Moon Geun Young has drop-dead gorgeous hair in that promotional picture for Cinderella Unni. It’s so perfect, both for the drama and for her facial features. Good hair – it is easier said than done.
I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. I love it when it’s behaving, I hate it when it morphs into a creature from another planet. I wish more dramas would pay attention to hair on its leading actors, because a bad hairstyle can have me cringing from here to the FF button. I wish I was only joking, but some hairstyles are so bad it’s requires an extra shot of soju to create alcohol goggles for me to endure.
I always like to show a shining example of when hair is not only perfectly suited to an actor, but changed up in the drama and still delivers. The example is non-other than Lee Jun Ki in Time Between Dog and Wolf. Jun Ki had six different hairstyles and managed to rock them all. Now this is how you reward the viewers, hair designers! On the flip side, see the failed case studies below on what to avoid like the plague.
When Bad Hair Happens to Good People:
Song Seung Heon in Summer Scent – Does it look any less heinous if I pair said monstrosity with a naked torso shot of SSH, or a far away shot of him? Hhhhm, hell no. Quite possibly THE worst hair style on a man I have ever seen, period.
Gu Hye Sun in Boys Before Flowers – In my neck of the woods, we call this the bowl haircut (as in rice bowl, toilet bowl, etc.). I would run away screaming if anyone tried to plop this on my head.
Lee Byung Hun in Beautiful Days – Its. So. Orange. And in his eyes. Thank heavens the color morphed back to black in the second half of the drama, around the time his character underwent a full personality transplant. Yay for live shooting a K-drama!
Jo Hyun Jae in Only You – I don’t even know how to describe this. It just looks wack and ridiculous. How do you even style it? I think they just forgot to cut Jo Hyun Jae’s hair for 3 months when they filmed this drama.
Jung Il Woo in My Fair Lady – Lego Helmut Hair. Enough said. The End.
Song Il Gook in A Man Called God – He singlehandedly used up all the mousse and hairspray in Korea. That is some lift in those tresses.
Kang Ji Hwan in Hong Gil Dong – Horrible, horrible, horrible hairstyle. I hated it, hated it, hated it. And it wasn’t even period proper – how the hell did Gil Dong perm his hair in the Joseon era? It looked like he was wearing his grandfather’s 70s toupee on his head.
Kim Min Joon in Ireland – Messy, too long, and way too sleazy. Mmmm, just like his character in Ireland! On second thought, maybe this isn’t a bad hair day for him, he was just in character.
Song Hye Kyo in World’s Within – I called this the mature bowl haircut. At the end of the day, it’s still a frippin’ bowl hair cut! What part of it looks like a bowl upside down clamped on someone’s head does the stylist NOT understand.
Lee Seung Gi in Shining Inheritance – What the hell is this franken-hair? I still can’t figure it out. Is it a bird that made a nest on Hwan’s head? It is Hwan’s hair turning into its own sentient being? I never thought LSG is classically good looking, but paired with this hairstyle, let’s just say I associated him with a certain primate.
Go Hyun Jung in Spring Days – She proves that even long, straight black hair can be horrible on someone. If it looks as lifeless as her character, and lending her the aura that she was a Japanese long-haired demon ghost from one of their horror movies.
So Ji Sub in Thousand Years of Love – Do I even NEED to explain here? Enjoy the laughs, chingus!
I think Jang Hyuk’s hair from Successful Story of a Bright Girl pwns all of these:
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8367/photo7741.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XoT1L2jHHO4/S8Beew65WyI/AAAAAAAAC58/v7V3WQPB10Q/s400/bright-girl-success.jpg
I seriously cringe just looking at it!
Oh and we can’t forget the bad hair to end all bad hair drama, You’re Beautiful:
http://i50.tinypic.com/4idjmc.jpg
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2jwri7hj81qaer30o1_500.jpg
http://popseoul.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/janggueksuk-20100603.jpg
http://media.photobucket.com/image/you%252527re%20beautiful%20jang%20geun%20suk/missnakaji/taekyung.jpg
The poofed up hair on JGS doesn’t bother me so much as the slicked straight to his head helmet and the mini-ponytail look.
