MovieChat Forums > Inside Daisy Clover (1966) Discussion > What color is Daisy's hair supposed to b...

What color is Daisy's hair supposed to be?

posted 8 years ago by tehck
6 replies | jump to latest

I just watched part of this on TCM. I've been a big fan of Natalie's for years, but this is one of the few films she made in the 60s I hadn't seen. Boy was I shocked. It was laughably bad, and she was flat out terrible. But the script, directions, and costuming were certainly not helping her out.

I tuned in about 15 minutes into the movie when Natalie was still supposedly an unkempt "carny" urchin -- with frosted hair? Not only was her hairstyle bizarrely anachronistic, it looked terrible for any era. Half the time, the highlights made her look like a salt-and-pepper "graying" middle-aged brunette instead of a teenager.

I know next to nothing about hairstyles and only notice them when they look especially flattering or terrible. This one didn't just take me out of the movie, it kept me from ever entering it. I didn't buy this character in the supposed time and place for one second, and that was the first barrier to any sense of verisimilitude in the film. I have seen lots of bottle blondes in 1930s, but I don't recall any in the 30s or 40s with highly contrasting "highlights" like Natalie had here.

It's really, really hard to make Natalie Wood look bad, but somehow this movie succeeds.

[–] WaitForMe 8 years ago

Yes, I was thinking the exact same thing.

[–] tehck 8 years ago

My mother was born in 1929 (still kicking hard), and after posting my original comment I called and asked her when she remembers "highlights" or "frosting" becoming a thing. She said maybe the mid 1950s but no earlier, which is what I thought.

As I remember, it was the late 60s and 1970s when hair streaked with hues not found in nature became popular.

[–] WaitForMe 8 years ago

Her hair was supposed to be prematurely greying?

[–] XDumbledork 7 years ago

That wasn't until the scene where Swann comes to threaten her to get out of bed and finish the picture. At that point she said "my hair's going grey" and they laugh over it. So presumably before that point, it wasn't supposed to look grey.

I agree with OP, the hair was bizarre. The weird streaks and greyish mousy colour only served to make Natalie look older. Seeing as she was already about a decade older than the character she was playing, it really didn't help anything. She sports a slightly similar cut in Gypsy but that was mercifully kept a deep brunette which was infinitely more flattering on her.

[–] Ewymer62 (1) a year ago

I totally agree. I've seen this movie about 3 times and every time, her hair is so obviously wrong. It is off-putting from what is a pretty good movie. I loved Robert Redford as the ne'er to well professional bachelor who became the n'er do well husband. How strange that their love affair had so many references to the water and a yacht. Very bizarre really. But I had so much trouble looking at that GOD AWFUL hair. I'm not sure what the meaning of that was. Probably showing how imperfect her character was. But why? her performance showed that. Guess we'll never know.

[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Maybe her hair was supposed to be sun-streaked, since the kid has been outdoors running wild all day instead of going to school or anything.

I've seen people with brown hair get natural golden highlights if they spent enough time in the sun, but of course natural sun-streaking looks NOTHING like 1960s "frosted" hair. But I guess the hairdresser only knew how to do horrible frosted highlights, or the producers decided they wanted a more fashionable look for Natalie Wood than naturalistic sun-streaks. Later in the film, her hair is a more naturalistic light brown.