From ‘Pink Flamingos’ to ‘Beetlejuice’: The five greatest movie hairdos
The beauty of cinema being a visual medium means that filmmakers can truly craft their characters to look exactly how they want, using certain outfits, makeup and hairstyles as signifers and storytelling devices. Yet, the work of costume designers, hair stylists and makeup artists is often overlooked despite being an intrinsic part of the production process.
The Academy Award for ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’ wasn’t created until 1981, for example, decades after the first ceremony was held. Yet, when characters have recognisable haircuts, even if it’s not a particularly out-there style, it can elevate a movie’s iconic status even further. Sometimes, hairstyles become so tied to their characters that wearing a certain cut, such as a shiny black bob with a fringe, will have people calling you Mia Wallace.
That doesn’t stop people from trying out the hairstyles they see on screen, though, looking to stylish characters for inspiration. Subsequently, we end up taking images of Bridgitte Bardot in Contempt or Natalie Portman in Leon: The Professional to the hairdressers for a brand new look. The best movie hairdos are the ones that just can’t be mistaken for anyone else. Who else has been able to rock a hairdo like Divine’s in Pink Flamingos?
So, from Lydia’s spikey black fringe in Beetlejuice to the Parisian crop sported by Anna Karina in Vivre sa vie, here are five of the best movie hairstyles.
The five greatest movie hairdos:
Divine in Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972)
John Waters dared to push boundaries with Pink Flamingos, one of the filmmaker’s earliest features and easily his most iconic collaboration with drag queen Divine. The movie revolves around the battle between Divine’s Babs Johnson and a couple who run an underground baby ring, with both parties wanting to hold the title of ‘filthiest alive’. The narrative descends into chaos as Waters piles as many shocking acts into the one-hour 45-minute runtime, including voyeurism, incest, rape, castration, murder, prolapsed anuses, cannibalism and the consumption of faeces.
However, despite all of these unforgettable scenes charred into viewers’ minds, the most enduring image is Divine, real name Harris Glenn Milstead, with his overdrawn lips, overexaggerated eye-makeup and eyebrows sitting atop his forehead. His hair is shaved back so that the hairline starts in the middle of his head, and the shoulder-length hair is dyed bright yellow, which looks dry and matted with product. No one in the history of cinema has pulled off a receding hairline quite like Divine in Pink Flamingos.
Princess Leia in Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
This might be a more obvious choice, but how could we not include one of cinema’s most iconic hairdos? Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia is one of the most recognisable characters in the history of the Star Wars franchise, which debuted in 1977 and took the whole world by storm. This tale about a galaxy far, far away managed to resonate with children and adults across the Earth, only furthering a widespread interest in science-fiction cinema, which continued with movies like E.T the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the coming years.
Many long-haired viewers took inspiration from Leia’s hairstyle, which sees her brown hair tied into two buns on the side of her head, almost like earmuffs. Inspired by women who did similar hairstyles during the Mexican Revolution, specifically an image of a colonel named Clara de la Rocha, the style has become associated with strength and rebellion. These days, a modernised version of the hairdo, ‘space buns’, seems to take its name from Leia’s cosmic legacy.
Jane Fonda in Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)
After starring in a series of movies during the ‘60s that gave her the reputation of a sex symbol, Jane Fonda was hesitant to play a call girl in 1971’s Klute. The role was offered to her while she was in the midst of discovering feminism, but her friend convinced her to take on the part and give the character complexity. As a result, despite the fact that Fonda’s character, Bree Daniels, is a victim of a mysterious stalker, she doesn’t simply turn into a helpless damsel in distress. She’s a woman who knows what she wants and what she’s doing, and her hair is the ultimate symbol of her independence.
Sporting a short, shaggy cut, Fonda’s hair is a far cry from the ultra-feminine styles she wore in the ‘60s, for example, her wavy blonde hair in Barbarella. The haircut she wears in Klute already belonged to Fonda, who had decided that she “wouldn’t dress for men anymore.” As a result, her hair was an act of feminism, symbolising a rejection of patriarchal beauty standards. It became a hugely iconic style that many people copied during the decade, cementing Fonda as a style icon.
Anna Karina in Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)
Jean-Luc Godard considered Anna Karina his muse during the early ‘60s, casting her as the lead in most of his popular films. She was an incredible actor, and one of her best performances came in Vivre sa vie from 1962, where she played Nana. The character turns to prostitution after struggling to make enough money to care for herself and her son following her divorce, and, using an episodic structure, Godard explores themes of consumerism and capitalism, women’s autonomy, and the meaning of life. Shot in gorgeous black-and-white, one of Karina’s most defining features is her Snow White-esque dark, incredibly short, rounded haircut.
It’s a chic French girl style that few people have been able to pull off properly, but of course, Karina could. She sometimes wears it with a headband, letting the front sections flick up and frame her face. The image of Karina in Vivre sa vie is perhaps the most recognisable of all her films, and this style seemed to inspire other French icons, like Amelie Poulain in 2001’s Amelie.
Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988)
Tim Burton has collaborated with Winona Ryder a handful of times, but when they teamed up for Beetlejuice, she debuted a hairstyle that was simply unforgettable. Playing Lydia Deetz, an artistic goth teenager, she becomes capable of seeing the ghostly couple, Barbara and Adam, who haunt her new home. The movie helped Ryder gain more recognition, who was just 17 at the time of filming. While she is remembered for the career-boosting role, her amazing hairstyle is one of the movie’s most defining elements.
Her black hair is piled messily on top of her head, with smaller sections hanging to her shoulders. However, the best part is her fringe, which she has gelled into separate spikes, glueing them down onto her forehead. It’s not a look you’d get away with as a daily ‘do, but in the world of Beetlejuice, Lydia’s hair couldn’t be more perfect.
