Halle Bailey’s beautiful red locks in the live-action blockbuster The Little Mermaid reportedly cost more than $150k (£120k) to create and were a tedious process to complete.
Halle Bailey’s amazing red hair in the live-action picture The Little Mermaid cost more than $150k
Camille Friend, the Oscar-nominated hair department head, produced Ariel’s distinctive red locks and noted that it was a “process” to achieve her vision for Ariel’s trademark red locks.
Camille noted that she wanted Halle’s long hair to remain natural and healthy while still evoking the Disney princess.
She said: “I knew a wig just wasn’t going to work.
“Halle’s locks are down to her waist, over 24 inches. And putting her in a wig was going to look crazy.”
“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.”
Instead, the stylist took three different colors of red hair and wrapped it around the locs before fusing them with Keratin to give her hair a rich red color.
However, fans of the princess have turned to social media to express their disappointment that the hair isn’t red enough, despite the fact that the treatment was time-consuming and expensive.
”If they spent half a million dollars on hair, then the least they could’ve done is…”, tweeted one individual.
While another user commented, “Fr even if they wanted to be natural it could’ve been this instead of ginger-brown.”
Despite this, Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid was a smashing success, grossing over $48 million on its opening night.