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Costume Backlash

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"I love Chris [McMillan, her hairstylist], and he's the bane of my existence at the same time because he started that damn Rachel, which was not my best look. How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I've ever seen..."
Jennifer Aniston, on 'The Rachel' hairstyle

We've all been fashion victims at some point. That one time we tried a new style or a new hairdo, and it just didn't work or look as good as we'd hoped. But we move on and, if we're lucky, there's no photo evidence.

Actors on the other hand will have their image immortalized in every filmed project they take part in. So if a role puts them in a costume that's particularly unflattering, falls out of style pretty quickly or excessive fanservice, their bad luck is that there will forever be visual evidence out there in the world. For added insult to injury, sometimes getting a hairdo they hate is required for the role. And this doesn't get into the more elaborate monster costumes or creature make-up one would have to deal with.

And because real life is nothing if not often ironic, sometimes the person's despised look will become the one they're best known for. If the style was seen as particularly trendy at the time but fell out of fashion, it's a real-life version of I Was Quite a Fashion Victim. Can sometimes result from unfortunate real-life circumstances. Compare WTH, Costuming Department? when the fans have this reaction (and there's often overlap if the performers agree).


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Costumes 
Films — Live-Action
  • Angelina Jolie was disdainful of her Lara Croft: Tomb Raider costume because she felt the revealing clothes sent a bad message to young girls - and especially the marketing focusing on her appearance and digitally enhancing her breast size.Note By the time of the sequel, she had more input into her costumes, and Lara wore a lot more modest clothing.
  • Carrie Fisher:
    • She rather famously hated Princess Leia's iconic side-bun hairstyle from A New Hope. When the film was a smash success, she was given more input into her styles in the other films, which is why the side buns disappeared.
    • She had mixed feelings about the famous gold bikini from Return of the Jedi, and actually thought George Lucas was kidding when he first showed it to her. This was mainly because she had to sit very straight to avoid any "creases" showing up, and later in life, she said she would have preferred not to have done it (especially when she was uncomfortable being a sex symbol). She did admit she actually requested to get more memorable wardrobe, and felt Leia using the chain to kill Jabba made it worthwhile.
    • Carrie would later publicly mock her General Leia Outfit in The Force Awakens, by comparing the look to a "Classy Gas Station Attendant" and an "Airplane Repair Person". She also mocked her hairstyle with her formal gown at the end of the same movie, describing it as "baboon's ass".
  • While Michelle Pfeiffer loved her role as Catwoman in Batman Returns, the costume itself was especially troublesome. She couldn't even go to the bathroom while wearing it!
  • Batman & Robin:
    • George Clooney hated the infamous "Bat-Nipples" on his Bat-suit. He even joked about it in an ad for Omaze.
    • Chris O'Donnell disliked this movie's Robin costume compared to the one he had in Forever, as it was less comfortable, and the mask was glued onto his face; making him sweat profusely.
  • Elizabeth Olsen wasn't wild about her costume in Avengers: Infinity War, feeling the corset was too low and noticing that she was the only female character showing cleavage. Tellingly, by the time of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, she was more covered up.
  • Jessica Alba was very annoyed that the makers of Into the Blue shot scenes with a body double behind her back. She had initially signed on to play a marine biology student who wore a scuba suit, but producers decided to "dumb it down" and the double film scenes wearing a bikini. The actress then had to match what was already shot, and grudgingly went along with it, knowing she'd be called a diva if she complained.
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: Jim Carrey hated the yellow lenses for his Grinch's costume because they were very uncomfortable. The yellow eyes of Grinch were even made by computer in some scenes because Carrey refused to wear them. He had less luck with the Grinch suit and makeup, which took hours to put on each day—and was so agonizingly uncomfortable that the producers had to bring in a CIA expert who specialized in torture resistance to help Carrey cope.
  • Kate Beckinsale may have excitedly signed onto Van Helsing to play a glamorous Action Girl, but she wasn't wild about the costume. She had to wear a tight corset, and do her stunts in high-heeled boots, stating that by the end of filming "I wanted to burn it all".
  • Kristen Stewart was a little annoyed at having to spend a lot of Underwater running around in a sports bra and underwear, since the initial plan was to wear a skin tight scuba suit.
  • Malin ƅkerman compared her Silk Spectre costume in Watchmen to like putting on a condom over her whole body, and she couldn't properly bend or move too much while wearing it. She said she'd only reprise the role if she didn't have to wear the same costume again.
  • Milla Jovovich called her Leeloo costume from the start of The Fifth Element "a bit embarrassing". Although used to skimpiness from her modelling days, she wasn't used to numerous crew members wolf whistling her all the time.
  • Scarlett Johansson felt her costume in Iron Man 2 was too sexualized, and much preferred how it became in later Marvel movies.
  • Scooby-Doo (2002):
    • Freddie Prinze Jr. hated wearing Fred's trademark ascot. He also disliked bleaching his hair for the role as it ruined his hair and he had to shave it off immediately after filming.
    • Sarah Michelle Gellar just had to wear a wig for her role as Daphne, but she hated wearing the infamous go-go boots.
  • Most of the actors on Star Trek: The Motion Picture weren't fond of the 'space pyjamas' Starfleet Uniforms, mainly due to a lack of functionalitynote . According to George Takei, the cast made it clear that they wouldn't return for the sequel unless the uniforms were changed, which led to the redesigned costumes used for the rest of the TOS film series.
  • In the DVD commentary for the 1984 Talking Heads Concert Film Stop Making Sense, bassist Tina Weymouth riffs on the baggy gray coveralls she wears during her first few numbers, stating "Ah yes, the blimp suit. It must have looked very modern in the '80s."
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • In the first one of the series, X-Men, Halle Berry despised the white contact lenses she had to wear whenever she used her powers. She successfully campaigned to have the effect changed to CGI in the sequels.
    • Jennifer Lawrence grew to dislike the make-up for Mystique's blue form, since it took eight hours to apply in X-Men: First Class. She did switch to a bodysuit for X-Men: Days of Future Past to minimise "the time and blisters", but tellingly X-Men: Apocalypse has her spending a lot of the movie in disguise. Dark Phoenix also has her in a uniform where it's only the head that has to be made up. And then she's killed off early on.
    • Subverted with Olivia Munn in X-Men: Apocalypse. Bryan Singer knew very little about Psylocke's comic book backstory, and wanted to stick her in a modest black costume. A fan of the character herself, she fought for them to let her wear something closer to her purple Leotard of Power.
  • Sean Connery was not fond of Zardoz in part because his outfit for much of the movie was a red speedo with matching criss-crossed bandoliers and black thigh-high boots, as well as a ponytail and Porn Stache. However, he was a good sport when Mike Myers riffed on it at his 2006 AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony.
  • The shoes Joan Sims had to wear in Doctor in Love as part of her stripper costume caused pain in her feet.
  • In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Tenoch Huerta hated the "shame shorts," as he called the famous trunks worn by Namor the Sub-Mariner. They left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
  • Carry On... Series:

