The bald truth: A&E;’s ‘Uncut’ is a hairy two-hour washout

The average adult loses about 150 hairs a day, and if you watch tonight’s A&E; documentary, “Uncut: The True Story of Hair” (9-11 p.m.), you also will lose 120 minutes.

This over-styled production tries hard to be perky but, like Jackie Kennedy’s bouffant, there’s nothing of substance to hold it together.

Far from a definitive history, the show tells us virtually nothing new or interesting about hair care or hairstyles, opting instead for a lot of footage from vintage commercials and commentary from the likes of Vanna White and Rick James. About as riveting as an hour spent under the dryer at the hairdresser’s. Or, in this case, two hours.

Using “Uncut” as a guide, one would think that there were no hairstyles before 1950, when, in fact, some of the most fascinating hairy tales predate the TV ads the filmmakers mined for material. Such as the blond-obsessed ancient Romans’ practice of kidnapping German women to make wigs from their pale tresses or the outrageous, towering hairstyles of the 18th century lady, which might include an entire fruit basket or a square-rigged galleon.

Of course, including such material would have required combing through history books instead of just chatting with Joan Jett (who says of “rock ‘n’ roll hair”: “You know it when you see it”).

The show trots out such dull topics as big hair of the ‘80s, mullets, afros, Farrah’s wings. Not even the revolutionary bob gets a mention. The only interesting tidbit was that some of Andy Warhol’s wigs were made from hair from a yak’s butt. But that choice item did not make up for the other 119 minutes I sat through when I could have been doing something interesting, like washing my hair.

“Uncut” deserves a brushoff.