{"id":1397876,"date":"2026-01-06T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1397876"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:07:54","slug":"the-stranger-things-season-5-hair-and-makeup-looks-took-heavy-inspiration-from-gen-x-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1397876","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 Hair and Makeup Looks Took Heavy Inspiration from Gen X Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE SCENARIO <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Stranger Things<\/em> Season 5 Hair and Makeup Looks Took Heavy Inspiration from Gen X Icons<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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The show’s hair and makeup department leads walk us through the looks of the show’s final season.<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Kirbie Johnson<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In The Scenario, reporter Kirbie Johnson takes readers behind the scenes of the buzziest movies and TV shows to reveal how the best wigs, special effects makeup, and more are created. For this edition, Johnson spoke with Sarah Hindsgaul and Eryn Krueger Mekash, the hair designer and makeup department head for season five of<\/em> Stranger Things. As you might guess, spoilers ahead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stranger Things<\/em> has come to an epic conclusion after five seasons, 10 years of filming, and countless hairstyles. In 2022, this very column was created because of the show: after watching season four, I developed an obsession with Millie Bobby Brown\u2019s hair. She\u2019d shaved her hair to play Eleven in the past, but at the time she\u2019d been spotted in public without the character\u2019s signature buzz cut. I had to know: Did she shave it again for filming, or was the buzz cut now a wig?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this, you probably already know that it was, after all, an incredible single-knot wig (read: very tedious, laborious, and expensive. You can read all about it here.) Brown couldn\u2019t shave her head while juggling roles in other projects.<\/p>\n

Because Eleven grew her hair out (again) after season four, Brown didn\u2019t had to don a faux shaved head on the set of season five\u2014but there were plenty more wigs where that came from. \u201cI got the bill and was like, \u2018Can anybody use that much money on hair?\u2019\u201d jokes Sarah Hindsgaul, the show\u2019s longtime hairstylist. She says that the hair team wound up repurposing wigs from seasons past because they had amassed so many of them. \u201cWhen you see Karen Wheeler at the end [of the series], I think that’s a season three wig that was cut up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Read on to learn about the inspiration behind the most memorable character transformations in Stranger Things<\/em> season five and the stories behind them.<\/p>\n

Eleven’s \u201cSuperhero\u201d Hair<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\"Millie<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Eleven is first introduced to us in season one as a child with her signature buzz cut, a result of being a test subject of MKUltra. The slickback bun she wears in season five is an homage to that look. \u201cI wanted a lot of [the characters] to come full circle,\u201d Hindsgaul says. \u201cThe reason Millie’s hair is so slick when she’s doing the final battles is that we wanted to be able to intercut from season one. I wanted to have a super clean silhouette on her.\u201d She explains that Eleven is comfortable with short hair because she grew up that way and that, for her, there\u2019s a feeling of safety in having her hair pulled back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hindsgaul didn\u2019t want Eleven\u2019s hair to detract from the story, either. Now that Eleven\u2019s has long hair, they could have made the decision to have it free-flowing and thrashing during battle scenes, but that didn\u2019t make sense for the character. \u201c[For her training scenes], we needed flyaways, and we needed grit because she needed to feel like any one of us. You would have sweat, tears, and your hair would get messed up,\u201d she says. \u201cThen when she starts going into the tank, I think she has made up her mind [about her fate], and she’s slicking everything down. We have seen her do that many times over the series, where she suddenly gets rid of all femininity and she becomes, basically, a superhero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hindsgaul says it was \u201chardcore\u201d for Brown to have a slickback bun, given she was in a wetsuit for most of the series and didn\u2019t have anything to hide behind. For an actor, that means you have to be cognizant of every seemingly minuscule element of your performance, like posture. \u201cBut if anybody can pull that off, it’s Millie,\u201d she says. \u201cThere’s such an honesty in that look. She’s not hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Millie<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This allusion to Eleven\u2019s shorter, cropped hair then gave Hindsgaul a springboard to creating the character\u2019s final look, where it\u2019s imagined (or believed<\/em>, if you will) that she\u2019s alive with long, flowing hair. \u201cWe could finally give her the hair that we want her to have,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re longing to see her happy, feminine, living\u2014enjoying life. But you can’t have that when she’s in the middle of a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max’s Disney Princess Moment<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sadie Sink\u2019s Max had been in a coma since season four, leaving her red hair to grow long like a weed. However, in real life, Sink has been wearing her hair cropped short, making wigs a necessity for Max\u2019s look. \u201cI think that was my favorite hair from this season, just because she has beautiful hair and I’ve always downplayed it to make her look more plain than [Sadie] really is. It would look like a L\u2019Or\u00e8al commercial if I didn’t tone it down,\u201d Hindsgaul says. For this season, though, \u201cI wanted it to be large, but I wanted to make sure that it was gritty enough to fit the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

A wig was applied behind Sink\u2019s natural hairline so they could add length and texture\u2014even if her hair had been long enough, it would have been hell on Sink\u2019s natural hair to have teased it each day. Hindsgaul said Max required the most wigs (and therefore the highest hair budget) given that her hair had to be long and braided in some scenes and voluminous and frizzy in others.<\/p>\n