Live-Action TV

  • Caroline Rhea loves to laugh at the terrible costume choices on some Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes; saying that Sabrina went to school "dressed like an accountant" and her own hair was styled as if she were going "to a coronation for a very senior royal."
  • Charmed (1998):
    • Holly Marie Combs towards the infamous Coyote Piper outfit and scene in the episode of the same name (she had to be drunk to film it). In a fan Q&A, she was asked which of Piper's outfits were her favourite, and she said "I hated them all".
    • Rose McGowan hated the woodnymph costume she wore when Paige gets turned into one, and even names that as her least favourite episode. She also wasn't wild about the Greek Goddess dresses in the Season 5 finale.
    • Kaley Cuoco burst into tears when she saw what she'd have to wear in "Battle of the Hexes". The superhero costume originally had a cape, but she refused to wear it.
  • Daniela Monet swore off some of her outfits from Victorious, stating that she wouldn't even wear them as an adult, and she and many others didn't protest out of fear of being seen as difficult.
  • Doctor Who:
    • Tom Baker heavily disliked the changes that John Nathan-Turner made to the program when he became producer in 1980, and this included the changes he made to the Doctor's costume. In particular, Baker voiced displeasure at the question marks that Nathan-Turner added to the Doctor's shirt collar (as part of an effort to more concretely brand the show), a complaint that would extend to later actors during the Classic Series.
    • Colin Baker (no relation to Tom) despised his costume for the Sixth Doctor, an infamously gaudy Stylistic Suck patchwork getup, as soon as he had to start wearing it, pejoratively describing it as "an explosion in a rainbow factory." He'd wanted the Doctor to wear a black velvet outfit to match his character's darkened personality and consequently took more kindly to the uniformly blue outfit that Six wears in a number of Expanded Universe stories, later voicing his approval on Twitter for a fan's customized action figure that approximated the "black velvet" look.
    • Sylvester McCoy didn't voice many issues with his costume as the Seventh Doctor for the most part but considered the question mark sweater vest tacky and overblown. He would swap it out for a red silk vest in the 1996 TV movie.
    • Wendy Padbury found the PVC dress she wore in "The Krotons" to be impractical, because it was so prone to accidental damage (some of which is visible in the episode as broadcast).
    • "Snakedance":
      • Martin Clunes, who played Lon, looks back on his costumes in that serial without much in the way of fondness, something talk show hosts frequently exploit to mess with him, bringing up clips from the serial to riff on the outfits.
      • Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding disliked their costumes, with Sutton going so far as to say it made her look fat. Peter Davison says on the DVD Commentary that it looks worse than Colin Baker's costume.
  • The actors on The Gnomes of Dulwich hated the gnome costumes as they took from ninety minutes to a couple of hours to get into and have the makeup applied, they got heated up too much under the studio lights, and because it made them too unrecognisable onscreen.
  • Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler in Batman (1966), disliked his original costume (a fairly comics-accurate green question-mark catsuit), which he found very undignified. His preferred second costume was a more Civvie Spandex green business suit with a question-mark print, and a bowler hat, which fans reacted to so enthusiastically that ever since the Riddler has frequently worn similar costumes in both the mainstream DCU comics canon and later adaptations.
  • Things on The Goes Wrong Show are meant to go wrong by design, but Jonathan Sayer has expressed frustration with the horse costume he wore in "Harper's Locket" because it was very delicate and a wrong move could set off the gags prematurely and force everyone to reset for another take.
  • Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers:
    • Austin St. John was a modest 18-year-old when he was cast as Jason and was left agog when he saw the Red Ranger suit at first ("I'm not a fan of red to begin with"). Although he ended up being surprised at how good it made his figure look once it was put on, he also noticed how it left him very little modesty down below...
      "I was eighteen, I was like 'my momma always said I should cover these things up'...they were like 'we need you to put on these ballet pants' and I'm like 'BALLET PANTS!? What are you trying to do to me!'"
    • Karan Ashley had similar reactions to the Yellow Ranger suit, not least because she was merely given Thuy Trang's old castoff when she left the show and had to wear three layers of socks to fit into the boots. The cold temperatures inside the set also necessitated a lot of bandaids to keep it a family show.
    • David Yost grew to dislike Billy's "nerd glasses," primarily because they started to affect his vision (the glasses themselves didn't have an actual prescription, but were coated in an anti-glare material that strained his eyes. He sneakily asked the director of the first movie if he could opt-out of wearing them, and the director, unfamiliar with the material, allowed him, and once the precedent was set, Billy was allowed to "get contact lenses" in the series as well.
