BuzzFeed: Countless Actors Suffer Hair Loss From On-Set Beauty Regimens

Countless actors sacrifice their real hair to grueling on-set beauty regimens for film and television roles, enduring severe damage, chemical burns, and hair loss from non-stop bleaching, perms, and heat styling, BuzzFeed reported. Across decades of production schedules, performers have regularly traded the health of their natural hair for character accuracy, relying on wigs and extensive styling secrets behind the scenes.

Jonathan Bailey and Margot Robbie Reveal Severe On-Set Hair Tolls

Jonathan Bailey faced a startling hair crisis on the set of Wicked after his previous projects left his strands severely compromised. I had to perm my hair for Bridgerton and straighten my hair for [Fellow Travelers]. I was like a teenage beauty advert, doing everything to my hair. I remember going on this holiday, and I got to the beach, I sat down in the sun, and my hair was just like floating, wisping off, like breaking away. And I looked completely and felt completely insane, he said. Because of this sudden breakage, the Wicked costume department had to outfit him in a toupée. I’m in the choreography, so it’s flapping about, he joked.

Similarly, Margot Robbie acknowledged that her personal hair health is virtually non-existent due to relentless industry styling. I’ve got really shit hair, so it’s kind of hard to do my hair well. I really need a hairstylist to do my hair if it’s going to look good. I have like three hairs left on my head, she noted in an interview. People are always like, ‘How do you have such healthy hair?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t.’ My hair is snapped off, it’s shit, it’s gone, but hairstylists have suitcases full of fake hair, and they make it look amazing, Robbie explained, pointing to hard water in the UK, hot rollers, and fast-paced photoshoots as the culprits.

Chemical Bleach Disasters on Sets from Buffy to Twilight

James Marsters endured excruciating scalp conditions while maintaining his platinum look for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They told me repeatedly my hair would fall out, or rather, they were not sure I would have hair by the end, he revealed. While the weekly bleach schedule of every eight days instead of the recommended six weeks initially spared his hair, his scalp rebelled. Right on the bottle of bleach they used, it said, Only do this every six weeks. Not safe to use more often. And we did it every eight days, because a vampire is dead, so your hair doesn’t grow, so you can’t have roots, Marsters added. The maintenance eventually caused open blisters. We were pouring bleach on top of the open wounds from the last bleaching, he recalled.

Other productions exacted an equally punishing chemical toll. Anya Taylor-Joy lost chunks of her hair after a grueling bleach routine. I did this one project where they bleached my hair from root to tip every Sunday for three and a half months, she remembered. Then I dyed it brunette, and the stylist said, ‘Oh, that’s so cute. You have an undercut.’ She lifted up my hair and the whole bottom was completely fried off. I was like, ‘Ah, OK, bleach is bad; good to know.’ On the film Morgan, she faced similar silver-hair maintenance and resorted to using kitchen scissors for an emergency bob. Nikki Reed shared a parallel ordeal on the Twilight franchise, noting that her initial 36-hour bleaching session eventually caused her hair to fall out, prompting a switch to wigs.

Television Series Costumes Sparking Long-Term Hair Breakage

Television commitments frequently lock actors into multi-year dyeing cycles that gradually destroy their natural texture. KJ Apa faced grueling maintenance portraying Archie on Riverdale. I had to go to the salon every two weeks to get it dyed and bleached and stuff. So yeah, it’s not my favorite thing to do, but obviously I’ve got to do it because the roots keep coming up and my hair grows really fast. So, two weeks max I can go shooting, and then I have to get it dyed again, he told Vulture. The process burned his skin. It was really painful the first and the second time I got it done because they do my eyebrows as well. They ended up bleaching my eyebrows, and I had two holes — they burned into my skin.

Ariana Grande faced permanent damage playing Cat Valentine on Nickelodeon’s Victorious. I had to bleach my hair and dye it red every other week for the first 4 years of playing Cat… as one would assume, that completely destroyed my hair. … I wear it in a ponytail because my actual hair is so broken that it looks absolutely ratchet and absurd when I let it down, she wrote in a Facebook post. Meanwhile, Anna Paquin experienced constant breakage playing Sookie on True Blood. I would be spending a little bit less time in the hair salon getting my roots retouched, and my hair would probably be a little bit longer because it’s gradually getting shorter as the ends break off because I’m a fake, fake, fake blonde, she told an audience at Comic-Con.

Extreme Hair Coloring Damages Actors' Hair

Frankka Potente underwent eight separate bleachings to achieve the Elmo-red hue for Run Lola Run, a process so destructive she was barred from washing her hair for six weeks to preserve the shade. When she finally rinsed it, It was like Lola was washed out of me, she said. In a similar vein, Emilia Clarke ditched her costume wigs to go platinum for the final season of Game of Thrones, only to face immediate consequences. My hair was, like, dying! she told Harper’s Bazaar UK. I’m honestly trying to grow out the blonde, because it’s just killed my hair, and I miss having nice hair! Sophie Turner experienced a parallel disaster when transitioning back from a non-GoT red dye job, forcing her back into wigs. As actors continue to trade their natural locks for character continuity, the question remains whether productions will routinely pivot to high-end wigs before permanent follicle damage occurs.