he hates.

The lack of a barber's service on the base becomes a problem, as the soldiers are not satisfied with their privately obtained haircuts. Hank uses his remaining $3,000 (after paying of his $900 haircut bill) to buy the barber's chair at auction and donates it to the base, where they set up an illicit barber place hidden in a game room. Bill quickly fixes Hank's hair and he arrives just in time to be included in the Christmas card photo with Buck Strickland, Enrique, Joe Jack, Melinda, Donna, and the Arlen Midget.

Characters

• Hank Hill
• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill
• Dale Gribble
• Jeff Boomhauer
• Bill Dauterive
• Cotton Hill
• Jack (barber)
• Barber shop customer 1 (Marcie's husband)
• Barber shop customer 2 (non-speaking)
• Cyclist
• Enrique
• Joe Jack
• Melinda Grab
• Buck Strickland
• U.S. Army Quartermaster
• U.S. Army service member
• U.S. Congressman Representative Jim Powell (mentioned)
• Ernst (mentioned)
• U.S. Army Lieutenant (non-speaking)
• U.S. Army Captain
• Arlen High School job fair student
• Cole Kitten
• Auctioneer
• Lady Bird
• Donna (debut, cameo, non-speaking)
• Arlen Midget (debut, non-speaking)
• Hector (mentioned)

Stinger Quote

• Hank: "Oh, God, I need a hairnet!"

Trivia

• Jack is shown losing his skills as a barber in this episode as he ages. However in the Season 8 episode "My Hair Lady", Jack seems to have regained his skills and still has Hank as a customer.
• When Jack blow-dries the foam off his head, it strikes the window to the tune of "Shave and a Haircut".
• Bill is allowed to covertly retain his barber role under the disguise of a pinball repairman in the arcade room, however in later episodes he is openly working as a barber at the base barbershop alongside other Army barbers.
• When Bill is concerned that someone will see him working as a barber, his Army Captain mentions "don't ask, don't tell," which was a former U.S. military policy which allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation.
• After Hank's hair is set straight up in spikes and bleached, he bears a non-accidental resemblance to another Fox TV animation icon, Bart Simpson.

Gallery