  • In general, the casts of the TNG-era shows didn't enjoy wearing their costumes.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
      • The lycra costumes for the Enterprise crew in Seasons One and Two were notoriously uncomfortable, even making sitting difficult, plus the lycra material would retain the actors' sweat and body oils, causing them to stink after a while. But Patrick Stewart hated his the most; since the showrunners wanted Picard to have a smooth, unwrinkled look they deliberately made his uniforms a size too small, which strained his muscles so much that his chiropractor told him that the wardrobe was crippling him. Male members of the cast received new, two-piece wool versions in Season Three, which were further modified not long after they were introduced because they couldn't move. Female cast members, meanwhile, eventually switched back to spandex versions (which also had to go through multiple iterations) after they complained that the new look was unflattering on their figures.
      • Marina Sirtis's original outfit as Denna Troi was a Custom Uniform of Sexy which looked nothing like any other wardrobe on the show; it featured an Impossibly-Low Neckline which occasionally bordered on Navel-Deep Neckline. Though Sirtis appreciated her status as a Ms. Fanservice, she also disliked the wardrobe, sarcastically commenting "When you have a cleavage you can't have brains in Hollywood." When the writers made her character a Starfleet officer, she was given a standard uniform, which Sirtis loved, especially because she felt that the new costume allowed her to go from The Load to an Action Girl: "It covered up my cleavage, and consequently, I got all my brains back...I went on away teams, I was in charge of staff, I had my pips back, I had phasers, I had all the equipment again, and it was fabulous." For Star Trek: Generations a Troubled Production had the Starfleet uniforms switch around early into filming, with them initially looking to put most of the crew into DS9 uniforms, but Sirtis refused because she didn't like the look (feeling it was unflattering to her figure) and preferred her current uniform.
      • LeVar Burton as Geordi wore his VISOR at nearly all times and the prop was glued to his head. Over long shooting periods this would result in frequent migraines. Of course, In-Universe it was said Geordi would get migraines because of the implants, so he could lean into that for Method Acting. By Star Trek: First Contact Geordi had swapped the VISOR for cybernetic eyes, letting LeVar wear designer contact lenses instead, which remained for the rest of his appearances as the character.
      • The Romulans of the TNG era wore truly hideous uniforms with massive shoulder pads in patterns that looked like they were taken from curtains. And in the two-part episode "Unification", we see this fashion sense extended to the civilian population. Word of God grew to hate these costumes, so Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would give the Tal Shiar better-looking uniforms, and Star Trek: Nemesis got rid of them for good.
    • Star Trek: Voyager:
      • None of the cast liked the show's uniforms. The synthetic fabric got hot under the studio lights while the one-piece jumpsuit style meant that they only fit when standing perfectly straight. The slightest movement made the crotch ride uncomfortably high, which meant sitting on the bridge wasn't pleasant.
      • And while the rest of the cast had their problems with the costumes, Jeri Ryan particularly hated the catsuits she had to wear as Seven of Nine. Especially since the first version of the suit caused her to pass out a few times due to a high collar that pressed against her carotid artery, requiring the crew to keep nurses and an oxygen tank on set; subsequent redesigns of the costume always left her neck exposed to avoid this, which still leaves it as an uncomfortable one-piece. In an interview, she says she would've burned it if she'd been allowed to take it home after the show ended. Notably, when Ryan was brought back to reprise Seven in Star Trek: Picard, the catsuits were swapped out for more comfortable regular clothing.
    • The one exception to the backlash was the cast of Star Trek: Enterprise. As it was set much earlier than its predecessors, the Starfleet characters received fitted, but relatively loose, jumpsuits made of cotton, meaning the cast could move around without overheating or worrying about crotches riding up.
  • Kathy Staff hated all the padding she had to wear as Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine.
  • William Katt of The Greatest American Hero once said he would love to burn the superhero costume he had to wear.
  • The Flash (1990): John Wesley Shipp did not like wearing the Flash costume, which was a rubbery, sculpted affair (similar to the Batsuits from the Batman movies of the era) designed to look good in still shots, but was extremely stiff and difficult to move around in. Reportedly, when production on the show ended, Shipp ripped the ears off the costume and gave them to Mark Hamill.

