All the Hidden Meanings in the Hairstyles on Bridgerton

Academy Award nominee Marc Pilcher is used to working on big projects (Mary Queen of Scots, Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast), but even he couldn’t have predicted how big Bridgerton would be when he signed on to be the show’s hair and makeup designer. Pilcher and his team worked tirelessly on the stunning looks you see on the Shondaland series, often creating every look from scratch. “Some of the wigs would take four or five days to create, and some would take three weeks,” he tells Glamour. “You’re trying to do that while you’re filming, so there was a constant upheaval to get them all done in time.” 

It’s not hard to see why. No wig is the same, and nearly every look has a story—or hidden message—behind it. So while we patiently wait for season two to begin production, we had Pilcher walk us through every detailed look. But we’re warning you now: You’re going to want to rewatch the series to see what you missed. (Also, you’re welcome.) 

The queen was often bored in her everyday life, but her wigs were certainly having a party. “Her husband is ill, she doesn}t have a whole lot left in her life, so all she’s got is to dress up in new frocks,” Pilcher says of his early conversations with showrunner Chris Van Dusen. In fact, originally Charlotte was supposed to have only two wigs during the course of season one, but when Pilcher thought more on it, he decided to give her a new look for every outfit change. 

All of the queen’s wigs are spectacular (one was even inspired by Beyoncé!), but there was one in particular that stands out from the rest: the birdcage look. 

“Back in those times, there were images of people with birdcages in their hair and real birds in their cages, so I bought some birdcages on Amazon,” Pilcher says. “They were quite brassy looking, but Lorenzo Mancianti, who made all the jewelry for Bridgerton, turned them into a beautiful antique color.” Once the birdcages were camera-ready, Pilcher decided to put one fake bird in the cage and leave another one sitting on top of the wig. Then Pilcher and principal hair stylist Adam James Phillips came up with an elaborate storyline for the wig. “The locs were to represent Simon Bassett’s ethnic background, and the bows were an ode to Daphne. And the birds in the cages were to show their torn love between each other.” Wild, right?

When Pilcher did his first fitting with Phoebe Dynevor, who plays Daphne, he had a vision of Audrey Hepburn’s look in the film War and Peace. “She had little pin curls and also the little fringe, so we sort of based Daphne’s look on that. Then Chris liked the idea of softening Daphne’s look and opening it up in later episodes to show her progression through the season.”

Penelope is supposed to be around 15 years old in author Julia Quinn’s first book, so Pilcher wanted to reflect the character’s youth through her hairstyle. “That’s why I gave her the ringlets and curls,” he tells Glamour. “We even added little freckles in the makeup chair just to make her look as young as we could.” That was also due in part to the fact that there are eight books in Quinn’s series, so Pilcher wanted to make sure they didn’t mature Penelope too fast through her makeup and hair. 

“On the surface she’s a vulnerable character, but we know deep down that isn’t the case,” he says of Penelope’s big secret. “The goal was to keep her looking as young and as girly as possible, so she can progress in later episodes of the series.” In other words, get ready for quite the glow-up. 

If you thought the mullet belonged only to the ’80s, think again. “It was a fashion in Regency times,” Pilcher says. “I said to Claudia Jesse, who plays Eloise, ‘She’s a tomboy and a free-thinking feminist, so I want to give her something different. I want to give her a mullet!’” 

Jesse was totally on board. “We had a mock-up version and she tried it on and was so blown away. She was like, ‘We have to convince the producers this will be the right look for Eloise.’ They ended up loving it, and it really worked for her. She’s one of my favorite characters.”

Daphne’s nemesis, Cressida Cowper (played by Jessica Madsen), wants nothing more than to one-up the eldest Bridgerton daughter at every turn, and that includes her hairstyle. “In episode three at the Prince’s Ball, Cressida thinks that she’s in with the prince and has a chance of marrying him, so we gave her a hairstyle that looks like a crown,” Pilcher says.

In order to achieve the look, Pilcher braided the hair with wire on the inside so he could sculpt the hairpiece. “My thought was that Cressida would want the Prince to think she looks like a princess when he sees her dancing. So that was one of my little hidden messages that I loved to do just to tell that story.”

Of all the male actors on Bridgerton, Jonathan Bailey (Lord Anthony Bridgerton) thinks he looks the least like his character in real life. “What’s brilliant is I’ve got half my face covered in hair because they just sort of blow-dry it forward,” Bailey told Glamour. “I’ve sort of protected myself from being recognized ever again.”

Perhaps not quite, but Pilcher says he wanted to give Anthony a structured look in line with the time period. “I came up with the tousled blow-dry using sea salt spray, which still has a modern feel to it.” The sideburns, on the other hand, were an entirely different conversation. “Johnny had to do another project halfway through the season, so we had to give him fake sideburns. The great thing is, when you watch the show, you can’t tell the difference between the fake and real ones.”

Regé-Jean Page wanted to look similar to the way he does IRL, so he suggested that the Duke have stubble. Even though it’s technically wrong for the period, Pilcher was game. “It was perfect. Men wouldn’t have had stubble then, but it suited Simon and made him look handsome.” And, as Pilcher rightly points out: “The world is in love with Regé, so I think we did good."

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. You can follow her on Instagram at@jessicaradloff14.