"That '90s Show" Hair and Makeup Details
The Beauty Updates You Can Expect on "That '90s Show"
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Fans of "That '70s Show," the late '90s and early 2000s sitcom that made us feel like part of the bell bottom-wearing group, are probably elated to learn of the Netflix original, "That '90s Show." The new series dropped on Jan. 19 starring a handful of familiar faces and spaces, including Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty's (Debra Jo Rupp) basement, with the addition of their grandkids and some new friends.
We see the beloved cast jump two decades into the future, taking them from high school kids to parents, and from the 1970s to the '90s — two very distinctly different eras as far as beauty trends go. The hair and makeup teams were tasked with overhauling each character's look. (Well, almost everyone's, but more on that later.) This was a welcome challenge, especially for hair department head Gabriella Pollino-Rodman, who worked on the original show.
Ahead, learn more behind-the-scenes details on the hair and makeup moments you see in "That '90s Show," like where they got beauty inspiration for these small-town Wisconsin teens, how they perfectly replicated Kitty's entire look, the iconic '90s makeup products that they relied on, and more.
The Tiny Tweaks That Brought the Main Characters Into the '90s
The returning main characters — Donna (Laura Prepon), Jackie (Mila Kunis), Eric (Topher Grace), Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) — all still look like themselves, but they're decidedly different. Fez works as a hairstyle, Jackie is still very high-maintenance glam but with an entirely new, shaggy haircut, Kelso retained his luscious head of hair, and Donna's iconic long, red style has the addition of bangs.
"Bangs were really popular in the '90s, so we agreed [Donna] would still have her beautiful hair, and we added the bangs," Pollino-Rodman tells POPSUGAR.
Why Kitty Stays True to Herself
One character who didn't evolve even in the slightest is Kitty, which was very intentional. "She's stuck in the past a little bit; she's not 1995," says makeup department head Kathleen Karridene. She still has her flipped, Farrah Fawcett-style bob and her peachy, natural-looking makeup.
"She didn't change her hair for the '90s, because, as many women do, we like to stay at the place where we looked the best," says Pollino-Rodman. In the '70s, Kitty was very stylish, so she wouldn't want to let go of that version of herself.
That said, it's been about 20 years since we last saw her on our screens, so they wanted her to look her very best by "freshening it up a little bit," as Pollino-Rodman puts it. Kitty was a woman who took care of herself and still does in the '90s with frequent trips to the salon.
Inspiration Came From '90s Wisconsin Yearbooks
Both Pollino-Rodman and Kathleen Karridene were working in their respective fields in the '90s, so they pulled from a lot of their own experiences to craft the looks we see in "That '90s Show." However, they still did their research. "I went to eBay and bought every Wisconsin yearbook that I could find," Karridene says. The goal was to make the show look authentic — not too trendy. "So, we went to the real kids in high school and middle school in Wisconsin."
Standout makeup trends included neutral and earth tones on the eyes and lips, dark, vamp nail polish, and matte skin. The hair, on the other hand, was very understated. "The '70s had a look, the '80s certainly had a look, and then the '90s were kind of calm," says Pollino-Rodman. "Unless you're talking about grunge, which we're not."
How The Parents Influenced Their Kid's Look
Aside from the '90s Wisconsin yearbooks, the other most obvious place the hair and makeup teams got their inspiration for the kids was their parents. Specifically, in the instance of Leia (Callie Haverda), Donna and Eric's daughter, and Jay (Mace Coronel), Kelso and Jackie's son.
Similar to his dad, Jay has long, flowing '90s boy-band hair, because "Kelso always had hip hair," says Pollino-Rodman. Meanwhile, Leia's bob hairstyle is very simple, similar to Donna's in the '70s. "She is not as hip as the people that she meets in Wisconsin," she adds.
Products Used on Set to Nail the '90s Look
A few beauty brands dominated the '90s, and MAC Cosmetics was one of them. "MAC was huge in the '90s, and MAC still has a lot of the same products that we used [then], so that made my life a lot easier," says Karridene. Holy grail products on set included the MAC Cosmetics Lip Liner ($21) in "Spiced" and "Chestnut," the Powder Blush ($28) in "Melba" and "Coopertone," and the Lipglass ($21).
Karridene also had a hack for giving an actor a '90s manicure in minutes: press on nails painted in the Chanel Le Vernis Longwear Nail Colour in "Vamp" ($30). "Vamp was so huge then, so I had hundreds of vamp press-on nails that I hand-painted, that we just taped on when somebody had the wrong colour on," she says. If you look closely, you'll see that Nikki (Sam Morelos) always has a vamp mani/pedi.
