Hannah’s Finale Bowl Cut, Shoshanna’s Crazy Braids, and More Girls Hair Highlights
Photo: Courtesy of HBO
Ornate hairdos played a major role in the second season of Girls. Between Shoshanna’s elaborate pigtails, Jessa’s crimped bun, Marnie’s beachy waves, and Hannah’s messy everything, the characters’ hair often told their stories just as much as their lines. “I like being able to make characters look as bad as they feel,” says Sherry Heart, the show’s hair department head, over the phone last week. “There are always hairs out of place. I’ve worked on shows where everything has to be perfect no matter what, and it’s just not as interesting.”
Heart works with Lena Dunham (Hannah Horvath) and Jemima Kirke (Jessa Johansson), while her colleague Vanessa Sims creates looks for Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna Shapiro) and Allison Williams (Marnie Michaels). The Cut talked to both of them about season two’s biggest hair moments, which culminated with Hannah’s desperate hair-chopping scene in last night’s season finale. “She really falls down the rabbit hole,” says Heart of Hannah’s Britney Spears moment, which required several different wigs for shooting. “It’s so ugly. It really is just a terrible haircut on her. But it really shows you the depth to which she’s sinking.”
Did Hannah’s haircut scene have anything to do with Dunham’s sudden pixie crop last September? “Lena cut it a little while after, actually,” said Heart. “I think she really wanted to go through the change herself. And after filming that scene, she made the mental transition to having short hair.” Lena’s currently growing it out for season three, which begins shooting in a few weeks. In the meantime, Heart and Sims take a look back at the season’s best, worst, and most notable hairdos; journey with us through the slideshow.
Shoshanna's hair doughnut, episode three "I wanted to put a flower in her hair, but that seemed like too much, so I turned it into a side-br...
Shoshanna's hair doughnut, episode three "I wanted to put a flower in her hair, but that seemed like too much, so I turned it into a side-braid and wrapped it up. We often do that with Z’s hair — instead of using an accessory, I just make her hair into an elaborate shape." -Vanessa Sims
Shoshanna's breakup hair, episode nine "This is probably the only time this season when Shoshanna's hair is almost completely down. We wante...
Shoshanna's breakup hair, episode nine "This is probably the only time this season when Shoshanna's hair is almost completely down. We wanted her to look a little more mature, but still nod to Shoshanna's girliness with those pieces twisted up. She's moving into a different genre of fashion, coming out of the braids and the Urban Outfitters; we're transitioning into her season three look in this scene." -Vanessa Sims
Jessa's country braid, episode seven "It was a really hot day, and we had to get the hair out of her face. I did another rollercoaster braid...
Jessa's country braid, episode seven "It was a really hot day, and we had to get the hair out of her face. I did another rollercoaster braid, and I loved the headband effect it had. It also seemed like something her character would have thrown together in the morning." -Sherry Heart
Jessa's meet-the-parents crimp, episode four "It was written into the script that she’d have elaborate hair, and I had a crimper, and I look...
Jessa's meet-the-parents crimp, episode four "It was written into the script that she’d have elaborate hair, and I had a crimper, and I looked at it one day and said, 'You know what? I’ve got to do that to Jemima’s hair. She’s going to love that.' She has such amazing hair — it’s so long and beautiful and lush, and you can just do anything with it. Jemima has a whole closetful of chopsticks, and they're something her character would've picked up on her travels, so they've become Jessa's signature hair ornament." -Sherry Heart
Jessa's stoop sale braid, episode three "You actually can’t see the full braid in the episode, but from behind it was a half French braid, w...
Jessa's stoop sale braid, episode three "You actually can’t see the full braid in the episode, but from behind it was a half French braid, which I like to call a rollercoaster braid because sticks off the head at an angle. We always want Jessa's hair to look slightly messy, so I don’t blow it dry it unless she comes in with it wet. I’ll often wrap it around a curling iron in various ways to give it a natural-looking wave. I don’t add much product to her hair either, except sometimes Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray." -Sherry Heart
Shoshanna's coming-out hair, episode one "I wanted her to seem like she was going for a Boardwalk Empire look, especially with that tiny hat...
