Hair can change the general appearance of a person and tell us so much about him/her. It can define a character and their personality. When one goes to the hair stylist to have their hair made we have those that go for a conservative look may be due to work restrictions, another may choose to dye their hair a bold colour maybe as a way of lashing out to society or as a way of standing out due to their daring personality and another may choose to cut their hair short just to avoid the daily hustle of styling it.
It is amazing how there are so many hairstyles for both men and women that keep evolving with time and still, we have people rocking hairstyles from the 90s or 80s as a fashion statement. In film, the type of hair to be picked for an actor depends on a couple of factors namely:
- Time Period– Hairstyles have always changed from way back in time. It has evolved from the Afro, the punk hairdo, the curly hair, the bee hive up do, the maw-hawk, and the dreadlocks. Depending on what time period the film is set in, it is easy to pick what hair was trending at the time for your actor to have.
- Occupation– An actor’s occupation can determine what type of hair they have. A good example is most policemen in Kenya have a clean shave on the head and face. If one is playing the role of a policeman the automatic natural reaction is to line them up for a haircut.
- The genre of the film– Film has many genres and at times we have genres like Fantasy where the hairstylists go crazy and wild on creativity with the hair as they are to create a look that takes us to a world of fantasy. In such genres, you find white, silver, blue, red or even green hair do’s.
- Character personality– Depending on the personality of the film character, a hairstyle can be picked. If the actor is playing the role of an introverted goth, then you expect to see dark hair dyes or crazy haircuts that speak for them as they themselves do not express themselves much.
These are just some of the few factors that determine the type of hairstyles we choose to pick for our actors. Hair tells us the character’s story and it is important to maintain hair continuity throughout the plot development because as the character grows and transforms in the plot so should the hair.