Why Keri Russell’s Hair in ‘The Diplomat’ Is Both Political and Controversial
The Netflix show highlights the expectations for women in politics as well as on TV.
Hi WNVM-ers,
It’s Cheryl, still here for a few more weeks, though this is the last full story I’ll be doing. I’m pretty excited about this one, because I’ve been trying to make it happen for almost two months. I talked to Alesha Oak, the current hair department head on “The Diplomat,” about why Keri Russell’s hair looks Like That on the show. Then I delve into how her hair has been a mood ring for how society — and TV shows — think women should look. (No spoilers!)
Then in news, obviously Keanu Reeves knows how to write a thank you note, the return of the best Jane Austen movie ever made (I said what I said), and yet another industry is ignoring Gen X.
Per usual, you may need to read the entire newsletter in your browser. And, if you’re feeling generous and you also have messy hair on a daily basis, please give us a heart at the bottom of the post.
I Love her Eyes and her Wild, Wild Hair
By Cheryl
“I wish I could go in my TV and brush Kate’s hair.” “Kate’s hair looked nice for once.” And, in a sentiment that expresses a lot with few words: “The fucking hair.”
These are titles on only a few of the many Reddit threads about Kate Wyler, the titular character played by Keri Russell in “The Diplomat” on Netflix. People have strong feelings about how her hair is styled, or, more accurately, not styled.
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Since “The Diplomat”’s first season, it’s been clear that hygiene and hair care, gowns and galas are not super important to Kate. She views her job as the US ambassador to the UK with utmost seriousness and those things as perhaps frivolous.
But throughout all three seasons, her hair serves as an explicit symbol of her ambition and of how women in politics “should” present. And viewers’ real-life reactions to it have been a fascinating reflection of how we expect women on TV — and in the public eye — to look.
The Hair
The show has consistently brought attention to Kate Wyler’s worldview vis-a-vis her outward appearance. Her no-nonsense suit1, on one notable occasion, requires a paper clip to keep the pants together. In the pilot, she asks husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) to give her armpits a quick sniff.
Then there is her hair. While not a rat’s nest as some of the commentariat would have you believe, it’s not perfect. There is frizz. It goes in different directions. It becomes such a thing both on the show and in the online discourse that there is a running gag throughout an episode in season three involving a Secret Service decoy whose hair is an exaggerated, messier version of Kate’s.
The look is purposeful.
“The whole reason for her messy hair is that she’s more worried about her career than what she looks like,” says Alesha Oak, the current hair department head on the show. “She’s more focused on that instead of being ‘done’ all the time.” (Note: Oak took over in season three when the show moved filming from Europe to the US. The original hairstyle was created by hair and makeup designer Roo Maurice.)
To achieve the look, Russell comes in with wet hair, and then Oak rough dries it, using her hands while blow-drying. She then uses a GHD flat iron to put bends and waves in the hair, away from the face in front, but in different directions throughout so it doesn’t look too uniform. She finishes it all off with one of the most classic hair styling products in the business, Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray, largely recognized as the first of its kind.
“Then we just mush it around and get it all fluffy and crazy,” she says, with Russell adding her own touches. “When she gets on set, she plays around with it. We kind of just let it go how it goes.”
The Political Inspiration
In a notable confrontation in season two, Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) gave Kate a harsh assessment of her less-than-sleek appearance.
“You probably think your hair says you’re too busy serving your country to get a blowout. But it reads as bedhead, which sends a signal I think in this case is better unsent,” said Grace.
Later, softening to Kate, she said, “When I started out, I said I would never change myself for them. Now I get my hair dipped in carcinogens once a month; the eyeliner’s a tattoo.”
Kate, getting the message, then tried to put her hair up in a neat and respectable bun in an attempt to project her political ambitions, with varying results. Maurice told Tudum that there were iterations of the bun, from “scruffy” to “really elite” as Kate played around with the look.
The show’s creator, Debora Cahn (who’s written for “The West Wing” and “Homeland”), said in an interview on a Washington Post podcast that this dynamic came directly from talking to people who worked on both Hillary Clinton’s and Kamala Harris’ campaigns.
“[They] struggled to find the thing that was going to woo the American public, and it was never really the thing you wanted it to be. It was about the haircut or it was about the clothes,” Cahn said. “It was about these things that ultimately aren’t what we care about in a head of state but so much time and so much energy goes into the cultivation of them. And I certainly find that frustrating…”
Then, this nod to the real-life expectations we have for women in politics collided with those that we have for women who are on TV shows.
TV Hair
Russell told the AP in 2023 after the first season dropped, “I’m constantly sweating, the hair is a mess, and it’s probably a lot more like most of us in life.”
That’s exactly what the hair designers were going for.