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Sadie Sink behind the scenes of season five.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Hindsgaul<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Sadie Sink behind the scenes of season five.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Hindsgaul<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In order to get the hair texture and color perfect, Hindsgaul always asks the actors to cut off a piece of their hair from their undermost layers so she can compare them to hair samples for wigs. \u201cIt’s a lot to ask\u2014it has to be fairly thick,\u201d she explains. \u201cThat way, we can see how curly it is, because [the actors\u2019] hair keeps changing. They’re young people. They have a lot of hormones, so their curl patterns change constantly. It had to be a perfect color match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Wheeler Takes Hair Cues from Nancy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 5. : Season 5. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX \u00a9 2025<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

One way you can tell which trends have reached Hawkins, Indiana, is to watch Karen Wheeler\u2019s evolution\u2014she\u2019s the tell of where the sleepy town is at culturally. In 1983, when the first season was set, her hair was dark and still had \u201870s layers. By season five, in 1987, her hair is bleached and permed, and she ends with a shorter cut that looks similar to her daughter Nancy\u2019s [played by Natalia Dyer]. Typically, Nancy mimics her mother\u2019s hair, but Hindsgaul says Karen, played by Cara Buono, took a note from her daughter instead for the time jump. As Hindsgaul recalls, \u201cI sent this one photo to [Dyer] that I really liked of this woman with blonde, shorter hair, and she was like, \u2018That’s it. This is where I think I’m going.\u2019 Five minutes later, Cara sent me the same photo and said, \u2018This is where I’m going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Karen\u2019s aesthetic shift is a direct indication that she\u2019s had enough of being the picture-perfect mom and wife. \u201cShe served the chicken, she did the rollers, she was ready every time [her husband] woke up. Then she’s like, \u2018Wait, maybe my daughter is on to something,\u2019\u201d Hindsgaul says. \u201cThere’s an empowerment that happened inside Karen. She wanted to look good for men in many ways. Cutting your hair off is something you do for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the time jump, Nancy\u2019s wore hair influenced by the soft, short haircut Julia Roberts wore at the 1991 Golden Globe Awards; Princess Diana was the reference for Karen, just with the hair swooping upward in the front versus down a la Lady Di. Season five\u2019s makeup department head Eryn Krueger Mekash notes that Karen\u2019s makeup look also took inspiration from Julia Roberts in a unique way. \u201c[Karen\u2019s] look was going off of the shopkeepers from Pretty Woman<\/em>, where the inspiration was very bronzy and put together,\u201d Mekash says. \u201cKaren’s back in her true form; what makes her happy is being fashionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Karen finally gets her own superhero moment this season\u2014fighting a demogorgon in a nightgown, in the kitchen, with a broken wine bottle. She suffers some pretty intense wounds, achieved with silicone prosthetics created by prosthetic co-department heads Barrie Gower and Mike Mekash (editor\u2019s note: Eryn\u2019s husband!), which Mekash says took two and a half hours and two\u2013to-three artists to apply to Buono, who lied on a massage table during the process.<\/p>\n

You also see the aftermath of those wounds at graduation, where Karen showcases her battle scars proudly. \u201cI’ve gotten so much feedback, in a good way, about Karen showing her scars at the end,\u201d Mekash says. \u201cPeople were very emotional about seeing her scars and how she was living her life with these horrible injuries that she’d recovered from, but she was still putting herself together and facing the world. Cara [Buono] really, really wanted to do that. She told Amy Parris, the costume designer, \u2018We want [the wardrobe] open so we can see it all, and for her hair to be off her shoulders, so you could see all of her scarring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve’s Top Gun Moment<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photo: Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Steve Harrington lived! Thank god. And to the thrill of many fans, he ends the series as a gym teacher (who also teaches sex ed) and still keeps up with Dustin. Out of all the older kids in the series, Steve\u2019s look changed the least over the seasons, and that\u2019s because it didn\u2019t need to.<\/p>\n

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Joe Keery behind the scenes of season five.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Hindsgaul<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Joe Keery behind the scenes of season five.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Hindsgaul<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis is probably the unpopular thing to say, but he\u2019s the only one that knows exactly who he is. He’s not changing anything. But he’s also not a teenager anymore, so there’s no \u2018jazz\u2019 going on,\u201d Hindsgaul says. \u201cThere’s nothing to impress. It\u2019s a lot like Tom Cruise: clean, blue-collar kind of situation.\u201d Unlike many of his castmates, actor Joe Keery didn\u2019t have to don a wig for the entire series until the time jump\u2014yes, his hair really is that voluminous.<\/p>\n

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More from The Scenario:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • The Hair and Makeup in Wicked: For Good<\/em> Is a Masterclass in Subtle Storytelling<\/li>\n
  • The Exact Eyeliner Jenna Ortega Is Wearing at Wednesday<\/em>‘s Season 2 Gala<\/li>\n
  • Nicola Coughlin Wears More Than $55,000 Worth of Wigs in Bridgerton<\/em> Season 3<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    Now, watch Millie Bobby Brown try nine things she’s never done before:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Follow<\/em> Allure on<\/em>\u00a0Instagram<\/em>and<\/em>\u00a0TikTok, or<\/em>\u00a0subscribe to our newsletter<\/em>to stay up to date on all things beauty.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

    Source URL: https:\/\/www.allure.com\/story\/stranger-things-season-five-hair-makeup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    THE SCENARIO The Stranger Things Season 5 Hair and Makeup Looks Took Heavy Inspiration from Gen X Icons The show’s hair and makeup department leads walk us through the looks of the show’s final season. By Kirbie Johnson January 6, 2026 Photo: Courtesy of Netflix In The Scenario, reporter Kirbie Johnson takes readers behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1397876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-allure-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1397876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1397876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1397876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1397876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}