Sienna Miller [1]'s hair always looks enviable. The English actress is known for her casually cool, undone blond beach waves — which are sometimes even tinged with rose gold [2]. You can tell she steps out of the shower, tosses it with a texturizing mist [3], and her mane just air-dries with breezy, bendable waves.
This was all confirmed when we saw Sienna take the spotlight as the famous French party girl Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway (alongside the talented Alan Cumming). Carrie Rohm, the associate hair and wig designer for the acclaimed musical remake, chatted with us after the show, when we learned that, yes, Sienna wears her real hair in Cabaret (instead of a usual Broadway wig).
"We wanted to evoke a period feel of the '20s and '30s, but for Sienna's version of Sally, we didn't want anything too manicured," she explained. "So a manicured finger wave wouldn't feel right. That's how they came up with that sort of tousled, loose look that is still very '30s, without it being too perfect."
It's pretty perfect! Read on to learn how you can DIY [4] her Parisian-chic party hair from the show, and then buy tickets here [5] to see Sienna perform before the show closes on March 29.
DIY Sienna Miller's Sally Bowles Hair
Step 1: Start by prepping hair with a flexible or dry shampoo. "I like the Bumble and bumble Dryspun Finish [6] ($30), and that just gives the hair a little grit, so it will hold the curls but it won't weigh it down," said Rohm.
Step 2: Take sections of the hair and wrap each section around a 3/4-inch barrel curling iron. Make sure to alternate the sizes of the sections to get less uniform-looking curls. This is a key step to getting cool-girl hair! "You get a little bit of that party-girl feeling by making it look like you didn't put too much time or effort or thought into it," explained Rohm. "Which is really what Sally is [about]."
Step 3: The last step is to take a small section of the hair from the top front and twist it back and to the side. Secure it with two bobby pins about an inch back from the hairline. "I really want no volume in that twist," Rohm explained. "It's just to get it out of her face and give a little interest."
How Sienna Stood Out From the Other Famous Sallys
While big names like Emma Stone [7] and Michelle Williams [8] played Sally Bowles first, Sienna has her own hair look for the show. "It's all been very different," said Rohm. "Emma's version of Sally was a little bit more structured, so she had a more traditional finger-wave style. Michelle's hair was actually very simple. She came in with a short bob haircut, and we worked with her own hair texture." Since Sienna has a natural wave and texture, the hair crew played it up to create a curlier style.
After using hot tools night after night, a Broadway star's hair can get damaged. If you're also a curling-iron junkie, Rohm recommended using Bumble and bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer [9] ($27) before applying heat and Bumble and bumble Repair Blow Dry [10] ($30), a serum-cream hybrid that remedies split ends. "You want anything with a little deep conditioner," Rohm noted. "You want to seal your ends and put some keratin back in."
Sally's Hair Reflects Her Character's Evolution
At the beginning of the musical, Sally is sexy, sassy, and confident, but by the end, she becomes more vulnerable. Her hair plays a part in showcasing this evolution. "Her hair definitely gets more deconstructed as the show moves on and Sally sort of loses her grip a little bit," Rohm said. "By the time we get to 'Cabaret,' near the end of the show, she has a fully wet head of hair to show a transformation of how far she's come and how much things have changed." According to Rohm, the wet hair symbolized how broken down her character has become. See ladies? There's more to the "undone hair" trend than you think!