“In normal life, you don’t walk in and have your hair fully done all the time. It’s a rare occasion that people have their hair really super neat and pretty,” says Oak. “So I think it’s just so funny that’s what people focus on — the hair, instead of the storyline or how great Keri is as an actress.”
But we are used to seeing pristine hair on TV, often in soft, even waves that flow away from the face. In 2016, my then-colleague at Racked, Julia Rubin, wrote a viral story about the style, dubbing it “The Hair.” (Unfortunately, the link is now broken, but a video summary is here and USA Today aggregated it.)
You can still see it everywhere:
In 2017, the New York Times suggested that shows where the women don’t all have uniform TV hair are “better” and their female characters are more complex. I’m not sure I agree with that, but by this metric, “The Diplomat” delivers. Grace Penn has a political cunty bob and Eidra Park (Ali Ahn) has the most gloriously choppy mullet-shag. (It’s by Ahn’s longtime NYC-based stylist, Corvette Hunt.)
I think that one of the reasons there’s so much chattering about Kate’s hair online is because we are so used to seeing shinier and more-perfected versions of women on TV that her slight frizz just broke everyone’s brains.
Oak agrees that TV still presents a lot of unrealistic portrayals of women’s hair.
“On one specific job, I was not allowed to put the main character in a ponytail. They did not think women ‘looked pretty’ in a ponytail,” she says. “She’d always have her hair perfectly done, perfectly curled, which is not the real world, but in TV land, that is what they get.”
Keri Russell’s Hair as Societal Bellwether
As Russell has done the press rounds, she’s been adamant that she really likes her character’s hair and thinks it looks good. By now, she’s a pro at dealing with follicular drama. Her characters’ hair choices have made national headlines since the beginning of her career.
For “The Americans,”2 it was all about the kooky ‘80s wigs. But most famously, when Russell chopped her curls into a pixie cut on “Felicity” in 1999, it caused an absolute firestorm. Russell said showrunner JJ Abrams asked her if she’d consider cutting her hair after she put on a “little boy’s wig” as a joke. She said she got death threats after the cut debuted.
Lore has it that the second season of the show slumped because of her hair; execs at the time blamed the cut and even suggested that hair changes network-wide would be given more scrutiny. I’m convinced this is the moment that birthed the glossy, safe TV hair that persists to this day.
The meta moment when Kate is walking behind her teased-hair security decoy (the “walking haystack”) is a master move on the part of the writers to throw some of the preconceptions about hair back into viewers’ faces, and possibly to let us know they’re seeing the Reddit threads.
Kate tells her head of security, “Get her a hairbrush.”
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Whatever Nevermind explores stories and trends defining our generation, celebrate Gen X-ers doing cool things, and analyze all the ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
Kea-news! Remember when some bad, bad people stole six of Reeves’ nice watches? Well, he got them back and sent a handwritten letter to the FBI to thank them. An etiquette hero. -CW [ABC News]
The “Stranger Things” publicity blitz has been a lot, so I’ve only been focusing on the Winona Ryder parts. Her take on ‘80s nostalgia is sobering. “It wasn’t kind to people like me,” she said, meaning, presumably, weird girls. (Also, speaking of gloriously choppy shags!!!!) -CW [Interview]
Gen X is planning to “overspend” this holiday season, because we are shopping for every other single generation. But retailers are — SHOCKER! — ignoring us in order to try to woo the Youngs. -CW [NYT]
I grew up in Chicago in the ‘80s, which means I was at the epicenter of “The Super Bowl Shuffle,” perhaps the cringiest song to ever be written. (All the girls at my Catholic school loved Jim McMahon.) There is a new documentary about it on HBO Max, and I cannot wait to watch. -CW [Esquire]
A reminder in case you missed it in our gift guide issue: celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ang Lee’s version of Sense and Sensibility (with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and a sneaky-hot Alan Rickman), Sony is re-releasing it into select theaters Dec 14, 16, and 17. Seeing the Missus Dashwoods on the big screen?? I greatly esteem it. -CW [Sony Pictures]
Costumes by Roland Sanchez (S1), Edward K. Gibbon (S2), and Jenny Gering (S3).
In 2018, I interviewed costume designer Katie Irish about the many ‘80s hair and fashion influences her team used in the show, and it’s one of my favorite stories I’ve ever written.
Loved the hair but what I appreciated even more was that it seemed like her character *also* didn't wear much makeup and had forehead lines! Especially adored seeing a face that looked "realer" than many others I regularly see on my TV.
Between this story and the Slow Horses one, I love that you're covering TV characters who don't look perfect. I enjoyed learning how they style her hair to be messy, because there is craft and technique in that too!
(And best wishes on your future projects, Cheryl!)