Hair Story

Kit Harington Explains the Significance of Jon Snow’s Hair to the Plot of Game of Thrones

The man bun was very intentional.
Kit Harington's hair reflected Jon Snow's arc on Game of Thrones
Composite. HBO

There are plenty of things we’ll miss after Game of Thrones rides off into the sunset following its eighth and final season, set to air next year. But above all else, saying goodbye to the Kit Harington's signature long hair could take the greatest emotional toll. Fans of HBO’s juggernaut fantasy saga have been closely following the evolution of his character Jon Snow’s hair, which means Kit Harington has spent the better part of a decade answering questions about his character’s iconic hairdo.

The latest such query came courtesy of Refinery 29, which got the actor to wax poetic about the many ways in which his hair has been mirroring the show’s plot. “They wanted me to look more like Ned Stark,” he said of his Season 6 man bun — a term Harington "resents" btw). “There’s a real reason behind [my hairstyle], to show how the story was evolving.”

Over the years, intrepid fans have used the ebbs and flows of Harington’s real-life hairstyle as a way to decipher upcoming Game of Thrones plot details. For example, after Jon Snow was killed off in the Season 5 finale, Harington was spotted in the wild sporting Snow’s signature hairstyle, which led to a flurry of speculation that Snow would be resurrected in Season 6. (Spoiler alert: He was.)

HBO
HBO

In fact, Harington has become so synonymous with Snow’s coif that the potential to get rid of it once the show ends could become a rather emotional process for the recently married actor. “I haven’t been allowed to touch it for years,” he told Refinery 29. “It’s going to be weird, because it becomes part of your look as an actor. It’s strange to think now that I can change it. Do I want to change it? Am I going to change it? I don’t know.”

Harington's uncertainty over the future of his hair is news to us, especially after the actor told Entertainment Weekly that he plans to cut his hair "short-short," once filming on Season 8 wraps up. "I’d like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognizable as the character, and go do and some other things with a completely new look and tone,” he told EW recently.

If and when that fateful moment happens, we can all agree that his famous curls should already have a place reserved in the Smithsonian. Who wants to start the petition?


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