The Little Mermaid’s Ariel is an absolutely iconic Disney heroine, especially when it comes to her look and flowing red locks. So when Halle Bailey nabbed the role, finding the right way to emulate this Disney Princess’ hair in live-action was of the utmost importance to the production. However, it came with a massive price tag too, as hair department head, Camille Friend recently revealed.
Camille Friend has previously worked on numerous massive projects like the Black Panther movies across her career. For The Little Mermaid, she was tasked with bringing Ariel’s hair to the big screen. An early decision she made was to use Bailey’s natural hair rather than a wig, but the cost to make that happen was incredibly high. As Friend told Variety:
I’m not guesstimating, but we probably spent at least $150,000 because we had to redo it and take it out. You couldn’t use it and we’d have to start again. It was a process.
Friend shared that she didn’t want to cut any of Halle Bailey’s hair, and because the breakout star’s locs were down to her waist (24 inches) as is, putting a wig over it was going to “look crazy.” The wrap process to turn Halle Bailey’s hair into Ariel's shape took 12 to 14 hours, too, per the hair department head. The 30-inch long hair was custom-colored into three shades of red we see in this new, fairly well-reviewed version of The Little Mermaid, and was fused with hair extensions.
Additionally, Friend realized during the production process that “locs don’t float,” which was paramount to Ariel’s under-the-sea moments. Therefore, she decided to add loose pieces of hair to the look as well so the hair could “dance” with the many musical numbers in the movie. While much of what you see in the movie is Halle Bailey’s natural hair, many of the underwater sequences feature a CGI version of Friend’s styling. When Bailey was a mermaid on set, her hair was placed in a wrap and not to ruin the movie magic here, but the actress was not typically underwater in those sequences but in a sea of blue screen.
Halle Bailey shared some of the behind-the-scenes process of filming “Part of Your World” this week. You can check it out below:
While it certainly took a lot of money and care on Friend’s part, Halle Bailey’s Ariel is more of a palpable character having her natural hair on screen rather than some fake-looking wig, don’t you think? Plus, it was “super important” for the actress to have her natural hair in the film, as she told Ebony Magazine.
Bailey has also shared that she’s had her locs since she was 5 years old, and they are a “huge part” of who she is. She found it was important for her hair to be seen on the big screen, because she wanted to show the world its “beautiful and more than acceptable.”
Thanks to Camille Friend’s work with Bailey and the hair department of The Little Mermaid, the production made it happen and it looks gorg!
Stay tuned for more coverage of upcoming Disney movies on the 2023 film schedule once “Part of Your World” gets out of your head of course.
