Princess Anne had a hair signature: volume, and lots of it. As Erin Doherty, who is playing Princess Anne in season three of The Crown found out, you can’t rush a good hair day. Every day on set, she had to sit through hours of hairstyling to get the look just right.
“Makeup literally took 10 minutes, but hair, sometimes it would take two hours,” Erin Doherty told Town and Country.
“It’s its own beast. Literally, I would sit in the chair, people would come in and go and come in and go, and I sat still in the same place.”
The Crown’s hair and makeup designer Cate Hall shared with Town and Country the steps it took to transform Erin’s hair.
“Erin came to us with perfect length and colour hair, but not enough of it. As you know Princess Anne had famously thick hair, with a very natural wavy texture through the ’60s and 70s. We created a ‘ladder wig’ which supplements and blends with Erin’s hair beautifully, giving it the kind of volume and texture most of us could only dream of!”
Erin’s own hair was blended throughout the wig. “We blow dried mousse into Erin’s hair with a large round brush, then roller set her hair on hot rollers using setting lotion.”
While the process was tedious, Erin felt it was a vital step for getting into character.
“It was so necessary for her character because it felt like her hair and her fashion were the way that she was able to express herself in the confined, controlled environment that she grew up in.”
