Sarah Hindsgaul is a Danish hair designer and entrepreneur whose work has shaped some of the most recognizable hairstyles in contemporary television. Best known as the hair designer behind Stranger Things, she has spent more than two decades working across film and television before bringing that experience into her own beauty business, Hindsgaul Hair.

Her career is built on character design as much as hairstyling. Hindsgaul approaches hair as part of storytelling: texture, movement, imperfection and period accuracy all become tools for showing who a character is and how that character changes. That philosophy helped define the visual language of Stranger Things and later became the foundation of her own haircare brand.

Profile Snapshot

Name: Sarah Hindsgaul

Nationality: Danish

Born In: Copenhagen, Denmark

Based Between: New York and Los Angeles

Profession: Hair Designer / Hairstylist / Entrepreneur

Known For: Stranger Things, character hairstyling, period hair design and Hindsgaul Hair

Major Recognition: Two Primetime Emmy nominations for Stranger Things

Business: Founder of Hindsgaul Hair

Industry Experience: More than two decades in film and television

From Copenhagen to Film & Television

Hindsgaul grew up in Copenhagen with a strong interest in visual storytelling. She has described being drawn to painting, sculpture, writing and theatre from an early age, but what interested her most was often what happened around the performer: the character, the costume, the makeup and the visual details that helped make a story believable.

By her teenage years, hair design had become a way to combine those interests. It offered the craftsmanship of visual art with the psychology of character-building and the collaborative environment of film and television.

That interest eventually became a career spanning more than 20 years, first in European productions and later across major American film and television projects.

Designing the Hair of Stranger Things

Sarah Hindsgaul became closely associated with Stranger Things after joining the Netflix series as its hair department head and designer.

Her work extended across the show’s five seasons and played an important role in establishing the series’ 1980s identity. The hairstyles were never intended to function as nostalgia alone. Hindsgaul has repeatedly explained that each look needed to belong to the character first, even when the design was rooted in a very specific historical period.

That approach can be seen in some of the series’ most recognizable looks: Eleven’s shaved head, Will Byers’ bowl cut, Steve Harrington’s carefully controlled volume, Dustin Henderson’s curls and Nancy Wheeler’s increasingly dramatic period styling.

For Hindsgaul, the challenge was not simply recreating the 1980s. It was making the hair feel lived-in enough that viewers would believe these characters existed inside that decade rather than appearing dressed for a themed production.

Hair as Character Development

One of the strongest elements of Hindsgaul’s work is the way hairstyles change with the characters.

On Stranger Things, hair often becomes a quiet part of the storytelling. A character’s confidence, grief, maturity or changing social identity can be reflected in how polished, controlled or deliberately messy the hair becomes.

By the final season, Hindsgaul moved the visual language away from some of the softer, more polished styling associated with earlier years. With Hawkins under pressure and the characters living through more extreme circumstances, she introduced rougher textures and less vanity into the designs.

She has described this approach as closely connected to the Scandinavian filmmaking sensibility she grew up around: even in fantasy, visual design needs enough imperfection to feel human.

Eleven, Steve Harrington & the Hairstyles That Became Cultural References

Several hairstyles created under Hindsgaul’s direction became closely tied to the identities of the actors and characters themselves.

Steve Harrington’s hair became one of the show’s recurring visual jokes and eventually a recognizable piece of the character’s persona. Hindsgaul developed the style around soft volume and movement rather than creating a rigid period hairstyle.

Eleven presented a very different challenge. Hindsgaul has identified the recreated buzz-cut look used for Millie Bobby Brown in the fourth season as one of the designs she is most proud of. The effect relied on detailed wig work designed to reproduce the appearance of a shaved head without requiring Brown to repeat the physical transformation of the first season.

The series also used hair to reference wider 1980s culture. For the character Vickie, Hindsgaul drew directly from Molly Ringwald’s look in Sixteen Candles, even working with a wig maker who obtained details about Ringwald’s original hair color from Ringwald herself.

Two Emmy Nominations

Hindsgaul’s work on Stranger Things received two Primetime Emmy nominations from the Television Academy.

Her first nomination came in 2017 for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single-Camera Series for the episode Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street.

She received a second nomination in 2022 for Outstanding Period and/or Character Hairstyling for Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab.

The nominations reflect the role hairstyling played in the series not merely as beauty work, but as period design, character construction and visual storytelling.

Film Work Beyond Stranger Things

Although Stranger Things became the project most closely associated with her name, Hindsgaul’s career extends well beyond the series.

She served as the New York hair department head on Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, working within a film whose visual style relied heavily on realism rather than dramatic transformation.

Her film work also includes Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. The film’s makeup and hairstyling team, including Hindsgaul, received the Best Makeup and Hairstyling award at the 2020 Capri, Hollywood International Film Festival.

Other credits across her career have included projects such as You Were Never Really Here and Dietland, demonstrating a range that stretches from naturalistic contemporary work to highly stylized character design.

Twenty Years of On-Set Problem Solving

Working in film and television also exposed Hindsgaul to a practical problem that eventually became central to her business career.

Actors’ hair can be styled repeatedly during long production days, exposed to heat, humidity, wigs, extensions and frequent product application, then expected to remain camera-ready through constant resets.

Hindsgaul has said that after years of working under those conditions she kept encountering the same issue: products could provide control, but they often created buildup or made hair feel heavy.

That experience shaped a philosophy centered on hair that can hold a style without losing movement.

Launching Hindsgaul Hair

In January 2026, Hindsgaul moved from professional hair design into beauty entrepreneurship with the launch of Hindsgaul Hair.

The brand grew directly out of her on-set experience rather than being developed as a celebrity licensing project. Its central idea is simple: professional performance without the heavy buildup that often comes with traditional styling products.

Hindsgaul describes the goal as hair that feels light, moves naturally and can fall back into shape rather than looking fixed in place.

The brand also reflects her Scandinavian background, combining minimalist routines with botanical ingredients and a preference for texture that looks polished without appearing overworked.

The Hindsgaul Hair Philosophy

Hindsgaul Hair is built around a relatively compact routine rather than a large catalogue of overlapping products.

The system includes The Scrub for cleansing and resetting the scalp and hair, The Mask for conditioning, The Mousse for flexible styling and The Puff dry shampoo for refreshing the roots without adding excessive texture or weight.

The formulas emphasize lightness and minimal buildup, drawing on ingredients including cloudberry, Nordic cotton and pea peptides.

The fragrance direction also connects back to Hindsgaul’s Scandinavian identity. The brand describes its scent as inspired by Scandinavian mornings, with notes including citrus, cucumber water, crisp cotton and musk.

From Hair Designer to Founder

Hindsgaul Hair represents a natural extension of Sarah Hindsgaul’s career rather than a separate reinvention.

Her years on set gave her direct experience with the limits of existing products. Stranger Things gave her a global platform and a highly visible body of work. The brand allowed her to translate those professional lessons into products intended for everyday consumers.

The move also changed the nature of her role. As a hair designer, Hindsgaul creates looks that support someone else’s character and story. As a founder, she is building a product philosophy around her own name and professional point of view.

Offers & Creator Codes

Famousi brings together current public offers, creator codes and other available opportunities connected to Sarah Hindsgaul, Hindsgaul Hair or her documented professional activities when they are available.

Offers, codes and terms may change over time. Readers should check the current details before using an offer.

Sarah Hindsgaul on Famousi

Read more about Sarah Hindsgaul through her Famousi profile.

Follow her work in film and television hairstyling, the legacy of Stranger Things, Hindsgaul Hair, new beauty projects, industry recognition, related stories and current opportunities as new content becomes available.

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