Even if you’re not a theatre kid, you’d likely still be familiar with Elphaba’s green skin and black hair, the colourful wigs of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express, or the period hair needed for shows like Grease or Guys and Dolls.
The Olivier Awards are the biggest night for West End productions, but currently there is no awards category for wigs, hair, and makeup.
Campbell Young Associates make bespoke, handmade wigs for actors on the West End and Broadway, as well as on screen.
Helen Keane and Mark Marson are directors and co-founders of the business who have both been working in theatre for around 30 years.
They spoke to the SW Londoner about the ins and outs of the industry and what it would mean to them if wigs, hair, and makeup received a category at the Oliviers.
Keane said: “It’s integral to the storytelling – you couldn’t tell a lot of the stories without the hair.”
Marson added: “How the heck would they have done Shrek without that massive wardrobe and wigs department they had? It just baffles me.”
Engineering custom-made wigs is no small feat, with each one taking approximately 4-6 weeks to be made.
Before they can begin, they have to coordinate with costume and set designers to make sure they’re in the right world for the show and characters.
Whether it’s a period piece like Pride or Stranger Things: The First Shadow, or even a contemporary show such as The Devil Wears Prada, a lot of planning needs to take place before they can start creating the wigs from scratch.
Once the wigs have been made, the work doesn’t stop there. For each show, the team have to undertake a painstaking process of cleaning and blocking the wigs.
Some of them then require being set with rollers and baked in the oven before allowing them to cool and finally dressing them out.
Marson said: “You might have to repeat that process 50 or 60 times in a period of 4 hours before you start the tech or the show.”
For shows like The Devil Wears Prada, the wigs were being worked on by a team of six people in order to successfully turn them around in between shows.
With Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the team developed acrylic eye masks for each actor matched to their skin tones with the makeup painted on by hand to enable the performers to change makeup looks in as little as 15 seconds.
For Mary Poppins, they had to figure out how to create the fur of a Yorkshire terrier by analysing which way the fur would grow and how they would knot the hair onto the body of the model dog.
Marson said: “It’s hours and hours of conversations and a huge skill set that just isn’t being recognised.”
The Olivier Awards are the theatre equivalent of music’s BRIT Awards and film and TV’s BAFTAs.
Originally named the Society of West End Theatre Awards, they have been the most prestigious theatre awards in the UK since its inception in 1976.
There has never been an awards category for wigs, hair, and makeup.
Currently, the production awards up for grabs are best director, theatre choreographer, set design, costume design, lighting design, and sound design.
Marson said: “It would just be nice to be recognised like everyone else gets to be – it’s for every single person in every single department.
“I think they deserve to be commended and acknowledged the same as every other element of theatre does.”
WhatsOnStage have recognised wigs, hair, and make-up at their awards since last year with Campbell Young Associates winning the inaugural award with Jackie Saundercock for Starlight Express, and winning again this year for Paddington The Musical.
Marson said: “We were lucky enough to win and very grateful to win, and that they’d actually started to recognise that as a category.
“We couldn’t do what we do without our team in Bristol. They’re the backbone of our world.
“That award’s not just ours. That award’s for everyone who was involved in that piece.”
There is currently a petition for wigs, hair, and makeup to have its own category at the Olivier Awards – a similar one was launched for the Tony awards two years ago and received more than 2,600 signatures.
As of now, the Tony awards still don’t have a dedicated category to wigs, hair, and makeup.
Despite this, the behind-the-scenes work of wig, hair, and makeup artists will, of course, continue in theatres worldwide.
Keane added: “Just because you can’t see it happening, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
Society of London Theatre (SOLT) & UK Theatre Co-CEO Hannah Essex said: “We recognise the integral role that wigs, hair, and make-up professionals play in theatre productions.
“Any changes to Olivier Awards categories are considered carefully by the Society of London Theatre board to ensure they remain balanced, representative of the industry, and workable within the format of the ceremony.
“As part of our annual review process, we will consider any wider changes to the Awards later in 2026.”
The 2026 Olivier Awards will take place on Sunday 12 April at the Royal Albert Hall.
Featured image credit: Johan Persson on Campbell Young Associates
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