The Little Mermaid production team admits they struggled to find a hair design that would fit the rebranded image of Ariel in the live-action Disney film, but one thing they were all in agreement on was how they wanted her hair styled: natural.
In a recent The Messenger feature, celebrity hairstylist Camille Friend said that it was important that her hair was natural, specifically after she spoke with the movie’s lead star Halle Bailey.
“Initially, I got the call from Disney just to come and do some sketches and see what I could come up with,” Friend told the publication. “Because they were kind of having a hard time finding the look. So then I was like, well … can I talk to Halle and her family?”
Friend, an Oscar-nominated hair stylist with work featured has been featured on the blockbuster hits Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Charlie’s Angels, Us and Tenet said that Ariel’s look had to be versatile, considering she would be both above and “under the sea.”
“So then I just started thinking,” Friend said. “I was like, ‘How can we think outside of the box?'”
She said she began with the basics, taking into consideration the character’s skin tone, undertone, hair texture and eye shape.
“All of these things I start thinking about when I start designing hairstyles, hair colors,” she said, “because no matter what, you want to design a look that’s going to look good on your actor. It doesn’t matter if you can do the most fabulous look; if it doesn’t look good on them, it doesn’t work.”
Then the work began. Friend admits finding the perfect hairstyle was a bit challenging. She had to keep in mind that the hair had to be a very specific shade of red. She also had to note how it would float in water and whether or not to leave Bailey’s locs as they were.
“When I was initially designing the look, you know, talking to Rob Marshall [the film’s director], it was really important that … she looked like a mermaid — that the hair would flow; it would move with her.”
As for the color, she had to take a bit of a scientific approach.
“It kind of reminded me a little bit of like when you look at the sun, and you look at the edges, and you see that yellow and orange in the sky. So, you know, [we’re] giving you still that depth of red, but still putting out more gold and toning it because that aesthetically looked better on Halle.”
All in all, she concluded, Ariel’s hair turned out to be better than expected. She also offered this key piece of advice to hairstylists who seek to work on movie sets one day.
“Every person, no matter what their hair color is, what their hair texture is —they should have the opportunity to have an artist who understands that, and then to have the ability to feel comfortable, and feel like they’re going to be well taken care of.”
