When I was working at Disney, I was friends with Princess Rapunzel and Queen Elsa. Needless to say, they both have pretty great hair. To get that awesome hair, they’ve got friends who put 10 pound helmet wigs on their heads.
Elsa’s easier because she just has one wig: the platinum beauty with the snowflakes in it.
But Rapunzel has a lot of hair, and therefore a lot of wig. She has a base wig, which I lovingly deem the helmet, and then a giant hair extension that they literally snap onto the base, Velcro to her back, and button to her front. It’s some heavy-duty hair.
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There’s some stuff I’d like to share with you about those heavy duty wigs.
1.) You’re going to feel 20 pounds heavier.
You’re not going to want to move. I sat comatose on the backstage couch all the way up until the show started. It makes you seriously lethargic.
Play cards! Get interested! Get your energy up! You know the drill, get that musical theater energy. Find something that makes you forget that you’re 20 pounds heavier. Your show with thank you.
2.) You might lose some real hair.
The pins that they stick into princess heads are the real deal. Loads of princesses I knew have lost parts of their hairlines because of these wigs.
My advice? Communicate with the people who put the wigs on. If it physically hurts your scalp, you’re probably losing hair and you should ask them nicely to adjust or re-pin the pin.
Also, do some hair masks every now and again. You’re putting your hair through some tough stuff. You deserve it.
3.) You might want to cut all your hair off.
Half the girls I worked with, including myself, chopped their hair off after having to put wigs on every day.
It’s hot! It’s sweaty! It’s hard to put 2 feet of hair under a wig!
Obviously, not everyone cut off their hair. But it’s very tempting.
4.) Some days are better hair days than others.
The people who do princess hair are amazing people. So talented, so kind, just the best. But everyone gets bad hair days. Even princesses.
On stage, that doesn’t matter because no one’s close enough to tell what’s going on with Elsa’s hair. So don’t be mean to the people helping the princesses! If you feel that strongly that Elsa’s hair looks like an ice helmet, just ask them nicely and politely if they could adjust it.
5.) They will never use your real hair.
My mom had this crazy thought that they were going to love my hair so much that they would give it to Rapunzel, but they will never use your real hair.
Ever.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 8 feet long and glows, they are never giving your hair to a princess. They’re using wigs.
They aren’t going to style your hair 10 times a day. That would be ridiculous, and you’d probably end up losing half your hair by the second month.
6.) Rapunzel has very long hair.
If you’re friends with Rapunzel, or even friends of friends of Rapunzel, you’re going to notice just how long her hair is. Some days it touches the floor, even in her glorious blonde braid. Some days it doesn’t.
If you’re with her when it touches the floor, watch out! She’ll be in pain if you trip on it. If you’re with her when it doesn’t touch the floor, there’s less of a chance of you tripping on it, but then she’ll sit down and it’ll finally touch the floor.
Just be careful! When I was friends with Rapunzel, she would wrap it around her neck like a scarf to keep people from stepping on it. I honestly couldn’t tell you if that was breaking any rules, but nobody told her anything about it.
There you go!
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