Queen Elizabeth's Hairstyle in 'The Crown' is "Deceptively Complicated"
Queen Elizabeth has been the U.K.'s steadfast monarch for more than 65 years, and over the course of her reign, her aesthetic has grown to reflect her practical sense of duty: She always wears comfortable block-heeled shoes, owns a wardrobe full of brightly colored suiting (so her subjects can better see her in a crowd), and has had basically the same hairstyle for the majority of her life.
"The Queen’s hairstyle is deceptively complicated," Cate Hall, the hair and makeup designer on The Crown, tells me over email. And while the royal 'do appears to stay exactly the same over the course of season three of the Netflix series, in actuality, it changes ever so slightly, adapting to both the times, and Elizabeth's age.
"We subtly evolved the size and shape, from an upward trending, light and flicky 1960s style in the early episodes, to a more solid bouffant more consistent with the 1970s in the later years," she writes me.
But getting the exactly silhouette of the Queen's signature look took some trial and error.
"Suzanne David, who looked after Olivia [Colman, who plays the Queen in season three of the series], experimented endlessly with a classic 1960s roller set to find the Queen’s signature look," Hall says.
"The fact that the Queen’s hairstyle hasn’t changed significantly since the 1960s helped us to emphasise all the qualities we love her for; consistency, steadiness and reliability. We began to introduce a few grey hairs at the temples towards the end of season 3 which became more established as we went along and helped to subtly age our Queen."
Elizabeth's unwavering hairstyle also helps to visually emphasize the difference between the Queen and her younger sister Princess Margaret on screen.
"The difference between the two sisters is a major theme for us in season three. It felt fundamentally important to show both their similarities, their solidarity and their differences when designing their hair," Hall explains.
"We used each as a reference for the other when choosing the blend of hair colours for their wigs. We used a similar roller set in the very front of Helena’s wig which would partly mimic the shape of the Queen’s hair before being derailed into something altogether more fashionable and more dramatic. We hoped that the sheer number of changes to Princess Margaret’s hair would hint at her flamboyance, outgoing nature, flexibility and high spirit in the face of the Queen’s rigidity, reliability, and responsible attitude."
While Colman's hair is naturally quite similar to the Queen's, a wig was still required for filming.
"Even though Olivia has the right colour and texture hair for Queen Elizabeth, the style is so iconic and elaborate, only a wig would withstand the amount of heat and dressing needed to recreate the style reliably over and over again for seven months. In fact she has five or six wigs on rotation at any one time since the setting and dressing is so labour intensive," Hall says.
But wearing a wig for filming does come with an added benefit: "Removing a wig at the end of the shoot day feels liberating for actors playing the same character for a long time and helps them to leave work at work."
The Crown's third season is available now on Netflix.
Watch the trailer here:
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