Maria Sandoval: Hairstyling Ahsoka

The limited Disney+ series, Ahsoka was a groundbreaking triumph for many reasons, the main one being the momentous challenge of bringing all-time favorite characters from animation to live-action. The incredible storytelling and performances, paired with an outstanding cross collaboration between costume, make-up, and hair departments have beautifully translated Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, Thrawn and so many more characters to screen with a level of authenticity only this team could pull off. Hair designer Maria Sandoval returns (check out our first interview, all about the Mandoverse) to discuss once again the challenges and rewards of hairstyling the galaxy far, far away—from delving into the development process for creating Sabine’s different looks to recreating Anakin Skywalker’s iconic hairstyle from Revenge of the Sith and bringing the character’s Clone Wars version to life.

Sabine Wren

Even before Ahsoka premiered back in August of 2023, Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s portrayal as beloved Rebels character Sabine Wren was already a hit. Her new long-haired look in the trailers instantly created a social media buzz, which evolved into a much shorter, more identifiable version that permanently framed the character into live-action. Sandoval confessed the process for creating these transitional looks was a daunting task, from nailing the colors to crafting several wigs for the lead actor along with her stunt double. “When I found out we were going to do Ahsoka, I was excited but also terrified because first of all, we’ve never seen those kinds of colors in live-action Star Wars … it’s always kind of been muted, natural tones. Sabine had so much range, she’s always changing her hair color in [Rebels]. It was scripted that she had at first long hair that was purple, fading to orange, but I personally didn’t think the colors should be bright or fluorescent; instead, I wanted them to look like they belonged in Star Wars, sort of muted and dusty,” she explained.

Maria Sandoval revealed that from day one it was obvious that Natasha Liu Bordizzo had to wear wigs due to the chemical impossibility of holding these bold colors into a natural hair structure, wash after wash: “We spent a lot of time figuring out these dye processes for the wigs and decided to do Sabine’s long wig using hair color and her short one with permanent fabric dye. While we were finishing The Mandalorian Season Three, I had one of my hairdressers permanently on hair dye duty. She would spend days in our study room just mixing up batches of fabric dye, trying it on different swatches. Eventually, between those swatches and then ones of actual hair dye, we narrowed it down. Once we had those colors determined, then we had to take them into StageCraft and see them in that light because it completely changes everything. It was probably two months of prep before we even got into the process of making the wigs.”

The Hair Department built several different wigs for Sabine: a long one, an in-between for the ceremonial hair cutting scene in Part Two, and three short wigs—including one for taking the helmet on and off and one for the stunt double. Maria Sandoval explained that really short hairstyles that lend great to animation wouldn’t work in live-action, therefore creating Sabine’s iconic short-haired look from Rebels was going to require some compromise. She said, “It was quite a process, kind of a learning curve for me figuring out how to do those wigs and then also meeting with Natasha and seeing what she was comfortable with. Sabine’s hair is always very straight and sort of choppy in the animated series, and so we softened it up a little bit just to give some femininity to Natasha’s face.”

Morgan Elsbeth

Thrawn’s apprentice, the Dathomirian witch Morgan Elsbeth (played by Diana Lee Inosanto), returned to the Mandoverse as a lead character in Ahsoka after her first appearance in The Mandalorian Chapter 13: The Jedi. The Nightsister received an update in wardrobe and hairstyle (although her hair was the same as her first appearance in Ahsoka Part One, when Baylan Skoll breaks her out of jail), which Sandoval revealed there was no specific in-universe explanation for this except the filmmakers wanted to change her look: “Morgan was still going to be Morgan, so stylistically it still had to be within the vein of her very put together sort of look. I came up with the design after not having seen her new costume. And Shawna [Trpcic] came up with the costume look without having seen the hair design. Then when we put it both together and realized that we both did the same thing. I like to call it a cross between the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland and Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. I had known during Mando that she was a Nightsister, which gave me the idea of what color to make the wig (Nightsisters historically have silvery gray hair).” She added, “I remember the first time we saw her hair in the StageCraft virtual production platform, and it actually looked blue. So we had to make some modifications to the wig’s color.”

Grand Admiral Thrawn

The most anticipated character in Ahsoka was Grand Admiral Thrawn. His first time live-action appearance (with Lars Mikkelsen reprising the role from Rebels) was one of the most daunting tasks for the Hair Department, especially because they had to work off of a mold of the actor’s head (Mikkelsen was still filming The Witcher at the time). “We knew that there was no way we were going to dye his hair since it didn’t have the right hairline for Thrawn, so the decision was made early on to put him in a wig. Since we didn’t have him here physically it was challenging to establish where it was going to sit and how it was going to look. We were asked to put just a tiny bit of gray in his temples because, you know, he’s been out in the elements for some time but still needed to look composed; he still needed to look like Thrawn (he would never let himself have shaggy hair).”

Anakin Skywalker

Arguably Maria Sandoval’s masterpiece in Ahsoka was Anakin Skywalker’s hairstyles. Although Hayden Christensen’s return to Star Wars was already marked in Obi-Wan Kenobi, his role in Ahsoka was the definitive comeback for the actor. Sandoval revealed that the character’s appearance in the show was extremely important to her, the filmmakers, and especially Christensen: “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched Revenge of the Sith. His hair in the movie is kind of a shag but also kind of a mullet. It’s the same thing when I was trying to figure out the intricacies of Mark Hamill’s hair [in The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 6], because it was a different era—proportions were different, and what was considered cool and hip at the time was a different type of hairstyle than you’d give someone today.” The hair designer added, “The color is really the same color that Hayden’s hair still is to this day. His hair, contrary to popular belief, is not brown, it’s a dark blonde. Most shots in Revenge of the Sith make him look like he’s got brown hair … it never was.”

After absolutely nailing down the Revenge of the Sith version of Anakin’s hair, Sandoval took on the challenge to create the new live-action look based on The Clone Wars: “That was really fun because you’ve only ever seen Anakin with either his Padawan haircut or the Revenge of the Sith hairstyle. You’ve never seen him with this sort of in-between style. I gave Hayden a few months and asked him to really grow his hair out as much as possible. In animation, they’ve got Anakin’s hair much straighter and sort of chunkier but instead we went with a natural progression of what his hair would look like if it were growing from the Padawan style into the longer style we see in Revenge of the Sith. I just wanted to make sure that it looked enough like The Clone Wars for it to be accurate to that portrayal of Anakin but that it also looked like Hayden, and what Anakin’s hair would have looked like if he had played him at that point. Every time I see it, I just giggle a little, I’m just so proud of myself,” she shared.

Ahsoka was an incredible showcase of the Hair Department’s work, elevating each character on screen with seamless hairstyles. Whether it was Sabine Wren’s various looks or Anakin Skywalker’s gorgeous hair, Maria Sandoval’s space hair creations never cease to amaze. What were your favorite hairstyles in Ahsoka? Let us know on our social media channels and make sure to follow Maria Sandoval on Instagram for everything hair!