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Lionsgate
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‘The Hunger Games’ is obviously one of the most highly anticipated book to film adaptions in recent years, already ranked up there with ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’ in fan fervor. So, when it comes to bringing particular aspects to life such as Katniss’ exquisite braids or Effie’s Capitol high-style hairdo or Peeta’s blonde locks, Linda Flowers, the hair stylist (more like hair designer) had her work cut out for her. We probed her for all sorts of details of how she made it all come to life in the truest way possible.

Myspace: The hair in The Hunger Games is amazing.
LINDA FLOWERS: Oh good, thank you.
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You know how when you read a book like this and your mind creates a whole world and fills in details of what the characters look like? I had a whole world created and with the hair, but what you created absolutely exceeded my expectations of anything that my mind could have created.
I tell you, that’s probably one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever had. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. ‘Cause that was a challenge. I wanted to Suzanne (Collins, the author) and Gary (Ross, the director) and Lionsgate and everybody to be very proud of and be happy with the work. ‘Cause for me it was a huge part of the movie. Because of the way Suzanne wrote the book with all the characters having specific hair and colors and the whole Capitol thing.
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Did you read the book?
Of course. I couldn’t put it down. It was such a good read.
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Were you imaging what their hair was looking like when you were reading the book?
I did. I got so into the story and I could visualize these people because of how well Suzanne writes. But I kind of did have an idea of what they would look like.
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Lionsgate
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Did you spend a lot of time trying different braids for Katniss? She has a few different braids in the film.
Right. And when you see the movie you’ll see that she has a lot of braiding in her hair for different things. But the signature Katniss where she’s hunting, that was actually one of the very first things I did with that particular look. Because it had to be a functioning braid. It had to be, you know, she hunts to feed her family. And so her bow and arrow are a huge part of her, of who she is. And she needs to be able to pull a bow out of her quiver very quickly and it not catch onto her hair. So I thought about a really fashionable braid, but in the end Katniss’ character wasn’t about being fashionable. It was about her as the hunter, you know, her the person trying to survive. And so it was really just a functioning braid. And I went from one side all around to the other side kind of hugging the nape. So that there was no hair on her collar. So if she needed to go for an arrow, it would never snag on one of her arrows. So it was really a functioning braid.
But what I did is a I put a lot of texture in it to make it more interesting. And I think just sweeping it from one side to the other. ‘Cause I thought, you know, if I just pull it down one side and she’s going to hunt and use her bow, it could always be catching in her hair. So I knew I had to have it snug on her nape. And that’s why I chose to go from one side and wrap it around to the other side. And I just thought it looked more interesting and I just put a lot of texture in it, so it would had a little bit more character.
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Lionsgate
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Yeah, it’s so pretty. And then the braids she has riding the chariot into the arena is incredible. How did you come up with that?
I know. I loved doing that. You know, I had some really great interns from Paul Mitchell School in Charlotte working for me. And there’s this girl who was just an amazing braider. And she did all these five strand braids. She did basket weaving. I gave her all this hair and she went to town. I would just tell her what I wanted. And I go, I need a five strand, do some basket weaving. Do some French braids, do some fish bone braids. And then I took all these pieces and I made a headdress for Jennifer out of that. Because you know she’s going to be in the arena. She’s on a chariot, there’s horses. It had a very gladiator type feel to it, but modern, you know? She wasn’t wearing a helmet or anything, so I wanted to do a headdress and kind of represent that. And so that was how I came up with it. And plus with the braiding to be part of her character and her mom being an excellent braider. And she has braids in almost all her hairstyles through the movie. All except for when she’s in one of her last interviews when she’s coming home there’s no braids in it. But almost everything she has, whether it’s partially down or the headdress or her hunting, there’s a braid somewhere in her hair.
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Lionsgate
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Yeah, it just fit her so perfectly.
Good. I’m really excited about the chariot ride here. I really liked it.
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It was so cool. And then I think one of the things that was slightly controversial before even the film starting shooting when the casting announcements were out, was that Josh Hutcherson has dark brown hair and Peeta is a blonde. I think people are more used to women changing their hair color believably than men. How did you find the right blonde for him so that he still looked good in terms of his skin tone, but he was, you know, he was Peeta?
Right it’s so funny you say that, because it’s so true. That was a real concern. You know, is he going to look like he has bleached blonde hair? You’re right, but they’re accepting with women. But for a guy, you know, you don’t want to take somebody out of the movie by having this horrible bleached hair of his that doesn’t look right. So I knew it had to be multi-texture, multi-blended of not just one color. It had to have a lot of different colors in it. It had to have kind of be like a sandy blonde. Because they’re a poor district, somebody who when like you see guys that have light hair and they’re out in the sun and it’s got different tones of brown and dark and blonde. So I knew it had to be a blend of colors. It couldn’t just be one, and that’s quite challenging in itself. But they asked me how far that I thought we could go with this hair, before it looked colored. And I said, ‘Gary there’s only one way to find out. I go let’s go ’till it’s too much. And I then I can just, I can blend some colors back into it.’ And actually that’s the best way to do it. It’s actually easier to go too light. And then start blending depth back into it. You know, instead of going medium and then trying to blend blonde back into it. It’s easier for us to go to his blondest and then start adding little bits of darker tones to it. To make it look natural. And so we did. We took it to where Gary goes, ‘yeah, I think that’s it. I don’t think we can go anymore. I think it might almost be a little too much.’ I go, ‘perfect.’ So I toned it and we added, I added some colors to it. And it looked like a sandy blonde. And everybody was really happy. You know, one of the first rounds we did on it was a little warm. It had a little too much gold in it, which made it look fake. And so it was a matter of toning it down, getting the right blend. It was the most challenging color on the whole movie.
