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.
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