To create the vivid red colour, Gattabrusi says he first bleached Chalamet's hair but kept his roots black "to feel the time pass through the hair." After finding a shade of red that was typical from the '80s, the stylist put it to the test — a screen test, that is — with Chalamet. "He was completely open to doing everything because he was very excited to discover the identity of the character," Gattabrusi says. "We did a test one month before [shooting began] in New York, which was the first meeting with him. We did something soft, but it wasn't enough so we prepared to do something stronger. The second time, we [created] a really strong copper red that was very impressive."
The initial dyeing process took two hours with lots of trial and error. "I bleached his hair a couple of times to find the right [amount] of black on the roots or less and then I found the right amount of bleach," Gattabrusi says. "Then I did three different intensities of red."
However, once Chalamet's hair was dyed, the prep time on set was only about 30 minutes. "I like to give the actor his time and all my [colour] work with him was prepared before," Gattabrusi says. "The colour refresh would take me like five minutes."