In a Battle Royale of the Best Movie Couple Hair, There’s One Clear Winner

Skip the prix-fixe restaurants overwhelmed by pink heart balloons this weekend. In honor of the month of love and this era of chaos, I’m pitting men and women against one another in Hollywood’s top interpretations of true love. More specifically, their hair.

You can take in Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet as they overcome their pride—and their prejudice. Or maybe Harry and Sally are calling your name. Perhaps you just want to watch nobody put Baby in a corner. As for me, however, I will be focusing on a niche sub-genre of the romance arena: one where “to me, your hairstyles are perfect.”

So, set up your living room, pop some red roses in a vase, and turn on your home theater projector. Hey, love is a bloodsport, and it’s time to take bets on whose hair is the fairest of them all.

The Competitors

Can’t Hardly Wait (1998)

It’s a moment few Xennials can forget: with all eyes on her, a newly single Amanda Beckett walks through the front door of a post-graduation high school party in the quintessential teen film, Can’t Hardly Wait. Despite already being inside the home, soft ethereal lighting and gusts of wind inexplicably target only our heroine — played by Jennifer Love Hewitt — and her long, brown, full-bodied, blown-out hair.

Amanda may have perfected the iconic teen-movie entrance—rivaled only by Laney Boggs’s walk down the stairs in She’s All That—the lustful looks in the film extend to her former beau, one Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli). His hair embodied the “coolest guy to peak in high school” aesthetic for every ‘90s boy: full, lightly feathered, sort of pushed back but with a hint of bangs. Glorious.

Winner: Amanda Beckett

Sure, the idiot who broke up with Amanda Beckett put in a valiant effort. But Jennifer Love Hewitt’s wind-blown hair gets the win.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Whether he be wistful farmboy Westley or the dashing Dread Pirate Roberts, Cary Elwes poses striking competition for Mr. DiCaprio when it comes to beautiful, blond, piecey hair. Plus, the heartthrob of Rob Reiner’s classic, The Princess Bride, also dazzles us with a teensy-tiny ponytail.

Still, while Westley may have been a sexual awakening for many an ‘80s and ‘90s young adult, we cannot cast aside the flowing locks of Princess Buttercup. First with the type of effortless, “natural”, soft, and angelic blonde hair of a farm girl, and then later, with more defined curls under her bridal crown. Personally, I would die to wake up with Robin Wright’s hair in this film, particularly when her beloved Westley protects her in their first meeting with the Six-Fingered Man. And because of that, my final verdict?

Winner: Princess Buttercup

Robin Wright and her eternally aspirational Princess Buttercup hair.

Clueless (1995)

If we’re talking about the perfect blonde hairdo, Cher Horowitz’s flawless blowout in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless has to be in the conversation. But while the movie boasts a gluttony of enviable hair—Travis Birkenstock and Elton Tiscia, anyone?—one of the most underrated makeovers in teen films features Donald Faison’s Murray getting a full bald shave in the middle of a party. His girlfriend, Dionne Davenport (played by a pre-looney Stacey Dash), and her beautiful chest-length braids walk into the bathroom, where she is met by her very bald (and very pleased with himself) boyfriend.

Winner: Murray

It’s all about the confidence, and we love a man who embraces his bald side. As such, we’re giving Murray the win—much to Dionne’s horror.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Claire Danes looks beautiful with her light-brown wig, specifically when it was expertly styled to give a nod to a halo in Juliet’s much-admired, oft-mimicked angel costume in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. But she’s up against Leo in his prime. Dissertations could be written about Leonardo DiCaprio’s 1990s hair, and there would still be more to say.

Winner: Romeo

Obviously, our winner is Leo’s Romeo. He wins against just about everyone. (Or does he…?)

The Mummy (1999)

This is a movie that pits hottie against hottie, so at the end of the day, everyone’s a winner. In The Mummy, Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser vie for the title of “sexiest person in a film about mummies.” Despite being caked in sweat, dust, and sand, both still easily look better than most people could hope for on their best day—and their sunkissed tans don’t hurt. Fraser’s curtain-banged brown mop is another male hairdo in the running for the top ‘90s hair, while Rachel Weisz’s 1920s-influenced curls—soft, dark brown, romantic—are the stuff of dreams.

Winner: Evelyn Carnahan

It’s a good fight, but this one is going to Rach.

Notting Hill (1999)

This is the toughest battle on this list. You have Julia Roberts as Anna Scott, a role that lets America’s sweetheart prove she looks good in every hair color and every hairstyle, as seen in her many on-screen roles. But her dark brown layered lob—particularly under her black beret when first meeting the mumbling William Thacker (Hugh Grant)—is prominently featured on many a Pinterest board and shown to countless stylists. Mr. Grant, for his part, delivers one of the finest showings of male hair in the history of men’s grooming with his iconic floppy, mid-length, inexplicably British hair.

Winner: William Thacker

Truly a difficult fight. Julia’s layers put on an unbelievable performance for this classic rom-com, but the accolades have to go to Hugh and his flop. It’s iconic. It’s perfect. It’s timeless. It’s just a boy, standing in front of a camera, asking us to love him.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997)

It’s Brandy vs. Paolo Montalban in this, one of the best live-action adaptations of fairytales ever gifted to cinephiles. Prince Charming (technically Prince Christopher…) offers a full head of impressively thick, dark, feathered hair. But Brandy makes history with this film as the first Black princess to wear natural hair on the big screen. Her long, protective box braids distinguish the singer’s princess portrayal from those before her, cementing Brandy’s Cinderella in the hall-of-fame of significant cinematic coiffure.

