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Disney Princess Hair Secrets Revealed: Jasmine
Hair Designer Josh Marquette gives us a behind the scenes look at Broadway's latest hit musical, Aladdin.
by Chandler Rollins
June 18, 20143 min to read
This spring, Disney introduced its latest hit Broadway musical, Aladdin, bringing the magic of Agrabah and its colorful cast of characters to life on stage. As the official hair sponsor of the award-winning production, Oribe Hair Care was tasked in helping to create the hairstyles for each performance.
We spoke to hair designer Josh Marquette (Kinky Boots, Book of Mormon, The Drowsy Chaperone), about coming up with one of the key looks, Prince Jasmine's iconic ponytail, which has been given a modern update for the stage.
When designing the looks for each character, how bound were you to their movie portrayals?
Disney really gave me free reign and said, “You can do whatever you want, as long as they look great.” I did keep in mind that there would be expectations for what characters would look like, though. I knew I wanted long, gorgeous hair on Jasmine and I had to give a shout-out to her iconic “lumpy” ponytail.
What would you say is the overall look you were going for?
Texture! The cast is extremely diverse, so there’s a lot of texture in the hair. We use a lot of the Oribe mousses to enhance the texture. We use 32 wigs in the show; each night, we wet them down, comb them out and reapply the mousses. Foundation Mist is also great for reactivating the products. For the ensemble members that have straight styles, we use Soft Lacquer to create amazingly sleek hair.
You also gave Jasmine beautiful curls. How did you achieve those?
Step 1: Prep with Foundation Mist and Soft Lacquer and set on rollers.
Step 2: Pull hair out of the rollers and let it breathe.
Step 3: Work through the hair with hands coated with a little Supershine Moisturizing Cream.
Step 4: Mist on some Shine Light Reflecting Spray.
Step 5: Spray Superfine on any flyaways, if needed, for control by the bangs.
Jasmine’s ponytail has become one of the most iconic Disney Princess styles. How did you recreate it for the stage?
Her loose, lumpy ponytail looks great in the movie, but its heaviness doesn’t translate in real life. It’s apparently much easier to get shine and movement in animation! I didn’t want to use back-combing or stuffing to create the lumps, so I had to get a little creative. After blowdrying the hair with Foundation Mist and Royal Blowout, I sewed a wide piece of elastic to the base of the wig and gathered hair around it for the ponytail. I put in tight ponytail holders every few inches to secure the elastic inside the ponytail, then let the elastic loose so it would pull the ponytail into the “lumps.” I spray a little Shine at the end.
JASMINE PONYTAIL CONTEST
Oribe wants to see your Princess Jasmine-inspired ponytails. If you win, Oribe Hair Care will give two MODERN readers tickets to the show--plus all the Oribe products they used backstage.
Visit Oribe Hair Care on Facebook to enter their contest: www.facebook.com/oribehaircare
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