The intricately-braided platinum blonde hair of Daenerys Targaryen will probably go down as one of the most iconic looks in Game of Thrones history. Heck, people still dressed up as the character on Halloween, even after the show ended with Dany going full Mad Queen. Parents even named their babies “Khaleesi.” But many fans might be surprised to learn that Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, actually bleached out her natural hair for the show's final season – to unfortunate results.
In the upcoming March issue of InStyle, Emilia Clarke revealed how her plan to honor Daenerys Targaryen went sideways. She stated,
I decided to bleach my hair blond because I wanted it to be Daenerys's color for the last season. My hair was so fried that I basically had to cut it all off, like a proper Leonardo DiCaprio, Romeo + Juliet boy cut. Now my hair has naturally grown out. I give it more nourishment than you could possibly imagine. It's my proudest achievement, and I don't plan on cutting it ever again. I'm going to be 90 with it down to my bum — that's my plan.
Emilia Clarke is just one in a long line of people who thought a bleach-dye, which takes hours and destroys healthy hair, would work out for them. For the record, I'm still haunted by the image of Justin Timberlake’s circa-1998 frosted tips. Likewise, Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kim Kardashian made a big splash a few years ago (no big feat for the reality star-mogul) when she bleached her own signature brown locks. She once posted on Instagram how the bleach process is no joke, saying,
Though Emilia Clarke might regret bleaching her hair back then, she doesn't regret the memories it associates with Game of Thrones. In fact, she reminisced on missing that hair-and-makeup chair where she would sit for hours to get her full Daenerys Targaryen wig in place. She told InStyle,
That wig did wonders — bloody hell. It was like walking around with a permanent bounce. I was reminiscing with Kit [Harington, Jon Snow in GOT] the other day about the hours we pulled and how hard the work was. There's a grieving process that goes on after the show, obviously, but I think we are now both finally at the point where we can say, 'What bits do we miss?' It's kind of like remembering a relationship.
In other words, the North remembers. And so too will fans of Game of Thrones forever remember Daenerys Targaryen’s badass look – even if it did cost Emilia Clarke for several months. Check out the latest news on what Game of Thrones spinoffs are in the works!