Oh and I sincerely hope up next is highlights on bad kdrama fashion especially on the male stars!
Oddly, SSH’s hair wasn’t what I was focusing on for that first example. Can I add that if they had really done the full cartoon hair for SIG in A Man Called God it would have been more awesomely ridiculous.
@ Kristal
Oddly, I liked Jang Hyuk’s hair in Bright Girl, like meaning I thought it looked cute on him and didn’t bother me terribly. Probably bc all the screeching coming from the howler monkey that was Jang Nara made me less inclined to nitpick at anything related to his character.
But honestly, of all the orangies during that era – JH’s in Bright Girl is middle of the road, not great, but not the worse.
I thought Kim Rae Won’s hair in My Love Patzzi is worse than JH’s in Bright Girl. Just my two cents. 🙂
The only person to really pull off the orange hair look, I have to concede, is probably Yonsama in Winter Sonata.
Han Hyo-joo was rocking a bowl cut in Shining Inheritance, too. Makes me reminisce about the days I had the same hair style…in the third grade!
Dare I bring up a certain I Lub You’s Mane O’Glory in The Restless?
@ unni
You are WRONG on both accounts! Tee Hee.
HHY was rocking the mushroom cap haircut in Shining Inheritance. It has volume and roundness tapering inward at the ends. As opposed to the bowl, which lays flat against the head from root to end.
Mushroom cap is only slightly less awful than bowl, but for some unknown reason I thought she rocked that ridiculous hairstyle. She PWNED the hairstyle!
As for My I Lub You’s Mane of Glory, (1) this is a review of atrocious drama hairstyles so it doesn’t merit mentioning and (2) even if I were to extend it to movies, he gets a free pass, bc he had to act opposite KTH and he needed all that hair in his face so he couldn’t see her very clearly lest he burst into laughter in the middle of a scene. 😀 Since the Mane was for utilitarian purposes, it also gets a pass from me.
LOL…okay, okay, I’ll have to agree that the Mane O’Glory was necessary for his performance (plus being a movie, sorry. Wasn’t thinking!).
But I maintain that HHJ had a bowl cut; it’s just that for people with anything other than perfectly straight hair (such as myself), the bowl gets mushroomy. Whatevs, I still thought it was fugly. And she’s so pretty…she deserved a better ‘do!
😀
Love this!
I like Ender’s Girl’s term for the squiggly hair disaster — “fried hair” — which is nicely descriptive as well as connoting incongruity and ridiculousness.
But Kristal, the hair in YB was a character all it’s own! http://www.allkpop.com/2009/11/jang_geun_suks_100_hairstyles
And honestly, Hong Ki’s steamed bun on a helmet hair was the worst. A style so bad that even my google-fu cannot return a photo of it, and I refuse to screencap it and immortalize it in my flickr stream.
ok I have to totally defend JGS. I loved all his hairstyles and his whole emo/lambert look. He was my style inspiration last summer.
SJS wins this category as well *runs to cry some more*
I agree w/ all of them. I just hate any ahjumma/permed/fried hair do. I’ll also bet in futures I’ll hate JH’s new do in AAE C remake.
Can I add Rain in FH, if you are making a worst wardrobe on Kdrama guys, he should be on there as well.
What about Yoon Eun Hye’s terrible hair in My Fair Lady? I personally HATED her hair while I could overlook Jung Il Woo’s helmet look.
Eun Hye? It looked in a lot of scenes like it’d been good and fried. 😐
http://img3.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/2ec6c06af68672942cd31486f82e69b71248699010_full.jpg
And honestly, Hong Ki’s steamed bun on a helmet hair was the worst.
