On a typical day, the hairstyling team arrives at 7 o'clock for the "hour-and-a-half pre-calls" where the main cast comes in and gets processed through hair and make-up. The key hairstylist will regularly check to see if any of the cast need trims, and do "up-keep" on their respective looks. The hairstyling team is there to maintain the actors' hair throughout the shoot. Their average day usually runs from 12 to 14 hours.
Clara Dinunzio was the key hairstylist for season 3 of Queer As Folk. She had worked previously with QAF's makeup artist Stephen Lynch on a PBS Regional performance of the play "Long Days Journey Into Night" and with QAF's former hairstylist Peggy Kyriakidou as well. At the end of season one, Ms. Kyriakidou spoke with the producers about re-introducing the cast in season 2 with looks that were similar to the first season, so the audience could get to know them all over again, and then they talked about what could be done to slowly change the characters' looks throughout the season. Once again, the actors' hairstyles have changed, with the characters sporting longer locks in season 3.
"Most of the time it's pretty enjoyable on set because they are all really fabulous actors. You can watch them shooting scenes over and over again and it still makes you laugh. The show is definitely a lot of fun. Even though the hours are long, you never feel like you're here that long. We're still laughing at the end of the night -- it's pretty cool," says Peggy.
In the earlier seasons, Peggy had an assistant named Helen and a daily hair person named James who helped out quite a bit. Helen usually took care of Sharon Gless (Debbie) and Jack Wetherall (Vic) while Peggy would deal with the rest of the cast. Helen is somewhat of a wig specialist, given Debbie's choice of adornment. The show had Jerry Altenberg from Stratford, Ontario, create two wigs specially for Sharon Gless before the season started. They thought it would be the best way to go because there's always one that they can be working on while the other is set and ready. The hair on the wigs was made a little longer in season 2 so they could play with it, put it up a bit and have a little more fun with it.
James O'Reilly is the daily hair person who handles the background players. Most QAF episodes consist of a seven-day shooting schedule and the daily person is usually on set five out of those seven days, because there are so many background players. His job is to keep the characters looking current.
The look for each character may change during the day, depending on what scenes are being shot, and what day it is in the script. Generally most of the guys don't change their hair very often -- they pretty much stay looking the same. Sometimes if there is a scene in Babylon the stylists like to do a little funkier look, especially for Michael and Brian. Justin is getting a little funkier this year as well because he's getting to know himself a little more. Peggy says that the QAF actors are a really easy cast to take care of, because they're not very fussy.
The characters are all going through little transformations. The stylists have already started to shift things around, and both the hairstyles and wardrobes are changing. With changes in the scripts come changes in each character's style.
For example, the stylists had a lot of fun with the girls last year. Lindsay changed a little bit. Gus is a little older now and she can start looking less traditional and more like a 'hip' kind of mom. The show wants to try and 'funk her up' a little bit more. Mel's just Mel -- Mel's her own cool self. She kind of knows what she wants to do. The women are heading into a whole other phase of their relationship with the marriage, so along with that the show is going to try and take them down that road with their appearance.
Peggy K. said that the cast are all really fantastic. "They're just so amazing and you know I just can't say enough about it. I've done a lot of TV series and I've worked with a lot of interesting people let's just say and this gang is pretty awesome."
[sources: Showtime Web site, StarTV]
