King's cascading red hair in "The Princess" may look effortless, but a lot of logistics went into the look. At the time of shooting, Armstrong says that the actor's real hair was cut into a bob just above her shoulders, and the team wanted to add lots of length. For the most realistic effect, Armstrong opted for extensions over a wig and sought out the longest option available, which turned out to be 30 inches.
"Some of them were sewn in — they had to be really strong because her hair gets pulled and gets caught in things," she says. "I used the very fine ones around the edges but used more robust ones around the back."
King's princess hairstyle also features braids, which serve both a functional and narrative purpose. "There were two plaits at the side, which I kept most of the time because her hair was so long. If that had been completely [taken] down, she wouldn't have been able to see what she was doing."
The braids in the rest of her hair, however, gradually fall as the princess becomes more and more unkempt from battle, highlighting the character's grit and determination. "She had smaller plaits that went down with little decorations," Armstrong says. "At the beginning of the movie, we lose one of the decorations, then one of the plaits goes. So at the end of it, she's only left with wild hair with the two wild plaits at the sides."
To achieve King's custom red tone, Armstrong first dyed King's natural hair and then dyed the extensions before putting them in.