Winner: Cinderella

Montalban tries and does offer an enviable mane that any person would be lucky to run their fingers through, but Brandy is the undeniable victor in this head-to-head. Her iconic braids, both left down and pulled up into an impeccable updo, sit amongst the best atop the iconic cinematic hair mountain.

Fight Club (1999)

There is, perhaps, no hotter (honorary) Gen-X man than Mr. Brad Pitt. Whether he was sporting long highlights, short spikes, or a bleached style perfectly coordinated with then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow, the heartthrob always looked like the ultimate dreamboat. In his turn as Tyler Durden, Pitt oozes sex with his buzzcut. A foil to Durden’s devastatingly tantalizing and kempt hair, however, is whatever the hell is going on with Helena Bonham Carter here. “Great hair” isn’t necessarily a style you or I want to wear every day; sometimes, it’s a style that effortlessly fits with a character—and Bonham Carter’s perfectly embodies the chaos of Marla Singer. This disheveled ‘do is the peak demonstration of twisted femme fatale.

Winner: Tyler Durden

Sorry, Marla. This one has to go to Tyler. The sexiest psychopath to ever make it to the big screen.

Aladdin (1992)

Disney has given us many iconic princesses with impeccable hair—Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Pocahontas, to name a few—but one of the greatest demonstrations of unrealistically full-bodied tresses of the cartoon variety has to be none other than those of Jasmine (voiced by Linda Larkin). How she manages to have impressively thick, big hair that maintains its bounce—and without any flyaways, no less—is a feat likely unattainable in this, the unfortunately real world.

In this battle, the princess is poised against her street urchin beau, Aladdin. Like countless Disney princes before him, our protagonist sports a style popular in the Magic Kingdom: floppy, center-parted, curtain-banged hair that would make any cartoon girl swoon.

Winner: Jasmine

Aladdin put up a good fight, but there’s no way this one doesn’t go to Jasmine. Her voluptuous ponytail is one of dreams…and admittedly impossible to replicate in real life without the use of innumerable hair extensions, intense teasing, and 14 bottles of texturizing powder and hair spray.

A Knight’s Tale (2001)

If the ‘90s and ‘00s gave us anything, it was an embarrassment of riches in the department of devilishly handsome blond babes with deceptively unfussy hair. Few manifest this honor more than the late Heath Ledger. We first saw him with a brown, messy mid-length cut in 10 Things I Hate About You, but the Aussie’s turn as a medieval jouster is where his hair truly shines. I’d imagine many products (mousse and salt spray, anyone?) went into perfecting the peasant look, but the film gifts us with a freshly rolled-out-of-bed style for the ages.

Against our knight is another stalwart of early aught cinema, Ms. Shannyn Sossamon. Her portrayal of our fair maiden, Jocelyn, presents us with no shortage of fantastic hair. Departing from a classic period-style coiffure, the film gives an abundance of anachronistic hair. Hats, ribbons, dyes, and, I’d surmise, some curling irons help crown Sossamon as the peak alternative bro’s manic pixie dream girl.

Winner: William Thatcher

Another valiant battle this time pitting a bevy of modernist long hairstyles against a singular shabby shag. But this win goes to the man, as Heath Ledger and his piecey blond waves cemented his status as the ultimate Xennial hottie.

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

The Lisbon sisters and their straight blonde hair were a staple of 2000s Tumblr pages and may be the crowning demonstration of unfussy faux-natural bleached locks. Kirsten Dunst’s turn as Lux Lisbon has surely been presented to colorists galore in the nearly three decades since Sofia Coppola’s first foray into feature films. Her love interest is the dreamy and ruthless clichéd high-school golden boy with a name to match: Trip Fontaine, played by Josh Hartnett at his peak. His 1970s hair—a long, layered, and center-parted style, likely a wig—is the stuff of dreams, particularly as he tucks his seemingly blown-out tresses behind his ears throughout the film.

Winner: Lux Lisbon

Maybe it’s my personal envy of all things Kirsten Dunst that gives her the easy win in my book, but it could also be, despite his undeniable heartthrob status, that Trip Fontaine’s hair has not passed the test of time. Sorry, Josh.

The Winners Circle

The contenders for the ultimate winner of our hair-to-hair battle are Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright), Murray (Donald Faison), Romeo (Leonardo DiCaprio), Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), William Thacker (Hugh Grant), Cinderella (Brandy), Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), Jasmine (voiced by Linda Larkin), William Thatcher (Heath Ledger), and Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst).

Admittedly, this judge clearly has a fondness for 1990s and early 2000s romance in particular, but regardless of bias, it has to come down to the stars of Notting Hill, two actors who make impressively convincing arguments for the title of best hair in the history of the big screen. Despite Julia making a career out of public adoration of her iconic mane, the perfect hairstyle from one of Hollywood’s best romances has to be that of Mr. Hugh (Mongo) Grant. The floppy, curtain-banged mop has captured the hearts of a lustful audience for nearly three decades, and, I would surmise, will hold the title, perhaps, “indefinitely.”