Explaining the ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Character Hair Choices (Both Good & Bad)
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Stranger Things‘ onscreen looks are always embracing the ’80s, but amid Hawkins’ shutdown from the outside world, it’s certainly starting to show in some of the characters’ hairdos, for better or worse.
While the authenticity feeds into the show’s era, hair designer Sarah Hindsgaul confesses that the severe ’80s styles sported onscreen are more often wigs, as she acknowledges some of the characters going wig free in Season 5 are Holly (Nell Fisher), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Steve “The Hair” Harrington (Joe Keery), who are wearing their own locks onscreen. But “for some people I’m using part of their own hair to sell it,” she revealed.
A couple of those individuals include Max (Sadie Sink) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), who have partial hairpieces to achieve their respective onscreen dishevelment and mullet. Below, Hindsgaul is walking TV Insider through the “frizzy” tresses, “chemically treated” wigs, and pop culture influences behind the looks our favorite characters are donning this season.
Scroll down for an in-depth breakdown of how Volume 1’s looks came together, and see what Hindsgaul is teasing for Volume 2.
Stranger Things, Season 5 Volume 1, Streaming now, Netflix
Stranger Things, Season 5 Volume 2, Premiere, December 25, 8/7c, Netflix
Stranger Things, Season 5 Finale, Premiere, December 31, 8/7c, Netflix
What challenges did you face crafting Karen's Demogorgon battle look?
Sarah Hindsgaul: The Karen (Cara Buono) sequence is one of my favorites in these first four episodes. I think it’s really interesting how Holly is looking perfect. The whole thing about being a mom, even when you fall apart, everybody around her is still perfectly groomed. Cara is so beautiful that it still kind of looks okay on her, but that wig is the saddest thing you have ever seen in real life. It is frizzy. We stripped it, so it’s permed, it has a lot of bleach in it, we colored the roots to make it look like she hasn’t kept it up, then we pulled some solution on the already existing perm to just tear that perm apart. So it’s so chemically treated that when we have to put her through all this stuff with blood and water, I was literally holding my breath because I was like, I wonder if this hair is going to break off, especially in that big bathtub.
How did you land on Max's look for the cave?
SH: Max is probably one of my favorite looks this year. It’s a character who has been very stable, we haven’t changed her very much over the years, and then suddenly I got to do this giant dream hair on her. When we go to the cave, you can see in the script that something should happen there. The first test I sent [the Duffer Brothers] they were a little bit shocked. We did a lot of testing with Max just to see how frizzy do we want to go? And I tested Sadie’s own hair because I wanted [the wig] to react like Sadie’s own hair does, and Sadie has a lot of curl in her hair when it becomes humid in Atlanta. So, I built her a wig that starts right behind her hairline, so I get her own curls at the very front and that really sells it.
What can you say about Dustin's evolution and Eddie influence?
SH: That was obviously one of the first things I started working on. I wanted to be as close to Eddie (Joseph Quinn), but with Dustin’s signature curl in it. So we still have Dustin, but it’s a complete homage. It is a complete copy. It is what Dustin would choose for himself to get as close to looking like Eddie.
Lucas's look has changed as well. How did you decide what avenue to take with his hair?
SH: [Caleb McLaughlin] was very involved in this look, and I did that with him and his barber. He felt very strongly that he would have a take on what he had last year, but it would be taken back a little bit because he doesn’t need the approval of the world anymore. He’s okay with being the nerd that he is, and he doesn’t care what people think. They worked a lot on his textures trying to make sure that you can really see that it’s unstyled, it’s unkempt, it has grown out, and he doesn’t care. And that had to come across. There’s no beautiful edges anywhere. There’s no finesse to it.
Dr. Kay's sporting a really bold look. Was there any specific inspiration behind her grey hair?
SH: I wanted to make sure that it was a no nonsense kind of haircut. She would not have any color in her hair, but you still need a little bit of that ’80s decision in there. That’s why we kept the height and the volume. I thought the color for me was really, really important, and to Linda [Hamilton] too. So I started talking about that, and she was like, I’m super game, but also I went through the ’80s. I have already had all these hairdos and I have so much PTSD and I can’t do it to my own hair. So, obviously it should be a wig. And that’s how we got to that.
As we uncover more about Henry Creel's world, we're moving back and forth between the '80s and '50s. What was exciting about tackling that era more?
SH: You’re starting to get Henry’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) backstory and I was screaming of excitement to get to do ’50s. It’s one of my favorite time periods, and so polar opposite from the ’80s. The ’80s is wild, everything has movement, everything has grit, everything has personality. And then you come to the ’50s and it’s really beautiful, it’s really grafted, it’s really precise, and it does not move. So to have these two polar opposites next to each other was a dream for me. One of my first thoughts was, Oh my God, what does Joyce look like in high school? That was fun.
Will's transformation is fairly clear by the end of Episode 4. How did you and Noah collaborate to achieve his new look, especially without a wig?
SH: This was probably, the looked that scared me the most because I felt like I needed to get it right for him and for everybody watching, so I leaned on Noah. We still have a little bit of that [bowl] shape, and then we were working at texture, and we did that for a while until we were both really happy with it. And a couple of times I wanted him to look good to such an extent that I almost forgot where we were coming from. He would rein me back in and so I let Noah do a lot of his styling for the approval tests because at this point, he’s the one that knows exactly how much his character has gone through. So we trusted each other.
What other looks are you most excited for in Part 2?
SH: I’ve got some really cool stuff happening with Nancy. I got a lot more fun Max situations coming. I mean… Those two girls… I’m really excited about Max and Nancy.
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