Music

  • blink-182: Tom DeLonge has said that the band wearing Nude-Colored Clothes to appear naked for the "What's My Age Again?" music video was "only funny for like ten minutes", and they hate how the marketing focused on that.
    "We were so naĆÆve that we would run around naked, but they'd make it all glossy and put it on posters and make it look like we really were some kind of erotic boy band or some shit."
  • Bradley McIntosh of S Club 7 hated what he had to wear for the "You're My Number One" video; saying the stylist turned up with plenty of options for everyone else but only the one thing for him. And due to the rushed production, there was no time to braid his hair, and he had to wear a beanie for the whole video.
  • Britney Spears has said that the famous red bodysuit from her "Oops I Did It Again" video is the one outfit she'd never wear again; it was hot, sticky, and felt like she was dancing in a balloon.
  • Girls Aloud's second video, for the single "No Good Advice", featured the girls in silver outfits that none of them liked. As they were prone to ripping, it was similar to dancing in tin foil.
    Nadine: How did we ever think that was a good idea? Silver? Spandex? Tinfoil?
  • The Backstreet Boys still complain about the music video for "We've Got It Goin' On" as they were forced to wear heavy layers of leather and denim while filming outdoors in the middle of a boiling-hot Orlando summer.
  • Do Kyungsoo of EXO admits that he hates the black puffy Snow White-type shirt that he wore while performing in a Korean music show back when he was a rookie.

