In 1999, This TV Star's Haircut Sparked A National Debate

Most of us have gotten a haircut we didn't love at least once in our lives. But very few people have gotten one that was so bad it inspired a workplace policy insisting any potential future haircut gets approval in advance. Unfortunately for Keri Russell, this was precisely her experience while starring in "Felicity." The titular character got a rather earth-shattering haircut — one that Russell believed fit the character and what she was going through perfectly. However, viewers weren't exactly fans of the shocking new look. Many even blamed it for the series' decrease in popularity. Naturally, Russell herself has undergone a stunning transformation since she first arrived in the public eye. 

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She was just 22 years old when "Felicity" premiered in 1998. The series was hugely popular, and its leading lady was in large part to thank for that. But evidently, folks didn't realize just how crucial her long, voluminous curls were. During Season 2, Felicity did something that many people can relate to: She decided to completely change her hair after a breakup. At the ATX TV Festival in 2018, Russell looked back on when those legendary first snips were taken. The on-set hairdresser really did cut off a few curls to film pieces of Felicity's beloved mane landing on the ground, "Then a few hours later, I went to a hair salon and someone cut the rest of it off," per Entertainment Weekly. The rest is television history. 

Felicity's divisive haircut was swiftly followed by backlash from fans, alongside a noticeable slump in ratings for the show itself. Although the general assumption was that the pixie cut was responsible for "Felicity's" decline in popularity, star Keri Russell didn't buy it. "I think that's a pretty lame excuse. I think a lot more than a haircut was deciding the ratings [last year,]" she asserted to Entertainment Weekly in 2000. It's worth noting a time slot change also occurred ahead of the dip in viewership. Even so, folks at the network wouldn't take that risk again. At the 2000 Winter TCA Press Tour, Susanne Daniels, the president of WB Entertainment, professed that the haircut "turned some audience away, in particular men and some women," noting that from then on, stars' hair transformations would "be given more thought at the network than it previously would have," per E! News. 

However, Russell remained unmoved, reportedly reassuring her simply, "It will grow back, Susanne," (via TIME). Plenty of celebs have regretted their short hair makeovers over the years. Interestingly, though, it doesn't seem like the "Americans" star is one of them. "My hair was curly and it was an awkward haircut, but even so I didn't care, like I loved it. I thought it was so true [to the character] [...] I did not expect all the hysteria," she told W Magazine nearly two decades later, in 2017. Even though her locks eventually returned to their former glory, Russell's shocking haircut still lives in infamy to this day.