The 1 Thing You Never Noticed About the Hair in Every Broadway Show

You've probably heard all about costume changes on Broadway, but wig changes are just as common. Take Samantha Barks, who plays Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman: The Musical, for example. She switches between seven (!) in total throughout the show.

"Once the show starts, it's very much so a well-choreographed dance backstage," Tinsman said. "Everybody has to be in the exact right place at the exact moment with the right wig in hand — otherwise it will all go wrong."

When a musical is based off a TV show or film, there is always some inspiration taken from the original script, but it's typically not the end-all. "With makeup, it's not much taken from the movie; it's more about what looks good on the person — individually and on stage," she said, referring to Pretty Woman: The Musical. "All of the Hollywood Boulevard scenes, where we have our hooker looks, the makeup is a little more bright and punchy and in your face. For the opera scene, we did the same darker lip."

As for the hair, the show's wig designer, Josh Marquette, did some adaptations of his own. "He definitely took a little inspiration from the movie, but he made [the hair] more modern, with a 90s flair."

"We use a lot of curling irons in this show because the hair is more modern, so the Kenra Blow-Dry Spray ($22) has been a lifesaver," Tinsman said. "That really helps protect from heat damage. Since we are using wigs, not just regular growing hair, we have to pay extra attention to keeping it healthy."

Another product she swears by on particularly humid days: the brand's Daily Defense Oil ($16), which smooths frizz and "helps the wig from growing on itself."

"There is one product that I've been using my entire wig career," she said. "I'm not sponsored by them; I have no affiliation with them. It's this old-school product called Yacht Club ($12). I do not know how I came across it. It's this green pomade that I like to keep on my hands when I'm styling updos. I call it my secret weapon. I only use a superlight coat on my hands, and it takes all the frizz away and just puts everything in place. It's not sticky. It helps pretty much everything. You can buy it on Amazon; it's not very expensive, and it works."

According to Tinsman, the key to keeping wigs in place is all in the prep work. "We have a pin curl set, so you take little sections of the hair, wrap it around your fingers, and then pin it down. We do those all over the head and then pin a hair cap into the pin curl, so you have a nice, firm base."

She added, "If their wig prep is good, then the wig is going to stay on their head. Some shows also use [Ben Nye] Spirit Gum ($4) to glue the lace down. We used that when I worked on Cats; they were tumbling everywhere, and we never had to worry about a wig falling off."

"All of our makeup we use on the show is from MAC — they are a great sponsor," she said. "We go through a lot of the Matte Lipsticks ($19) because the ensemble girls will change their lipstick at least six times throughout the show."

"On stage, every one of the girls is wearing false lashes," Tinsman said. "On Pretty Woman, we use the ones from Alcon ($4) — it's the only thing we don't get from MAC."

"There is a product we used a lot on Cats, and it's a makeup setting spray called Green Marble ($28) by the company PPI," Tinsman said. "It's actually used for underwater shows like Cirque du Soleil. So if you know [the character] is really going to be sweating a lot or are getting wet and you want to keep their makeup on, this is the spray you go for."