Professional Wrestling

  • The Bella Twins spoke at length in a shoot interview about how they "hated" their initial ring gear in WWE. As the PG switch was happening around the time they got called up to TV, they were pressured to preserve it and "we were like the G-girls". In their autobiography, they also revealed that locker room bullies told them they couldn't wear the gear they'd had made professionally because it was red and that belonged to "one of the veterans" - requiring the seamstress to hurriedly sew cut-off swimsuits onto workout pants and spray glitter on to make it look like wrestling gear.
  • Billy Gunn views his brief 'Rock-a-Billy' gimmick (where he was the Honky Tonk Man's prodigy) with regret because of how bad the costume looked.
  • Gail Kim was mortified by various Fanservice segments she had to do in her second run with WWE - wrestling in bikinis, pyjamas, and evening gowns.
    "Now I have to live with the memories and pictures."
  • Jillian Hall's initial gimmick on WWE TV was that of a publicist with a strange growth on her cheek. She wasn't a fan.
  • Krissy Vaine was called up to TV at the last minute when a friend had been working on her gear in between professional jobs. The outfit had to be finished quickly, and Krissy described it as "looking like a friggin Christmas clown". Not helping matters was being told by agents after her segment that they wanted her in street clothes rather than wrestling gear...when she'd walked around for an hour backstage in the outfit with no one saying anything to her.
  • Terri Poch wore a bodysuit for her match against Sable at WrestleMania XV. As she had done many photoshoots involving body paint and animal print, the intent was to make it look like her outfit was painted on. She says she knew she'd bombed when she caught Vince McMahon and The Rock gawking at her right before she went out.
  • When Karrion Kross was called up to the main roster, he was given a new gimmick that involved a Master Blaster inspired outfit with leather straps and a large helmet. After being released from the company, Kross made his opinion on the outfit known on twitter when a fan wondered if he'd give him the helmet, saying that no one would want "that piece of shit". When Kross later returned to the company, he notably went back to his old gimmick and outfit with the helmet nowhere in sight.

Web Video

  • Lindsay Ellis was basically told to wear a costume in To Boldly Flee that she didn't approve of.
    "My biggest objection was the outfit I was expected to wear. I had no say on the fact that Doug wrote my character based on 7 of 9, and I had to dress like that character."

    Hairstyles 
Films — Live-Action
  • Alex Pettyfer found shaving his head for the film version of Beastly quite harrowing, as he viewed his hair as a security blanket, and therefore losing it helped him understand his character's Beauty to Beast transformation.
  • Anne Hathaway was not acting during the Traumatic Haircut of Les MisĆ©rables (2012). Nicola Sloane, who played the crone cutting the hair, says that she was in hysterics after the first chop and they had to swap out her hairdresser to do the rest. She was especially distraught because her wedding was coming up.
  • Cameron Diaz filmed The Counsellor shortly after a hairdresser misunderstood her and gave her a short bob, which she stated made her feel "so vulnerable".
  • Carey Mulligan was required to dye her hair white blonde for Public Enemies, and it fried it so badly she had to cut it into a pixie that she cried and would not stop talking about how much she hated it.
  • Chris Hemsworth found it a hassle to grow his hair out for Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and had to cut it short for other roles in between such as Ghostbusters (2016). He also had been annoyed at how long it took to get a wig fitted for the first Thor, which is why he gets an Important Haircut halfway through Thor: Ragnarok.
  • Ellar Coltrane was annoyed at having to grow his hair out for a section in Boyhood. And then when Mason gets it all shorn off in a Traumatic Haircut, the actor ironically was thrilled to be rid of it.
  • Ginnifer Goodwin had long hair at the start of her career, but eventually opted for pixie cuts, saying she was too lazy to maintain long hair. She even had it written into her contract that if a role required long hair, she would just wear a wig (notably Something Borrowed and Once Upon a Time). Showing how this trope can change, she grew her hair out again in 2018.
  • Javier Bardem had to sport quite an unflattering hairstyle in No Country for Old Men, and joked he was worried he "wouldn't get laid for four months" while they were filming it.
  • Jude Law hated his haircut for Anna Karenina so much, he just wore a beanie when doing press junkets for the Sherlock Holmes publicity tour happening around the same time as filming.
  • Kristofer Hivju was pressured into cutting his long hair much shorter for After Earth (despite Jaden Smith trying to appeal on his behalf). He wasn't happy about it, and even less so when most of his scenes were cut.
  • Nora Jane Noone had to cut her hair into a pixie for The Descent, as she was playing The Lad-ette of the group. She joked that it was traumatic for about two weeks, and she's never gone that short again.
  • Rose McGowan
    • She jokes that she hated the colour she went for Scream. Naturally a brunette, she suspected that she might miss out on the role due to looking too similar to Neve Campbell, and offered to go blonde. Despite this, she says it was perfect for the character. She also wasn't a fan of the wardrobe mistress's original choice of denim overalls and tomboyish clothes, refusing to wear them and buying Tatum's outfits herself (she wanted to make the character cuter and more feminine).
    • She hated her long hair after a while, due to pressure from Hollywood Beauty Standards to keep it long "or else no one will want to fuck you". After deciding to retire from acting, she cut it short herself and later shaved her head. She's kept it short ever since.
  • Sam Spruill had to get a haircut for Snow White & the Huntsman that he describes as "fine for the film, horrible for civilian life." Said haircut was a platinum blond pageboy with a very short fringe.
  • The Twilight Saga:
    • Taylor Lautner disliked the wig he had to wear in the first film. The fans could tell it was fake and thought it looked ridiculous. Tellingly, while Jacob gets an Important Haircut in New Moon, he grows it back out in Eclipse. But in the films, his hair remains short. Ironically, the wig in the New Moon film before the haircut was agreed to look much better.
    • Nikki Reed had such a bad experience bleaching her hair on the first film (it took 36 hours and her hair started falling out) that she wore wigs for the remaining films.
  • Tom Felton, who is a natural brunette, despises maintaining the platinum blonde hair of his character, Draco Malfoy, in the Harry Potter movies because he had to dye it every 10 days. Fortunately, his hair wasn't damaged in a long run.
  • Woody Harrelson despised the vivid red curls he sported in Venom as Cletus Kasady, and for the sequel, along with having a say in his character's wardrobe choices, he insisted his hair be more realistic.
  • Courteney Cox disliked her baby bangs in Scream 3 which apparently was her ex husband David Arquette's idea. She poked fun at it on her Instagram
  • Persis Khambatta had to shave her head bald while playing Lt. Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. She reportedly cried at first, kept her hair in a box, and asked Gene Roddenberry to insure her just in case it didn't grow back.

