13 One-Take TV And Movie Scenes Where Actors Got Their Hair Shaved Or Chopped On Camera

Oftentimes, haircut scenes are faked with wigs, extensions, bald caps, and, of course, movie magic. Sometimes, however, actors take a big risk and chop or shave their real hair in one take.

Here are 13 scenes where actors cut or shaved their hair for real:

1. For the A Good Person scene where Alison cuts her own hair, Florence Pugh pitched the idea of doing it herself.

In 2023, she told The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, "I was like, 'Zach [Braff, the writer/director/producer], I think I should chop my hair off at the beginning of the movie.' And he was like, 'Cool. That's not gonna work.' It was, 'But how do we do the shooting in order?' And I was like, 'You'll figure it out.' And they figured it out!"

Here's the scene:

2. While filming the We Live In Time scene where Tobias shaves Almut's head, Andrew Garfield was nervous to buzz Florence Pugh's hair on camera.

In 2024, he told British Vogue, "It was a privilege to be given that job. What if I somehow destroyed the head of one of the best actors of her generation? It was terrifying, but ultimately it was a very beautiful, intimate scene to shoot, and thank God she has such a nicely shaped melon."

You can see a clip of the scene in the trailer below, starting at the 1:46 mark:

3. When Felicity Porter infamously cut her hair short in Felicity Season 2, the stylist started Keri Russell's haircut for real. The actor later went to a real salon to have it finished.

At the 2018 ATX TV Festival, Keri said, "We shot that scene at like 4 a.m. on a Friday. And the hair girl actually...it's in slow motion, like her cutting my hair, sniping it," she recalled. "And then a few hours later, I went to a hair salon, and someone cut the rest of it off."

Watch the scene below:

4. When Sanaa Lathan first signed on to play Violet Jones in Nappily Ever After, she was against cutting her hair. However, as she delved into the character and the movie's message, she decided, "There's no way I can't not do it."

In 2018, she told The Rachel Ray Show, "But it still was terrifying...I was terrified to do it. We did it in one take. When you see that in the movie — that's all my hair, and that's actually me really shaving it."

You can see a clip of the scene in the trailer below, starting at the 1:10 mark:

5. For the Stranger Things Season 4 scene where the "gulag barber" shaves Hopper's hair, the hair department "made sure [they] could shave [David Harbour's] real hair cleanly and theatrically efficiently to catch on camera."

On Instagram, Sarah Hindsgaul, the head hair designer, said, "We had some wonderful extra's casting in Lithuania and we were lucky enough to get to arrange for our 'gulag barber' to practice on all of our other inmates before the big moment where Hopper gets his hair sheared off on screen.

As we were designing Russia, we knew that we wanted to show trauma on inmates shaved heads due to abuse suffered in these work camps. However, when we arrived in Lithuania, our local team of artists let us know that some of our BG may already have scars on their heads because they lived in Lithuania while it was occupied by the former Soviet Union. Furthermore, it could be potentially triggering to add such details onto our background cast and thus we should proceed with caution. This was an important lesson that was shared with us and one that we will carry on as we continue filmmaking.

As we are telling these stories, it's important to share how life was under hugely repressive and abusive conditions…but it's even more important to treat people helping to make these stories with compassion and there isn't a more worthy cause to sacrifice any perceived design aspiration for."

Here's the scene:

6. When Topanga spontaneously hacked off her hair in Boy Meets World Season 4, Danielle Fishel was "thrilled" to cut it herself.

On a 2024 episode of Pod Meets World, she said, "I had wanted to do it all summer. The reason we did the episode is because I had called [series creator Michael Jacobs] the beginning of summer and said, 'I wanna cut my hair. Can I cut it?' And he said, ‘At least let me write an episode for it.’ So, I had to wait all summer. So, by the time we got to it, I had been ready to cut my hair for months."

During filming, she faked the cut several times to practice, with director Jeff McCracken shouting, "Stop!"

She said, "I remember Michael coming out and going, ‘Show me where you're gonna cut. Show me. Show me where.’ … Because he did not want it to be too short. And he knew I had control because I was gonna be the one with the scissors. So, he wanted to know. I wanted it a little shorter. I knew he wanted it a little longer. And so, yes, it was a very intense day."

