SPOILER ALERT! This story contains privileged information about the proper care and maintenance of Jeremy Allen White‘s coiled locks on The Bear.
One of the standout lines from season 4 of The Bear is when Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney exclaims that it’s time to address “the f—ing elephant in the f—ing restaurant.” She’s talking about the tepid review of their fledgling eatery in the Chicago Tribune, but we’d like to think she was referring to something far more consequential to the success of their fictitious restaurant and the FX comedy as a whole: Jeremy Allen White’s head of hair.
Carmy’s coiff has developed into its own unique character inside The Bear’s kitchen, due in no small part to the commitment of hair department head Ally Vickers, who’s paid to control the chaos that is Allen’s curly coiffure.
“I have put it on a journey,” Vickers tells Deadline. “I feel like we’ve seen some growth and evolution. It was a little bit longer in season one, and then in season two we were getting into the construction of the restaurant and things were happening. I always try to show his hair a little bit curlier in the flashback scenes when he’s younger. As we got into season 3 and 4, I feel his hair is a little bit more controlled. He’s trying to control things a little bit more in his life. It’s still his signature kind of hot boy, hot mess style, which we all love. I can’t change that and I would not want to, but I think it’s just got a little bit more finessed now. The restaurant has leveled up and I felt like his hair should level up with it.”
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Vickers agreed to share her secrets on how she styles White’s hair, which inspired by the real-life ‘do of English chef Marco Pierre White. (White showed her a picture of the chef’s turbulent locks). Almost immediately, Vickers dispelled any suspicion that The Bear actor gets a secret boost with his follicle volume: Allen does not use extensions, nor does he have much use for a brush.
“That’s all his own glorious hair,” says Vickers.
To create the look, Vickers wets White’s hair, coats it with sea salt spray to add texture, and then finishes it off a diffuser and milk serum to help keep the shape. She keeps his long layers intact with an occasional razor trim every eight or so days.
Truth be told, it only takes about 15 minutes to prepare White for camera.
“I have a great job. I get to watch Jeremy Allen White’s hair all day, I know,” she said. “He lets me just run with it. I mean, we’ve been working together for so long now, there’s a trust and a relationship there, and he knows that I know what he likes and where it should be.”
Season 4 was a particularly rewarding one for Vickers. She brought in two braiders to help with a poignant episode for Sydney, who goes to have her hair styled by cousin Chantel (Danielle Deadwyler) and ends up processing questions about her own career path with Chantel’s daughter TJ (Arion King). The Emmy-worthy episode titled “Worms” was co-written by Edebiri and Lionel Boyce and directed by Janicza Bravo.
And Jamie Lee Curtis returns this season as Carmy’s estranged mother, Donna, who sports her own unique mane. In fact, it was Vickers’ breakout styling of Curtis and the other Berzatto family members in the season 2 episode “Fishes” that earned her an Emmy nomination, along with Angela Brasington and Melanie Shaw.
“Everyone loves Donna’s hair,” says Vickers. “We love it to be really free and moving. She’s an Italian mom. She speaks with her hands and her hair moves around a lot. So it’s really important with that wig to be supernatural. And it also has helped show an evolution of her character from when we first saw her in the Fishes episode. My reference for that was Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff? Pristine on the outside, but she’s in the depths of addiction and was coming undone. Now we see her getting sober and she’s selling a whole house, so she’s coming back as this softer but still polished Donna that we all love.”
But it’s White’s hair that has given Vickers the most amount of street cred. And it’s not just women who like to drop comments; it’s the men who appreciate the actor’s ne’er-do-well style, says Vickers.
“I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on his hair this season, which is great,” she adds. “My mother was texting me in a flurry as she was watching this season, and she was like, ‘I just have to say it again, Jeremy’s hair is so fabulous this year.’ I thought she was being a good mom.”