Crazy Rich Asians‘ lead hair and makeup artist Heike Merker spoke to PopSugar about what exactly goes into making hair look rich. “With the new money people, they wanted to show off more so we made the hair and makeup very over the top. We could not have done that with Nick Young (Henry Golding)’s family. That side had a more classic look. The hair was perfect, and we never used too much makeup on a daily basis unless there was a party — but even then it was as if someone came in and did it for them.”
The secret behind that shiny, expensive-looking hair? As Merker told PopSugar, it’s frequent haircuts. “Rich hair is shiny. The ends are never dry. If you always cut your hair, the ends are always perfect,” she says. (Please excuse me while I make an appointment with my stylist for the first time in months.)
When it came to on-set styling, Merker dealt with some pretty intense conditions — and yet the hair still looked expensive, which is probably exactly what would happen to people who actually are crazy rich. “The problem was that we shot this film in Malaysia, and the humidity was at 85 percent,” she said. “It was too hot, and then the hair would straighten out pretty fast, even if you had the best curl and used lots of hairspray. It was nice when we could do [updos], but if there was a day where everyone had long straight or long curly hair, it was a disaster.” She also said she turned to Fudge Skyscraper Medium Hold Hairspray to keep hair strong, but soft.