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Lionsgate
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I though it might have been. ‘Cause blonde is really tough, especially on guys.
Yeah. And then of course, he had to have his eyebrows bleached to match. But I think it worked. I think we got away with it.
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Lionsgate
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Oh, absolutely. I remember seeing the first photo and having to take in that it’s Josh Hutcherson, but he’s blonde. But as soon as I saw the movie I didn’t think one second about it because he was just Peeta. You’re like, ‘that’s Peeta. He’s blonde. That’s the real deal.’
Oh, good, because you do you see the bits of, you see the different tones in there. And it couldn’t be just a flat blonde or an all over blonde. It would have looked really, really fake.
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Lionsgate
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Totally. So tell me about some of the Capitol hair. You’ve got the natural side of people from their districts. And then the Capitol which was just so artful and extreme and colorful. How did you develop the look for the Capitol people?
Well, you know, we stuck with classic shapes. Because when you do a period movie the timeframe dictates what you do. Because it’s already been established. But in the future there was nothing to go by. So we kind of had carte blanche with shapes and stuff like that. And we knew it had to be colors and you know, just following the books. So I thought it was really important to bring some classic shapes into it. To keep people familiar with what they were seeing. And you just can’t go wrong with the classic shape. You know, you take a classic look from a period like the ’20s, the ’30s, the ’40s, the ’50s and you start adding modern color and adding and integrating some modern textures to it, it just, it worked. It really worked. I was so relieved. (laugh) You know, I thought, ‘oh this works.’ But just knowing art and knowing history and knowing hair I knew that it would in the right combinations.
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Lionsgate
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Yeah, that makes so much sense. I think people are going to be really excited. And they’ll have so much visual stimulation to take in with the Capitol citizens.
You know, some of these Capitol women you’re going to see have the ’40s roll hair. Sometimes they used to roll their bangs in the ’40s, that look. You’re going to see them in fun colors. And you’re going to see the shape of that style, but you’re going to see fun colors in it. You’re going to see some fun textures in it. But you’re still going to almost always be able to identify most of them, the period that that was kind of the inspiration for it. And there was a few people we just kind of went crazy with. But not, mostly stuck with the classics. Even the guys, some we got even got into some ’80s shapes with colors of hair and with some guys you’ll see the type ’50s look or the ’30s hair with some, you know, you’ll see a little finger wave in someone’s bangs from the ’30s, but it’s a blue finger wave, mixed with their dark hair. You know, just hints of classic shapes with modern colors and modern textures.
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Lionsgate
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Did you have anything to do with Seneca Cranes’ beard?
I did not. Dee Neals did all of that. But I thought it was brilliant. The issue that really helped me out because his hair, we decided to keep it very classic. Almost, you know, that very classic almost helmet like, not overdone, very plain. He wanted everybody to take him very seriously. And the beard just gave him, it brought him into the Capitol, it did, it was a really good move on Dee’s part.
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Lionsgate
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Yeah, it was very cool. Effie’s hair is so fun and seeing it change was really cool too. In the book I didn’t remember any description of her hair changing, but in the film, as the story evolves you really kind of evolve her through the story with her hair.
I know it. It’s funny. It was one of those unknowns. We knew she had to have the classic pink wig. But you’re right, in the book it doesn’t state that she’s got all these colors. But we thought it would be great, because she’s such a fashion person, that she had different colored wigs, just like she had different colored shoes and purses. Where she would accessorize with her hair. Because the book states that she wears wigs and they made it obvious it is a wig in the book. And you know, she’s adjusting it and all that. So to play on that, to think that if we ever shot her closet, which we don’t, but I always visualize that, you’d see all these different bright shoes at the bottom. And all these bright colored wigs on the top. You know, and so I took a chance and just prepped different colored wigs in the same classic shape with the modern textures and stuff like that. And they liked ‘em. I was able to put two other ones on her. You’ve probably seen the lavender one or the lime green one. And those are the three, the pink, the lime green and the lavender one for this movie.
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Lionsgate
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When you’re prepping to do a film, what kind of research are you doing into the who the characters are? What are the things you take into consideration when you’re developing a look for a character throughout a film?
Well, you know, I try to stay as true to the character as I can without being pedestrian. You know, for example like you see a slimy guy whose a sleaze bag. You know, a lot of people, you know, make his hair slick back or put a little grease in it or something. But I try to go beyond that. Because I try to bring a little bit more to them because I think characters are more complex than that. And if you have a really good story. You know, I’m not really sure I’m answering the question. I just try to peel back the layers of a character. And see if there’s something in there for me that I can do with hair.
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Do you change the hair to fit the mood or what’s happening in a scene? Do you find yourself putting emotion in to the hair, even just slightly, to reflect the emotion that’s in the scene?
Oh definitely. Definitely. That’s what I mean when I said, try to peel back the layers of the character. And try to give them as much dimension in their hair as they would with their clothes or as the actors actually would with their acting.
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The Hunger Games is in theaters Friday (as if you didn’t know that already!)!