Everything You Need to Know About the Hair and Makeup in 'Wuthering Heights'
By Robert Thorne
Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel is rooted in wind, mud, and obsessive emotional violence. Too often, Hollywood translations smooth down those jagged edges into polite Regency drawing rooms. Fennell took the opposite route. Working alongside the film's lead hair and makeup artist, the production established early on that Catherine Earnshaw's hair had to function as a direct barometer of her mental freedom.
During the early acts set at Wuthering Heights, Robbie appears with thick, undulating tresses that look dried by the peat air rather than shaped by hot tools. The styling avoids modern beach-wave symmetry. Instead, backstage reports confirm the crew relied on customized texturizing pastes, coarse natural-bristle brushing, and matte dry shampoos to simulate days spent running through heather and rain. The hair feels heavy, tactile, and stubborn. It resists containment just as Earnshaw resists the domestic expectations of rural class hierarchy.
When Catherine accepts Edgar Linton’s proposal and relocates to Thrushcross Grange, her silhouette undergoes an aesthetic constriction. Her free-flowing mane disappears into intricate Victorian braided updos pinned with surgical precision. The hair holds her in place. The physical discomfort is legible on screen, visual shorthand for an untamed soul suffocating in polite society.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
