‘The Little Mermaid’ hairstylist reveals she spent ‘at least $150,000′ on Halle Bailey’s Ariel hair

Halle Bailey’s hair was a major focus of the costume and beauty department in the new live-action remake of ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Bailey, who plays Ariel, specifically wanted to keep her long natural dreadlocks intact while portraying the redhead Disney princess.

Thankfully, Oscar-nominated hair department head Camille Friend was up for the challenge. Friend was no stranger to working with hair on big sets, as she’s previously worked on set for 2022′s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ and 2019′s ‘Captain Marvel’.

While speaking with Variety, Friend says she began with Bailey’s roots.

“I went to meet with Halle’s family. Her mother is spiritual and they’re a kind family,” she said, adding, “I started to understand who she was and why the natural hair element was important to keep.”

Once Friend had overhead approval, she began her creation process. “I look at the facial shape, skin tone and eye color. And what color her costume is going to be.”

Despite the desired look wanted for Ariel, Friend was determined not to cut any of Bailey’s natural hair or use a wig. “I knew a wig just wasn’t going to work,” she says.

Hours of work and a costly price

The process of creating the iconic red-haired princess took 12-14 hours. She says Bailey was a “trooper,” and Friend got the process down to a reasonable time.

“Halle’s locs are down to her waist, over 24 inches. And putting her in a wig was going to look crazy,” said Friend.

“If we take hair and wrap it around her locs, we don’t have to cut them and we don’t have to color them. We can change her color without changing her internal hair structure. Her structure and her hair are her.”

The 30-inch long hair was custom-colored and fused in with Keratin tips.

“It’s three shades of red,” says Friend, who found the hair at Extensions Plus in Chatsworth. “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.”

Changes to hair with character development

Then Friend had to figure out how to make the hair move around freely in the water during scenes. Her solution was to add in loose pieces of hair.

When Ariel loses her voice and transitions to a human being, Friend paid attention to details and switched her hair slightly showcasing Ariel’s vulnerability. “She doesn’t know what it’s like to be human,” she explained.

The pieces of hair were straighter with a slight beachy wave. Friend says she used an oval-shaped GHD iron. “I still wanted it to feel like an ocean wave.”

However, due to COVID and scheduling conflicts, Ariel’s infamous hair clip when she emerges from the water is actually CGI.

“Tiffany Williams jumped in there and took the movie the rest of the way…This is what I know, Halle did the hair flip, and it was helped with CGI,” Friend explained.