When Fives had his inhibitor chip removed, he appeared bald afterward. Yet, after the Bad Batch had their chips removed, their hair was still intact. What explains this difference? The circumstances of their surgeries help provide some answers.
How Fives and the Bad Batch Got Their Chip Out of Their Heads
With Fives’ mission to Ringo Vinda, the inhibitor chip conspiracy was launched. After Tup killed Jedi Tiplar and was taken to Kamino for evaluation, Fives quickly suspected the Kaminoans were behind something. After he was on the run, Fives had the medical droid AZI-3 remove his chip from his brain.
The scene cuts away from the actual operation, but we see the end result with Fives’s head shaved and a large bandage on the side. As a fan indicates here, this surgery was performed “under a time crunch” and so AZI-3 had to work quickly. Hence, he shaved Fives’s head to make quick work of the procedure.
In contrast, as the above discussion board suggests, the Bad Batch had more time and medical care, so they may not have needed to shave their heads. Or, they did have them shaved, but then their hair grew back. Which answer is correct?
The Bad Batch episode “Battle Scars” from Season 1 addresses this topic. With Wrecker having headaches, Rex forced the issue of removing their inhibitor chips. He does not think that the Batch’s “deviant nature” will continue to prevent the chips from corrupting them. The group traveled to the planet Bracca to make use of a medical facility on a crashed Venator-class Star Destroyer.
Watching Wrecker’s chip get removed, we remember that he is already bald, so in his case, there was no need to shave his head beforehand. The other three Bad Batch members then proceeded to have their chips removed. That’s where the mystery originates.
We know that Tech appeared with a bandaged head and we can assume he had his hair shaved off. But maybe not. They were using a surgical pod, which is “controlled by consoles” at the end of it. So, this technology may not have needed a full shave to complete the surgery, just from the area where the chip was located.
Hunter may have had a partial shave, and then the spot grew back. As the member with the most hair, Hunter would have looked conspicuously different with a bald head. Perhaps he didn’t even have his chip removed.
As for Crosshair, in Episode 15 of Season 1, he claimed he had his chip removed “a long time ago.” When exactly is a matter of some dispute, as reflected in this article. Yet, Crosshair had the look of someone who had their head shaved with some hair growth coming back. Like Fives, he could have had a full removal.
The circumstances of their chip removals then provide some basis for concluding that full-head shaves were not always in order.
Fives and the Bad Batch
Because of the rushed circumstances of Fives’ surgery, he had his head shaved when his inhibitor chip was removed. The Bad Batch members most likely had a partial shave of their heads to allow better access for removing their chips. As with many Star Wars topics, though, some mystery remains.