Hey, who’s dissing darling Hong-ki? 😆
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/thundie76/blog%20pics/YB540-1.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/thundie76/You%20Are%20Beautiful/YB89-1.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/thundie76/You%20Are%20Beautiful/YB105-1.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/thundie76/You%20Are%20Beautiful/Yb112-1-1.jpg
ok I have to totally defend JGS. I loved all his hairstyle…
Even this one? Keke…
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/thundie76/You%20Are%20Beautiful/Yb939-1.jpg
I do not dis the adorable boy or his golden retriever –
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/4824765996_04348172ba.jpg
But the steamed bun on a helmet hair? boo-hiss
I think I must be the only person in the world who absolutely adored Seung Gi’s hairstyle. I remember when HHJ punched him and his nest moved as if it had a life of its own. Loved it.
I’d like to add KSY’s hair in Prosecutor Princess *yikes* In later episodes it was straightened a bit, so I kinda got used to it, but the first half’s style was hideous.
@aberdeen
I kinda liked Seung Gi’s hair too. It suited him I thought. It tamed slightly as the show went on at least.
@ockoala
I find it hard to believe you defended the monstrosity of orange that was JH’s hairdo in Successful Girl but to each her own! After seeing Jang Nara in that AND My Love Patzzi as well as the movie Oh Happy Day! I think she is officially on my shit list. How can drama casting people even choose her?!
@momosan
Hong Ki’s first hairstyle was bad but not unbearable. However, when they decided to cut it midway through and have those random uneven long strands hanging in his face is when I really annoyed! What the hell was that?? Strangely enough looking at these pics and talking about You’re Beautiful makes me want to watch it again though! I need to buy the new Yesasia DVD set. Heh.
What about the Ahn Jae Wook’s hair from I Love You…
http://www.allkoreans.net/gallery/albums/Korean-Dramas/I-Love-You/iluvu.jpg
YIKES!
And we all failed to mention these classic hairdos:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eJvjbFvukNg/SyXKPGsRA_I/AAAAAAAAABA/FLerJAR0KHo/s320/mhavvymisa10bp.jpg
http://www.m3nghua.com/images/wall_02_02.jpg
I know his hair was a product of his rough life on the streets, but come on!
I was googling to see if I could find a screencap of Bae Doona’s evil mom’s curly hair from Country Princess but couldn’t, however, I did find another example from the dreaded “orange days” period:
http://images1.asianmediawiki.com/images/thumb/4/47/Country_Princess.jpg/350px-Country_Princess.jpg
I would probably say that the hair that irked me the most was Chae Rim’s hair in Dal Ja’s Spring. I loved Chae Rim in it…but man the hair…it was totally distracting. I get that she needed to look older but the hair and that heavy eyeliner were a little too much.
To be honest, SJS’s hair aside in OTYL, the only part of that series that was palatable was that quasi-sageuk piece in the beginning. Maybe he should aim for a serious sageuk piece with a good writer/director combo next? Oh please drama gods, give SJS a good drama next! I have become such a bad fan though, to think that I endured through OTLY for SJS, but can’t do that anymore…
@ langdon-unni
Of course you are right, as always. The mushroom cap is in fact a blown out version of the bowl. Aigoo, bowl’s should be outlawed, period!
@Kristal – LOL, I’m not defending JH’s hair in Bright Girl, it’s awful, but I’m only saying that it’s not the worst case of orange hair syndrome, and in that drama I wanted to punch Jang Nara so JH’s hair ranked very low on the irksome scale, is all.
@nycgirl – poor baby, I promise the next “bad” anything post I do, SJS will not win it. Feel better, sweetie?
@everyone – agreed that all of the examples given are indeed all very bad hair styles. I actually feel the worst for the orangies, like @Quinze said, YEH’s orange/red hair was fried, colored to oblivion – so not only does it look dreadful, the hair is ruined until it can grow out. Sigh, how the stars suffer.