Most of us watch The Crown to get an inside look into the fabulous, dramatic and insanely indulgent lives of the Royal Family. But, there’s another reason the latest season of Netflix’s mega-hit has left viewers googling frantically (besides the usual historical reasons). The hair.
Watch The Crown trailer below:
From Queen Elizabeth to Princess Anne, The Crown season three has amped up its historical accuracy – right down to the characters and their hair choices, each having hidden meanings in the way they are portrayed. Cate Hall, the show’s hair and makeup designer, shared with Glamour what went into the incredible hairstyles we see on screen.
While the show’s writers and costume designers deep dive into the Royals with a fine-tooth comb, so did Hall. The incredible amount of research and meticulous detail that went into recreating some of the most famous people in the world is truly awe-inspiring.
RELATED: A New Podcast Series Has Arrived For ‘The Crown’ Devotees
Below, a breakdown of what Hall said about each character.
Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman)
Feeling the pressure from the success of the first two seasons, Hall and her hair and makeup team choose to focus on the real Queen Elizabeth at this point in her life, instead of referencing back to Claire Foy’s younger version. Halls told Glamour, “From a narrative perspective, our story reflects a more mature and settled queen so we had some creative license there. What felt more important in terms of evolution was how the queen’s hairstyle changed throughout the series.”
Colman wears a wig while filming, which was designed and created by hair and makeup artist Sue David. David took inspiration from the classic Italian roller look which was popular during the early 1960s. Season three begins in 1964 and Colman’s wig features longer flicks with feathered ends, but as the show moves into the 70s, her hair becomes more solid and voluminous to show the change in style over time. Additionally, David and Hall worked to add grey hairs into the wig to show how the queen was ageing. To create this look, the hair and makeup team set the wig on rollers and then “bake” them before styling it into shape. In total, Colman wore six different wigs which were frequently adjusted and restyled to keep up with the series’ timeline.
Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter)
The show emphasises the tension between Margaret and Elizabeth as the two sisters adopt their respective roles within the royal family. Margaret’s freedom (and sometimes recklessness) is shown through her clothes and hair. Unlike the queen’s character, Princess Margaret found ways to rebel against royal tradition. “We used various techniques to create as wide a variety of styles as possible throughout the series to reflect the Princess’s flexibility and expressive character,” says Hall.
The hair and makeup team actually met with Princess Margaret’s, who are in their late 70s now and still work out of a hair salon in London.
Bonham Carter’s hair and makeup artist Sarah Nuth applied lots of height and volume to create Margaret’s signature shape. The third season reveals many emotionally intense moments in Margaret’s life, which are reflected in her hair styling. To create a messier appearance, Hall’s team used a texturising spray to “help create the soft and flyaway texture in the sections of hair pulled away and gently back-combed around her hairline and nape.”
Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell)
Season three introduces us to the woman who would later become Prince Charles’ second wife. During this period, Camilla is entangled in relationships with both Charles and Andrew Parker-Bowles, who is the man she would marry before divorcing in 1995. Like the queen, Camilla’s hairstyle remains the same throughout her adulthood.
“There aren’t that many pictures available of Camilla in the 1970s, but the ones we have show she clearly had a variation of the page-boy haircut, which was so popular at the time, where all the hair is dressed forward from the crown and layered down to behind the ear,” says Hall.
Actress Emerald Fennell also wore a wig throughout filming because Camilla’s haircut was so specific to the 70s and the hair and makeup team didn’t want to ask Fennell to keep it in that style throughout the two years of shooting.
Princess Anne (Erin Doherty)
The queen’s only daughter Anne is a teenager during the third season of The Crown and made purposeful decisions were made when it came to depicting her hair. These two iconic styles are the go-to for Princess Anne’s hair throughout the season and reflect a style she still wears today.
Erin Doherty’s hair was already the ideal colour and length to play Princess Anne, but Hall’s team needed to bring in more volume and texture. To complete the look, they used a variety of hairpieces to thicken Doherty’s hair, followed by a blow-dry and mousse treatment. The hairstylists then set her hair with hot rollers and backcombed her roots to add another layer of volume.
Prince Phillip (Tobias Menzies)
Hall says Prince Philip was the to style throughout the season. “Poor Tobias tolerated hair and makeup torture, because in order to really pull off the color transformation, his hair and makeup artist Cat Johnstone bleached his eyebrows for 45 minutes every three days,” she says.
Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor)
While Menzies was the hardest to style, O’Connor was comparably the easiest. O’Connor’s hair and makeup artists would use a tape measure to ensure his parting was precisely the perfect length. They created this look by using a surf spray and diffusing O’Connor’s hair to make sure his parting remained in place throughout filming.
Most of us watch The Crown to get an inside look into the fabulous, dramatic and insanely indulgent lives of the Royal Family. But, there’s another reason the latest season of Netflix’s mega-hit has left viewers googling frantically (besides the usual historical reasons). The hair.
Watch The Crown trailer below:
Most of us watch The Crown to get an inside look into the fabulous, dramatic and insanely indulgent lives of the Royal Family. But, there’s another reason the latest season of Netflix’s mega-hit has left viewers googling frantically (besides the usual historical reasons). The hair.
Watch The Crown trailer below:
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
