The book and movie versions of Gone With the Wind are alike famous for their lush portrayals of Scarlett’s dresses, hats and hair styles. Interestingly, Scarlett’s hair in the book is quite different from Vivien Leigh’s tresses in the movie.
Melanie’s Hair Styles in Gone With the Wind
A famous Hollywood anecdote tells of Gone With the Wind’s director giving Olivia de Havilland (Melanie) a choice: to look “pretty” or “historical”. To her credit, de Havilland chose the latter, with the result that her hair styles in the film are far more historically accurate than Leigh’s. To modern eyes, the style does look dowdy – a typical 1830s-1860s Victorian hair style, with the hair sleekly centre-parted and pulled back over the ears into a low chignon. In the film, the style helps contrast Melanie’s demureness with Scarlett’s fashionable flair.
Scarlett’s 1930s-Inspired Hair Styles
The film version of Scarlett wears glamorous hair styles that are far more inspired by contemporary styles than historical accuracy. Scarlett’s hair is comparatively short – curled, it reaches only to her shoulders – and is often worn loose, in a centre-parted style suspiciously reminiscent of Victory rolls. Other 30s styles include high, curled bangs (in the scene where Scarlett attends Ashley’s surprise party in a daring red gown), and several instances of reverse rolls, used to create volume around the face.
Scarlett’s back hair is sometimes worn in ringlets, sometimes in a loose chignon, and occasionally swept up into a curled updo. Scarlett wears a variety of hats over her hair styles – usually small and perched on the top of her head, although the huge straw hat she wears in the opening scene is particularly iconic.
Some of Scarlett’s hair styles would have been unachievable with hair her length and thickness; they would have included padded hair pieces (just as period antebellum hair styles would have).
False Hair in Gone With the Wind
Surprisingly, Margaret Mitchell writes disdainfully of hair pieces in Gone With the Wind. In reality, respectable women of the period routinely padded their hair, often with hair rats; however, Mitchell writes as if false hair was the mark of a tawdry, lower-class woman. The “white trash” Emily Slatterly wears false curls; Scarlett, whose lack of good breeding is one of the book’s major themes, buys false curls on her honeymoon, only to have them burnt by a disgusted Rhett.
Mitchell also views dyed hair as tacky (with somewhat more historical basis); the prostitute Belle Watling dyes her hair red, which fascinates Scarlett. Although Scarlett is drawn to forbidden practices such as makeup and false curls, she does not appear to be tempted to dye her own hair.
Scarlett O’Hara’s Hair in the Novel
In the movie, Scarlett’s hair is dark brown and curled. In the novel, Margaret Mitchell describes Scarlett’s hair as black, thick and “Indian-straight”, unable to hold a curl. In one scene, Scarlett is shown struggling with a hair style that involves barrel curls. The length of her hair is not explicitly stated, but it is long enough for Rhett to wrap Scarlett’s braids around her neck; in keeping with the styles of the period, it was almost certainly much longer than shown in the movie. In general, Mitchell’s writing portrays Scarlett’s appearance as spikier and more striking than the character appears in the movie; Scarlett’s hair, like the rest of her, is meant to be exotic rather than conventionally beautiful.
Sarah Tennant - Sarah Tennant is a onetime English major who lives in New Zealand with her husband and two small children. Her interests range from ...
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