Live-Action TV

  • Chad Michael Murray hated having to grow his hair out for One Tree Hill and would celebrate the end of every season by buzzing it off.
  • Topher Grace disliked having to maintain 70s-style hair for That '70s Show. He eventually had to cut his hair short for a movie role and wore a wig for the rest of his run on the show, which led to some grumbling about why he hadn't thought about wearing a wig sooner.
  • Charisma Carpenter had a case of Be Careful What You Wish For on Season 2 of Angel. Cordelia was known for her long hair but, after five years, she found the upkeep a bit too much and asked if she could cut it. Cordelia gets a shoulder-length haircut in "The Shroud of Rahmon", and in the DVD extras, she laughs about how bad it is. She changed to a blonde bob after four episodes.
  • Friends - Jennifer Aniston despised the famous haircut she had during the second season. Despite it being named 'The Rachel' and becoming a popular fashion with young women at the time, she says it only came about because the hairdresser made a mistake and tried to correct it (other sources say he just got overenthusiastic). She had grown it out by the next season.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Gwendoline Christie sobbed for an hour in her trailer after she had to cut her hair short to play Brienne of Tarth. Once the series was finished, she grew it out again.
    • Kit Harington came to hate his famous long curls, not least because it was something interviewers never stopped bringing up. Indeed, once the series wrapped, he cut it shorter.
  • Johnny Yong Bosch was told to grow his hair long for Power Rangers Turbo, as Jason David Frank was leaving the show and producers wanted him to have similar long hair - intending to promote him to Red Ranger. Then Catherine Sutherland decided to leave as well, and producers opted to replace the whole cast halfway through the season. Regardless, Johnny loves to joke about how bad the hair looked.
  • Katee Sackhoff had to cut her long blonde hair short for Battlestar Galactica (2003) and disliked it. She was particularly annoyed by Starbuck's hair growing out as part of a depression, and then having to cut it off again in an Important Haircut. She eventually lobbied for the character to stay long-haired.
  • Mackenzie Crook hated his hair in The Office (UK) while he was playing Gareth and hated it so much that he refused to make a cameo in another project because it meant he had to have that hairstyle again. When asked why he hated that haircut so much, he simply said that he had to have it during his wedding.
  • Miley Cyrus disliked her look as the eponymous Hannah Montana, hating the blonde wig and excessive glitter on everything; comparing it to Toddlers & Tiaras.
  • Noah Schnapp of Stranger Things' has gone on record to say that he hates Will Byers's bowl cut, and the hiatus between every season would usually involve him appealing to the showrunners to give Will a different style. Each time he was told no, citing historical accuracy (although many other '80s kids have disputed this).
  • The majority of the Peaky Blinders cast members disliked the famous haircuts.
    • Paul Anderson has remarked that it looks fine on set when in full costume, but it's quite a different story when walking around South London in civilian life. At first, he was constantly comparing his to his fellow cast members, wondering why his looked the worst.
    • Joe Cole underlines his dislike of the haircut with a story from during the first season (before they caught on as a fashion trend among young men). While on the train, he sat near a man comforting his crying friend and said man spotted him and then said "at least you ain't got that haircut."
    • Cillian Murphy hated his so much that later seasons eventually toned down the severity of it.
  • Rainn Wilson regretted his hairstyle while he was playing Dwight Schrute in The Office (US) because he chose the hairstyle to reflect the character's awkwardness, not fully understanding that he had to maintain it during the show's run.
  • Sarah Jessica Parker towards the bob she sported in Sex and the City Season 4, saying it's "maybe time to be forgotten and never discussed again".
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the first few seasons Worf's hair was fairly short but pulled tight to his head, contrasting him with the Wild Hair of other Klingons but made him look more military standard in return. Seasons 3 through 5 had Worf with shoulder length hair flared out to the side which came across as a Sci-Fi Bob Haircut, looking somewhat ridiculous on a Proud Warrior Race and the cast and crew mocked him as a fashion show model. Season 6 had his hair get long but kept in a Sailor's Ponytail, which was maintained in different forms for the remainder of his time on TNG, DS9, and the TNG films, but could also be undone to show him with Wild Hair for the first time.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sarah Michelle Gellar shares the fandom's dislike of Buffy's bangs in the episode "Amends".
  • On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver often ridicules his older hairstyle, a Beatlesesque moptop which he wore when he was part of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
  • EastEnders: Wendy Richard wasn't happy about having to cut her hair short to play Pauline Fowler; she had been growing her hair out for the last nineteen years. She claimed that she cried her eyes out for the rest of the day after it was cut.

