London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

The Story Behind Beth Harmon’s Red Hair in The Queen’s Gambit, According to the Show’s Hair and Makeup Artist

The Story Behind Beth Harmon’s Red Hair in The Queen’s Gambit, According to the Show’s Hair and Makeup Artist

“I [always think of myself] as a prop man to the face,” says Hollywood’s leading hair and makeup artist, British-born Daniel Parker, whose impressive CV includes credits on Troy (2004), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and TV series Chernobyl (2019).

Parker’s most recent work, though, can be seen lighting up the small screen on the hit Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit.

Written and directed by Scott Frank, and based on the 1983 Walter Tevis novel of the same name, the series stars Anya Taylor-Joy as formidable chess prodigy, Beth Harmon. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it’s a coming-of-age tale which sees Beth evolve from an orphan child to headstrong young woman, fighting to be seen in a male-dominated world of chess. And it is Parker’s exquisite yet subtle hair and beauty looks that help narrate this journey.

There’s Beth’s clinical, utilitarian micro-fringe haircut to signify a stripping of identity as she first joins the orphanage, which eventually softens into a side-parted bob of cascading curls as she matures into an elegant young woman. Then there’s the perfectly powdered face, neatly lined eyes, and bold red lip, which smudges and smears as she falls into the grip of alcohol and drug addiction.

We caught up with Parker to find out more about his creative process, the importance of authenticity and why he chose to make The Queen’s Gambit’s Beth a redhead.



When approaching a project such as The Queen’s Gambit, where do you start and what’s the biggest challenge?


I read the scripts, then I have an image in my mind, and I start working on that. The biggest challenge is to produce something that achieves what the script demands, mixed with the director’s vision and my own vision. The challenge these days is to also keep everything real and not tampered with in any way by computer work, so you’ve actually got something that looks real.

How important are Beth’s looks to the show’s plot?


They’re essential. She goes from being baby Beth to grown-up Beth. The makeup and hair had to tell that story. They have to age her; to show her becoming more mature; her becoming an alcoholic drug addict. It’s the makeup and hair that you see in all the close ups. If that’s wrong, if it doesn’t move forward correctly, then it won’t work. The costume is just as important. It’s a whole process, especially as the series spans so much time.

In the book, Beth has brown hair, but in the series she is a redhead. Why was it important to make that change?


It came from reading the script. To me, she was always a feisty redhead. The funny thing is that when I met the director, Scott, and said, ‘There is one thing: I think she should be a redhead.’ He said, ‘Absolutely, I agree.’ Then I met Anya and I said, ‘What do you think about Beth being a redhead?’ And she said, ‘What do you mean? Of course she’s a redhead.’ It was quite unusual. Sometimes, you have to fight for these things.

The way the script was written, you really knew how the characters were going to be. But then, of course, you see the cast and you do a U-turn. Mrs Wheatley [Beth’s adoptive mother], for instance, was originally going to be blonde, but she’s a dark brunette and looks fantastic with it. That was a decision I had to make quickly.



Was there a particular message you wanted to convey about Beth’s character through the language of hair? There was the micro-fringe when she was at the orphanage, then the cascading curls as she became a woman.


The hair tells a lot of the story. As do the costumes, which were beautiful. It’s about growing up, about a poor little girl who loses her mother and the first thing that happens to her is that she’s defrocked and her hair is chopped off. I had to fight tooth and nail for that micro-fringe. It wasn’t popular, but it was so effective and tells a story just by itself. That hideous little haircut that all the orphans were given. I wanted to make it worse, but I wasn’t allowed to-none of the mothers would allow it.

How would a Vogue reader go about recreating grown-up Beth’s hairstyle?


You need a wonderful haircut first and foremost. If you get the cut wrong, you’re not going to be able to achieve it. You’ve got to have somebody who understands hair and what you want to do with it. All of the hair that was done for The Queen’s Gambit was done in a period way. It was done with hot rollers and overnight setting. If you want it to look right, you have to use the tools of the period. There’s no way around it. And, of course, they were all wigs, so it is slightly different.



What about Beth’s beauty looks? Where did the inspiration for her makeup come from?


The main inspiration behind Beth’s hair was actress Natalie Wood. You also have Rita Hayworth and Lauren Bacall, and the sleekness and beauty of Grace Kelly. It’s a wonderful era-the powdered look, the eyeliner, the lips, the blusher that’s put on really beautifully. It’s perfection without being overly made-up. And the great thing about working like that is when Beth was supposed to look like shit, we just took off the makeup. We removed the powder so that the shine came through and it just looks wrong, so you know she’s not well.

Is there anything you haven’t done in your career that you’ve always dreamed of doing?


I’m doing something next year that I’ve always wanted to do. I’m opening myself up to a big can of worms-I do love a challenge. It’s an 18th-century period production with massive wigs-one of the wigs I’ve already got hold of is [4 feet] high! But I don’t want to approach it in a way that’s been done before. I spoke to the director and said, ‘These people smell disgusting. I want to make them smell just by looking at them,’ which is something that hasn’t been done for any film of that period.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×