How Margot Robbie Got Her Hair Looking So Frizzy For 'I, Tonya' With The Help Of Beer

Any woman who has ever backcombed each strand of hair into a perfectly coifed Madonna-inspired bouffant will know its a bugger to get right.

That's not to mention the burning smell that results from that dangerously long wait as you clamp straighteners over your highly-flammable 'do.

So, it's no wonder the beauty team behind Margot Robbie's iconic look at Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya proved to be such a challenge.

'It was tough because a hairdresser wants to make hair look good, to make it look shiny and healthy, and we had to do the opposite of all that to get Tonya Harding's authentic look,' hairstylist Adruitha Lee told Refinery29.

In addition to the star's overly-blushed cheeks, near manic smile, and brightly-coloured sequinned outfits, the 27-year-old's frizz-tastic hair undoubtedly helped make her performance in the Oscar-nominated film unforgettable.

As did the styling process for the hairstylists behind her look, apparently.

'We had to tell the story, and correctly interpret the hair. So many people have tried to get the look and have missed, but I wanted to get it right because I didn't want anything to distract from the story, or distract Margot from trying to become Tonya.'

View full post on Youtube

Fortunately, Robbie's own hair wasn't at risk of being fried during filming, with Lee using several wigs during the surprisingly short 31-day shoot.

'Her real hair wouldn't have survived it,' Lee said.

'Just dealing with the wigs, that was a challenge in itself. I would perm and colour the wigs over and over again to get the texture, that permed crunchy look that we had back in the late '80s and early '90s. That look was very popular at the time, but Tonya Harding took it to a whole new level — so we had to really fry the wigs.'

But instead of using sprays and mousses to achieve Harding's look, Lee reveals she turned to a product you're more likely to see in a bar than in the hair salon.

'To set the hair, we didn't use setting lotions or mousse — we used beer — as crazy as that sounds,' she admitted.

'Beer gives the hair that texture that you see when you flash back to '80s music videos. So we'd take a can of beer, let it sit out so it went flat, pour it over the hair, let the hair air-dry, and that was the look. There's no way that we could've gotten the fringe to stand up the way that we did, or the way they used to, with just a regular mousse.'

The hairstylist also revealed that during shooting, Robbie became quite partial to some of Harding's skating hair accessories.

'I remember when Margot was leaving set and just wanted to pull her hair back, we'd give her one of the "Tonya" scrunchies and she fell in love with them,' Lee said.

'We actually gave her a bunch by the end of the movie because she liked them so much.'

Fortunately, scrunchies were deemed 'back' by the ELLE UK beauty team, with Mansur Gavriel's SS18 NYFW models walking down the runway in custom scrunchies.

Clearly, Robbie is (still) ahead of the curve.

Katie O'Malley

Site Director

Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.