Music

  • RM from BTS isn't too fond of the pink hair he sported while he was promoting their title track "Run" back in 2015. He even refers to it as his dark past and says he won't ever do it again in an interview.
  • While promoting his solo album, Suho of EXO looks into the video clips that many fans loved watching. One of the videos is Suho with blonde hair during the "Overdose" era in 2014. When he watches it, he's embarrassed by the wink and an air kiss that he gave to the audience, thinking that he must have gone crazy. When asked if he wants to go blonde again, he refuses because not only he cringes at how he behaved back then but also because he disliked his hairstyle.

Professional Wrestling

  • Alicia Fox gave herself a Luna Vachon style mohawk briefly in 2015. She kept it for two weeks before replacing it with a more standard weave again. In an interview with Lilian Garcia, she calls it a bad decision made while she was suffering from being in the public eye thanks to Total Divas.
  • Chris Jericho made fun of the hair he had from 2005 until his 2006 departure from WWE. He wanted to cut his long hair but was apprehensive about cutting it all off and so went for the "uncomfortable middle stage". He had gone fully short by his 2007 return. And when he did grow it long again in AEW, it was well past his shoulders.
  • Dolph Ziggler had a brief period in 2011 when his trademark blond hair was cut short and dyed brown. Supposedly it was because the bleach had ruined it, but it was mainly because WWE felt he couldn't be a serious title contender with his hair like that. After a few weeks (in which he compared it to a Futurama episode where Bender had to cut his antenna off), he reverted to bleach blond and the hair change was quietly forgotten.
  • John Cena likes to poke fun at the bleach-blond flattop he had when he was 'The Protoype'; joking that it was "a transitional time."
  • Molly Holly wasn't a fan of her blonde hair early in her career. While she felt it did fit her gimmick, the upkeep was far too much and the bleach ruined her hair so much that it was "like straw" by 2002. Upon a Faceā€“Heel Turn, she darkened it and cut it short.
  • The Rock eternally mocks the hairstyle he had when he first debuted, comparing it to "a Chia Pet".
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin has gone on record saying that he isn't a fan of the hairstyles he had in WCW as "Stunning" Steve Austin as well as the buzz cut he had as the Ringmaster. Steve was still struggling to accept the fact that he was going bald and kept trying to hang on to his hair for as long as he could. He said that shaving his head was the best career choice he ever made and that the Stone Cold persona wouldn't have worked if he still had hair.

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