What the Hair and Makeup in “Tell Me Lies” is Trying to Tell You

Image Source: Hulu

If you haven’t started watching “Tell Me Lies” on Hulu, now’s a good time to start. The show, which is an adaptation of Carola Lovering’s novel of the same name, officially kicked off its second season on Sept. 3, and the drama that’s been unfolding is unmatched.

The series follows a group of students attending college together in 2007 and 2008, flip-flopping between their time in school and their lives post-college in 2015. In season one, the storyline was closely centered around students Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) and their tumultuous (yet still a little bit hot) relationship. This season, the show dives deeper into the relationships between their friends, including Bree (Catherine Missal), Wrigley (Spencer House), Pippa (Sonia Mena), Diana (Alicia Crowder), and Evan (Branden Cook).

Our group chats have been nonstop buzzing since season two aired, and there’s a lot to unpack – not only with the characters on the show, but also with their beauty looks, which are telling an important story as well. For one, we’re seeing some stark differences in how the sophomore girls, Lucy, Pippa, and Bri, are doing their makeup and hair for their second year of college. According to the “Tell Me Lies” hair and makeup department, this is all on purpose.

Keep reading for all the on-set makeup and hair secrets for each character.

Experts Featured in This Article

Caprice Green is a hairstylist with more than two decades of experience working on set for movies and TV shows like “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and “CSI: Vegas.” She leads the hair department for Hulu’s “Tell Me Lies.”

Jenny Lin is a makeup designer specializing in special effect makeup for motion pictures, television, and commercials. She is the makeup department lead for “Tell Me Lies” and “NCIS: Origins.”

Lucy’s Hair and Makeup Journey

Let’s start with Lucy’s beauty transformation. In season one, she was fresh out of high school, and she looked the part. “If you look at her home and upbringing, she was WASPy and very simple; she had clean, blow-dried, plain hair, maybe a ponytail, nothing major,” Caprice Green, the series hair department lead, tells PS. “There’s an arc in the fist season where Stephen has now completely tainted her sweet, innocent persona, and now she’s trying to be vampy and do 10 times more for Stephen.”

Green says that’s when you start seeing Lucy opt for bigger hair with lots of waves. “It’s a very distinct transition from clean, straight, [and] perfect to the bigger hair that we were doing in 2007, kind of like Christina Aguilera, which was one of the many references on our mood board.” Fast forward to season two, and Lucy is still trying to be someone she isn’t – but in a different way.

“She’s more mature but very much tricking herself into thinking ‘I’m over Stephen,'” Green says. “She’s still very self conscious in that she doesn’t want to look basic.” Lucy is also still dressing provocatively, and she’s laying it on pretty thick with the makeup.

“She’s wearing makeup as armor,” Jenny Lin, makeup department lead, says. At the start of season one, her beauty routine was totally different. The team emphasized her fresh face and a lot of freckles – she wore brown mascara and barely any brown liner. “She looks completely different than [at] the end of season one where she was really tanned,” Lin says. “She was wearing a lot of makeup, because it indicates her internal spiral.”

In season two, the team continued to use Lucy’s hair and makeup to tell a story about her internal struggle with everything that happened in season one. “She’s coming back pretending like nothing bothers her; she still looks put together, but it’s more of an understated glam,” Lin says. “She has a more natural tan, it’s a more effortless style.” However, we can expect things to shift later in the season. “There will be a moment later where the makeup will indicate where she is.”

Bri’s Hair and Makeup Journey

Image Source: Hulu

Unsurprisingly, Lucy isn’t the only one who will grapple with problems during season two. Bri, who the team says “takes center stage” this time around, finds herself in the midst of an affair with a professor who happens to be married to one of her teachers. “She’s so enamored by Marianne, her teacher, his wife, and she’s like ‘What is it about her that’s so amazing?’ So she’s trying things,” Green says. “She’s trying to be a little sexier, she’s just really trying to find herself.”

In season one, Bri had a very pared down no-makeup makeup look; however, coming back after summer vacation, she’s different. “She’s had sex, she’s come back with experience,” Lin says. At the beginning of the season, they did her makeup with a lot of pink tones and glitter. “As she starts to spiral, we see her makeup become more undone, as she’s obsessing over Marianne in her classroom. She’s going to try to emulate Marianne in her hopes to grab Oliver’s attention.”

Pippa’s Hair and Makeup Journey

Image Source: Hulu

Pippa, on the other hand, comes into season two with what is probably the most dramatic change: bleach blond hair – a far cry from her dark brunette shade in season one. “Initially it was supposed to be a softer blond, but when you’re young, you do everything times 10,” Green says. “Pippa starts letting loose. In season one, she was not that girl. She was very concerned with her clothes and her makeup and her hair. Now it’s just, ‘Screw it, I’m bleach blond and I’m going to have a good time.'”

However, her look will also change as the season moves forward. “She goes through her own journey too, and you’ll see how the makeup reflects that as we continue on,” Lin says. Both Lin and Green note that things really start to heat up during the Halloween episode, which airs Sept. 25 at 12 am EST. “You guys are going to flip when you see it, so get ready,” Lin says. “It’s a very pivotal moment and a fun episode for everyone. [That] is when it really gets going.”

Renee Rodriguez is a staff writer and social producer for PS. She writes across all verticals, but her main areas of expertise focus on fashion and beauty content with an emphasis on reviews and editor experiments. She also produces social content for the PS TikTok and Instagram accounts.