LONDON, UK—For nearly a decade, Emilia Clarke was globally synonymous with the striking, near-white platinum blonde hair of Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons in HBO’s Game of Thrones. What many fans did not realize was that for the vast majority of the show, Clarke, a natural brunette, was wearing an elaborate, expertly crafted wig—a necessity that proved to be a savior for her own locks.
Against the advice of her hair team, Clarke made a radical, temporary choice for the final season, ditching the wig for real platinum color. The experience led to a “terrible” physical cost and a lifetime promise: “I’ll Never Cut It Again.”
🛡️ The Logic of the Wig: A Production Necessity
The decision to use a platinum blonde wig for the role was a crucial production requirement that shielded the actress from the brutal reality of constant, radical bleaching required by the Targaryen aesthetic.
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Data Point 1: The Targaryen Standard. Targaryen hair is described in the source material as being nearly white. Achieving and maintaining this intense, bright platinum shade on a natural brunette’s hair for ten years of intermittent filming would have required near-constant chemical treatment.
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Data Point 2: The Practicality of Continuity. The character’s elaborate hairstyles—which grew more complex with each victory (following Dothraki tradition of adding braids after a win)—would have been impossible to recreate consistently on Clarke’s real hair. The wig provided the hair team with a consistent blank canvas.
🔥 The Damage Data: When the Wig Came Off
For the final season, Clarke, wanting to fully embody her character for the wrap-up, decided to take her final “gamble” and dye her natural brunette hair platinum blonde. She later called the move “frigging stupid.”
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The Physical Cost: The extensive bleaching process, necessary to match the wig’s color, had immediate and severe consequences. Clarke reported that her hair was severely damaged and “fried” or “killed” by the process, feeling like “straw.”
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The Extreme Recovery: The damage was so extensive that, after filming wrapped, Clarke had to cut her hair into a very short, asymmetrical bob, which she famously called a “proper Leonardo DiCaprio, Romeo + Juliet boy cut,” to allow the severely stressed hair to recover naturally.
Years later, Clarke reflected on the experience, noting that her hair recovery was finally complete. She told InStyle: “It’s my proudest achievement, and I don’t plan on cutting it ever again. I’m going to be 90 with it down to my bum—that’s my plan.” This statement—“I’ll Never Cut It Again”—is her personal promise against the high physical cost of her on-screen transformation.