Watch the scene below:

7. In V for Vendetta, Natalie Portman's personal hairstylist played the role of the man who shaved Evey Hammond's head "so that he knew what he was doing."

In 2024, she told Vanity Fair, "They had a few cameras rolling at the same time, 'cause it was obviously a one-time occurrence when they shaved my actual hair...It was very dramatic and a lot of pressure to, you know, get it in one take."

Watch the scene below:

8. For the Les Misérables scene where Fantine's hair is cut short, Anne Hathaway had the idea of chopping off her real hair on camera. However, Nicola Sloane, who played the "hair crone," is "a wonderful actress but she is not a hairdresser," so Paul Gooch, Anne's hair and makeup artist, donned her costume and stepped in for the scene.

In 2012, Anne told USA Today, "I was expecting it to be more painful and savage, but Paul is such a loving person, he was very gentle with me when he did it. Even though it looks brutal onscreen, there is a gentleness to it which I actually thought was a stronger choice in the story."

Here's the scene:

9. Having her head shaved on camera as Catherine Dior in The New Look was a "surreal experience" for Maisie Williams. When the scene was over, the hairdresser hugged her and apologized, and she "burst into tears."

In 2024, she told Collider, "I was really just thinking about those girls and that moment, like that time. For me, I kind of thought that the stories that were coming from the camps at the time would have been so terrifying that, actually, cutting your hair is probably the least scary thing that's going to happen, and so I was really trying to find a calmness in that moment. I felt like that was probably more accurate than it feeling…But then, you know, my own relationship with my hair sort of started to come through, and this cool, calm, collected performance I thought I was gonna give started to, like, slip away. But that's real, isn't it? So, yeah, it was an interesting scene to shoot."

10. To film the scene where Harper McLean shaves her head at the end of Heartbreak High Season 1, Asher Yasbincek learned how to use the clippers on herself. It was actually the first scene she shot for the series.

In 2024, she told Young Entertainment, "I have always wanted to shave my head. I think it’s kind of a rite of passage, you just have to do it once in your life. I had always loved those scenes of people shaving their heads on camera.”

Here's the scene:

11. Naomi Scott reportedly cut her own hair in the Power Rangers scene where Kimberly Hart gives herself an impromptu haircut.

Watch the scene below:

12. For her role as Esty, Shira Haas's real hair was shaved off during the last scene on the first day filming Unorthodox.

She 2020, she told British Vogue, "When Maria [Schrader, the director] told me it was going to happen right at the beginning, I was so shocked. But, it was great because it really got me into character. Of course, your head can only be shaved once, so I knew it would be one take, and I had to get it right. I was nervous, but I was willing to do it in order to tell this story."

Watch the full scene below:

13. And finally, for the The Wolf of Wall Street scene where Stratton Oakmont employee Danielle Harrison lets Rugrat shave her head in exchange for $10,000, Natasha Newman Thomas, a Los Angeles stylist who's brother's good friends with Leonardo DiCaprio, volunteered to let P.J. Byrne actually buzz off her hair.

In 2014, Michael Kriston, the head of the hair department, told Vanity Fair, "This young woman is the sister of a very good friend of Leo DiCaprio's, and he told her about this. She was not an actress. She was tall, attractive, and terrified! I mean, when she finally got involved and showed up and everything, we actually had a person who does background as a standby, in case she freaked out."

He trained P.J. to cut her hair, but the actor "was terrified himself, because he did not want to hurt her."

The over-the-top scene made the experience even more overwhelming for Narasha. Michael said, "You also have to understand that with this poor girl, in this room while she was getting her head shaved, were 250 men screaming, there were 40 strippers in various states of undress, plus a marching band in their underwear.

...And then what happened is that we did the one side, and then we broke for lunch! And so we didn't do the rest of it until after lunch, so she literally walked around with a baseball hat on with half her head shaved. The great thing is, [director Martin Scorsese] came out and everybody congratulated her — because, like I said, she was not an actress. And they got their shot! I know that Marty was very happy."

When the scene was over, he offered her a wig he'd set aside for her, but she "was cool" with simply letting him neaten up the cut.

Watch the scene below: