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Monday, November 24, 2025
'Sinners' Hair Designer on Why Texture Was Important to Sammie's Story
variety.com: Shunika Terry, the hair designer of “Sinners,” recalls the first time she saw a photo of one of the film’s stars, Miles Caton. Seeing his “locs,” she thought, “Yeah, he’s going to have to cut his hair.”
4 comments:
Emily Riojas
said...
I absolutely love this movie! I feel like when we think of hair or makeup for a movie or TV show, we think about things like the recent Frankenstein movie or Cynthia Erivo's makeup process for Wicked. I feel as a whole we don't think about the little things done to someone's face, let alone their hair, that make up their character and costume, but it surely has an impact. Because the movie was set in the early 1930s, the time period is especially important along with the setting being in Mississippi. Time period and setting should be important in any piece when dealing with costuming. The article mentions how the actor had to get a haircut to be more time period accurate, and I think that commitment to the character definitely helps the story progress. The article also mentions how, during the juke joint scene, when the ancestral and modern of this race is shown, it was important to really think about the different air styles that would be present.
SINNERS WINS IT AGAIN. Its so fun to see what the artist pulls out as they work to make the character a human being in a time period. We always are interested in full body prothesis, or crazy VFX, but this is just as important! A recent rabbithole I've fallen down is the Hair, Wig, and Makeup designer for Stranger Things, and watching her explain the hair of each character throughout each of the seasons. The depth and detail that she understands the time period, each character, their wants/needs, and their inner selves is so cool. And this is the same thing. Terry's understanding of time period, cultural implications of hair, and of Sammie's character, is such an fascinating thing to think about! Especially in black culture, where hair is such a prominent shaper of identity. Not only did everyone look good on screen, but their hair made sense.
I absolutely adored Sinners and most definitely consider it to be a masterpiece. I’ve seen it multiple times, and it gives me chills every single time. From the music to the visuals to the plot to the themes, Sinners is incredible, and if anybody hasn’t watched it, I will force them to. Hearing about this process in the production was very interesting to me, considering that even though I’ve watched Sinners so many times, I barely noticed these changes. Being someone who didn’t know how to take care of my hair growing up and is just now learning how to, I am very interested in how hair stylists work and figure out how to give people’s hair certain textures and feels. Clearly, Terry has an extremely deep understanding of ethnic hair, the time period, culture, etc and its very impressive how close attention to detail was paid. Next time I watch Sinners, I will most definitely be keeping an eye out for these details, as I always like to pick apart media I like until I’m breaking down and analyzing pixels on the screen.
Oh Sinners my beloved I hope that you set a precedent for horror getting insane Marvel budgets and going all out. The money and time that went into this movie are truly so astonishing so it makes sense that there is concentrated effort in texture and what it means for the story. The only times we see stright pressed hair in the film are on white or white passing characters and while flat iron tech was available back then it wasn't practical for share croppers to press their hair before working. Sticking to soley natural textures seems obvious but there are many steps where others film makers would have shouldered aside authenticity for aesthetic, especially conforming to the image of the 1930s so often thought of with smooth wavy hair. The team did a fantastic job on this movie and I am personally ready to ride at dawn if the Oscars snub them.
4 comments:
I absolutely love this movie! I feel like when we think of hair or makeup for a movie or TV show, we think about things like the recent Frankenstein movie or Cynthia Erivo's makeup process for Wicked. I feel as a whole we don't think about the little things done to someone's face, let alone their hair, that make up their character and costume, but it surely has an impact. Because the movie was set in the early 1930s, the time period is especially important along with the setting being in Mississippi. Time period and setting should be important in any piece when dealing with costuming. The article mentions how the actor had to get a haircut to be more time period accurate, and I think that commitment to the character definitely helps the story progress. The article also mentions how, during the juke joint scene, when the ancestral and modern of this race is shown, it was important to really think about the different air styles that would be present.
SINNERS WINS IT AGAIN. Its so fun to see what the artist pulls out as they work to make the character a human being in a time period. We always are interested in full body prothesis, or crazy VFX, but this is just as important! A recent rabbithole I've fallen down is the Hair, Wig, and Makeup designer for Stranger Things, and watching her explain the hair of each character throughout each of the seasons. The depth and detail that she understands the time period, each character, their wants/needs, and their inner selves is so cool. And this is the same thing. Terry's understanding of time period, cultural implications of hair, and of Sammie's character, is such an fascinating thing to think about! Especially in black culture, where hair is such a prominent shaper of identity. Not only did everyone look good on screen, but their hair made sense.
I absolutely adored Sinners and most definitely consider it to be a masterpiece. I’ve seen it multiple times, and it gives me chills every single time. From the music to the visuals to the plot to the themes, Sinners is incredible, and if anybody hasn’t watched it, I will force them to. Hearing about this process in the production was very interesting to me, considering that even though I’ve watched Sinners so many times, I barely noticed these changes. Being someone who didn’t know how to take care of my hair growing up and is just now learning how to, I am very interested in how hair stylists work and figure out how to give people’s hair certain textures and feels. Clearly, Terry has an extremely deep understanding of ethnic hair, the time period, culture, etc and its very impressive how close attention to detail was paid. Next time I watch Sinners, I will most definitely be keeping an eye out for these details, as I always like to pick apart media I like until I’m breaking down and analyzing pixels on the screen.
Oh Sinners my beloved I hope that you set a precedent for horror getting insane Marvel budgets and going all out. The money and time that went into this movie are truly so astonishing so it makes sense that there is concentrated effort in texture and what it means for the story. The only times we see stright pressed hair in the film are on white or white passing characters and while flat iron tech was available back then it wasn't practical for share croppers to press their hair before working. Sticking to soley natural textures seems obvious but there are many steps where others film makers would have shouldered aside authenticity for aesthetic, especially conforming to the image of the 1930s so often thought of with smooth wavy hair. The team did a fantastic job on this movie and I am personally ready to ride at dawn if the Oscars snub them.
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