Teasing Out What Makes a Great Wig

Sarah Shachat
·2 min read

Wigs are hard to pull off well. There are all kinds of reasons to need them. A heightened fictional world or far-flung historical period might demand wildly different hair from contemporary fashions. Timing could be a factor, too, as the demands of the production schedule might not allow an actor to sit in a chair for hours between setups to change their hairstyles. Sometimes, as in Apple TV+’s new series “Franklin,” noticeable wigs are part of the drama itself and can denote different social statuses, tastes, and allegiances. It’s almost never quite as blatant as the blonde Targaryen wigs from the first season of “Game of Thrones,” but films and TV shows can get a lot of storytelling done through whether wigs stand out, blend in, or create a strikingly different visual tone from what’s around them.

The strength of wigwork and period hairstyling has really been felt in the first part of this year, with the kind of periodization that demands precision in shows like “Shogun,” “Manhunt,” and “Lawmen: Bass Reeves,” as well as lusher, more heightened approaches “Mary & George,” “Bridgerton,” and “Renegade Nell.” So the IndieWire Crafts team reached out to some of these hair designers to ask what it takes to do wigs well on a TV timeframe and budget.

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The overall answer was “years of practice.” The intricacies of laying hair the right way, working with the right materials, and having the time to test how hair interacts with lighting, costume, makeup, and all other departments are all crucial factors in getting period and fantasy hairstyles just right. Sometimes the answer is to go all-in on actually changing an actor’s hair, as was the case with one or two of the younger men sporting nakazori hairstyles in “Shogun.” Showrunner Justin Marks told IndieWire that it would save actors three hours in the makeup chair if they’d just be willing to wear a baseball cap for the months it would take for their hair to grow back. But sometimes that’s neither possible nor desirable, if, for example, an actor’s hair needs to be adjusted to be younger or older over the course of a shoot.

Wigs are meant to be invisible, but one aspect that almost always goes unnoticed is the sheer scale of the work required to bring them to life.

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