‘The Walking Dead’: Carol’s New Long-Haired Look Becomes a Meme

A six-year time skip on The Walking Dead brought big changes for Carol (Melissa McBride), including a new family made of husband Ezekiel (Khary Payton) and son Henry (Matt Lintz), and a long-haired look fans are now comparing to everything from The Witcher and Halloween to The Lord of the Rings.

“I know all the actors had such a great time just collaborating on the looks, and the hair,” showrunner Angela Kang told EW of reinventing The Walking Dead and its characters with a multi-year time jump.

Both McBride and Michonne star Danai Gurira had “these great ideas on what to do with their hair that we were able to design,” Kang said, pointing to McBride’s citing Carol’s history as a survivor of an abusive and controlling marriage.

“Melissa, at first we were going to keep her hair short, but she was like, ‘You know, it’d be really interesting to have her grow her hair long.’ There’s a whole story behind why Carol has short hair, and we actually have a scene that speaks to that at some point in the season,” Kang explained.

“It’s part of the backstory of Carol and why she has short hair, why she had short hair in her marriage and everything. It really shows where that character is at with her state of happiness. She’s at a place where she feels safe and at peace, and that’s reflected in the hair.

“That really was very driven by Melissa’s feelings about where the character was at. That was the process. It came out of these conversations about these characters, and where they felt they were at, and what is important to maintain about that character’s personality, et cetera.”

Carol has let her hair down, literally, acting as a major counter to her marriage with the emotionally and physically abusive Ed (Adam Minarovich).

The longer hair also signifies the mostly quiet peacetime of the past six years, which also played out in a pacifist streak Carol nurtured as result of her motherly relationship with young Kingdom ward Henry.

Carol next reunites with woodsman best friend Daryl (Norman Reedus) in “Stradivarius,” premiering Sunday at 9/8c on AMC.

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The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.