You might think that landing yourself a role in HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones would be the most glamorous job ever: you'd get the opportunity to wear lush medieval clothes, all silk and satin and fur, and have your hair and makeup done by professionals.
After all, a lot of Game of Thrones' popularity rides on the sex appeal provided by its cast, and it's fair to say that people in the real middle ages had a lot fewer teeth and a lot more crap on their boots than Kit Harington or Emilia Clarke.
British actress Sophie Turner (recently engaged to marry Joe Jonas) is renowned onscreen and off for her gorgeous auburn locks (even though she's blonde in reality). However, in a recent interview with Instyle magazine, she revealed that Game of Thrones cast members were actually told to leave their hair dirty and not wash it - and that she was later granted permission to wear a wig!
"For the first few seasons I was allowed to wash my hair because I was an aristocratic young girl," Sophie explained. "Towards season five they started asking me to not wash my hair and it was really disgusting.
"Now I wear a wig so I can wash my hair whenever I want, which is nice. But yes, for a couple of years I was living with pretty greasy hair. [It was] really itchy! Also, we would have the snow machines going so we would have little snow paper particles that would get stuck in the grease. It was disgusting."
Sophie also revealed that Sansa's various different hairstyles all reflect different aspects of her character's growth and development over the course of the series, stating: "For so long, Sansa’s hair changed season by season depending on who was influencing her. The first few episodes she was a Northerner in Winterfell and took after her mother with a simple braid down the back.
"Then when she went to King’s Landing it was a big, decadent halo that was very much like what the Queen wore. When she’s Cersei’s prisoner, and she’s kind of absorbing all the manipulative techniques, it’s reflected in her hairstyle, and when she’s finding the spirit of Margaery in herself, she wears her hair like Margaery."
She added: "With Littlefinger, she dyes her hair black and wears all black. Then she goes back to Winterfell and returns to her mother’s hair. She created her own identity in season seven and that kind of runs through to season eight. She’s chosen how she wants her hair to be, and she’s finally the leader and influencer instead of being influenced by everyone else."
Now that the show is over (and filming has wrapped on X-Men: Dark Phoenix) Sophie is finally able to freely indulge in some shampoo and conditioner, and can even dye her hair whatever colour she likes!
