Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is currently streaming on Netflix, and one of many uncomfortable scenes shows the eldest brother having his wig violently torn off his bald head by his abusive mother.

While the nine-part series is both violent, and agonisingly raw in parts, this scene in episode 1 leaves a particularly bitter taste.

What mother would ever do that to her son? So was Lyle Menendez bald, and why did he wear a wig? Here's what we know.

Why did Lyle Menendez wear a wig?

After months of hype, Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story has finally landed on Netflix - and it's as compelling as the first in the anthology series.

While Jeremy Dahmer's crimes were the focus of series one, the second run centres on the crimes of the Menendez brothers. They killed their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989.

While the Monsters in the title may well refer to the brothers, it could also refer to their parents.

While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed - and remain adamant to this day - that their actions came after years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse...

In one particularly disturbing scene in episode one, we see Kitty (played by Chloë Sevigny) tear off Lyle's wig to prove a point in an argument. The shame he feels is palpable.

Was Lyle Menendez bald?

In the scene, a dramatisation of true events, Lyle is revealed to be bald at the age of 20. Something his brother did not know until his mum so cruelly exposed his secret.

Lyle later tells his brother that he started losing his hair around four years before - at the age of 16.

In real life, Lyle wore a toupée, also called a hairpiece or wig, from a teenager.

According to the book The Menendez Murders by Robert Rand, which inspired the show, Lyle Menendez shaved the crown of his head in order to wear a hairpiece, which was attached with high-strength glue. Tearing off the toupée would have caused Lyle "immense pain".

According to Vanity Fair, Lyle ordered a human hair wig from the Hair Replacement Center in Los Angeles in 1988, and many toupées in the years afterwards.

How did Lyle lose his hair?

After suffering from thinning hair on top, Lyle Menendez got the toupée when he was around 16 after his father told him he'd "need a thick head of hair" to become successful.

According to the same book, Kitty exposing Lyle's secret wig prompted a heart-to-heart between siblings Lyle and Erik - and ultimately led to the plot to kill their parents.

At the time, Erik reportedly confessed to his brother that his father was sexually molesting him. Five nights after the toupée incident, the brothers killed their parents.

In court, they both claimed their father had sexually abused them.

Many have speculated that Lyle lost his hair as a result of the stress caused by his alleged abuse. However, it has never been confirmed.

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."

Does Lyle still wear a toupée or wig?

Lyle is not allowed to wear a wig in prison. However, he did wear toupées during all of his trials.

Subsequent mugshots of him in jail show him with no hair.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is currently streaming on Netflix.