Shoshanna's coming-out hair, episode one "I wanted her to seem like she was going for a Boardwalk Empire look, especially with that tiny hat. It was was one of those hairstyles where I got into it and then was like, What am I doing?! It was so over the top and inappropriate. But we wanted her character to have this attitude, like, 'I am a woman now, and this is what I am doing, and I am more mature.' But it needed to be extreme and not necessarily done right." -Vanessa Sims
Shoshanna's pigtails, episode four "I’ll tell you a secret: A lot of Shoshanna's hairstyles are from my childhood. I have four sisters, and ...
Shoshanna's pigtails, episode four "I’ll tell you a secret: A lot of Shoshanna's hairstyles are from my childhood. I have four sisters, and that’s one we’d try on each other all the time. Shoshanna's had a zigzag part, with two ponytails and a sort of pompadour in the front. It was girly, but also had some flair, like, 'I am trying to be grown up so here’s a pompadour.'" -Vanessa Sims
Marnie's hostess hair, episode three "When Marnie got her new job this season, we really wanted her to be a little bit more loose and sexy. ...
Marnie's hostess hair, episode three "When Marnie got her new job this season, we really wanted her to be a little bit more loose and sexy. She had been so sleek and uptight in season one, so it was really fun to see her looking more relaxed. Allison’s hair is really straight in real life, so I'd have her go to bed with her hair damp in a messy bun, or in braids, so that it would have some texture in the morning. Then I’d use a tiny curling iron to make little waves, and add Bumble & Bumble Surf Spray. Even though it looks easy, it took a lot to make her hair look like that because her hair isn’t wavy at all. Allison is my best girl when it comes to prepping her hair. She always says, 'What do you want me to do tonight?'" -Vanessa Sims
Marnie's messy pigtails, episode eight "That was such a rock-bottom look for her, which was the best! We used those fabric elastic bands tha...
Marnie's messy pigtails, episode eight "That was such a rock-bottom look for her, which was the best! We used those fabric elastic bands that little girls wear, and we made it look like she didn’t comb her hair for days. But Allison is so pretty that sometimes even really messy looks can come off like couture on her. We often have to work really hard to make her look actually ratty, and not fashionable." -Vanessa Sims
Shoshanna's rebellion twist, episode eight "I’d seen an ad — I think it was Tom Ford, but I could be wrong — that had models with hair like ...
Shoshanna's rebellion twist, episode eight "I’d seen an ad — I think it was Tom Ford, but I could be wrong — that had models with hair like this, and I was like, Oh, let’s do that. Shoshanna’s character is a person who definitely looks at every magazine and says, 'That’s a hairstyle I am going to try today,' and it doesn’t matter if it’s Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday — that’s what she’s going to do. But Zosia is so fun — I can tell her I am putting a banana on her head, and she’s like, 'Great!'" -Vanessa Sims
Elijah's swoop, episode one "In the scene where we see him brushing his own hair, he combed the swoop in himself, and the joke about it bein...
Elijah's swoop, episode one "In the scene where we see him brushing his own hair, he combed the swoop in himself, and the joke about it being too high was totally improvised. His hair is cut into this particular style, and we usually just brush it back with some volume in the front." -Sherry Heart
Hannah's bedtime braids, episode four "Hannah is the character who really can’t 'do' her hair. When I was first working on her during season...
Hannah's bedtime braids, episode four "Hannah is the character who really can’t 'do' her hair. When I was first working on her during season one, HBO said, 'Her hair looks too nice; you have to make it worse.' Sometimes when I’m on set shooting a scene, I get a note saying that they want me to run in and mess it up because it looks too pretty. Her character dresses inappropriately, and they want her hair to be the same way. I particularly love it when we put her hair up at night for bed because that is just so her. She’s so quirky and it looks so messy." -Sherry Heart
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