MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > Tint of Lucy's Hair

Tint of Lucy's Hair

posted 2 years ago by Garyandfilm (556)
3 replies | jump to latest

I've posted about this once before, but nobody really responded. The other night I watched both "The Matchmaker" and "In Palm Springs", two season four offerings. In the former, shot in the spring of '54, Lucy's hair is much darker than in "Springs", filmed late winter, '55.

Anyone want to cue up a few minutes of each episode? It's pretty obvious when one watches them back to back.

Not sure why they lightened the tint in Hollywood. Perhaps it was an attempt to hinder Ball's aging??

[–] [email protected] (6247) 2 years ago

I never noticed that. I'll pop in both episodes tonight and have a look.

I could only speculate about why they did it. Maybe it's as you say, lighter hair was more flattering. But I've seen a number of shows where actresses hair color changed subtly over time. It's easier to notice when you have the series on DVD and can watch the changes over a matter of days instead of years!

For example, on Wings, Helen Chapel's hair goes from a darker honey blonde to a lighter and lighter wheat blonde until it almost looked platinum.

A lot of women simply like to change their look. Maybe Ball was bored.

[–] steven1660 (146) 2 years ago

I noticed that too, in season 3 and early season 4 her hair was darker than later in season 4 and by season 6, it looks very light. In the first season though it looked kind of light, then in season 3 it got darker. Not sure why she changed the shades back and forth. Maybe it was just boredom. If you watch the movie 'the long long trailer' which was filmed in color around the time of season 3, her hair was a darker red, in some scenes it almost looks brownish, depends on the lighting. By the time they did 'forever darling' her hair was a much lighter red.

[–] Garyandfilm (556) 2 years ago

For what it's worth, I prefer the darker red.