***Spoiler Warning for 'The Umbrella Academy: Season 3'***Netflix's hit superhero TV series The Umbrella Academy gave fans a thrilling following up to its previous season with the return of the Hargreeves sibling and the introduction of the new rival superhero group, The Sparrow Academy. Season 3 was filled with drama and adventure as fans got to see not only how the Hargreeves siblings dealt with the impending new apocalyptic threat, the Kugelblitz, but also with interpersonal challenges such as sudden parenthood, forbidden love, and familial disagreements.
Of all the characters that went through the most pronounced changes and challenges, Allison Hargreeves definitely stood out. Allison's trauma of dealing with segregation and losing her husband, Raymond, and daughter, Claire, resulted in her acting much more jaded than we've previously seen her, leading some fans to question a lot of her actions. One of the telltale signs of Allison's more hardened personality was her sudden hair change in Season 3 which held a lot more significance in the story than one would think.
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If you need to jog your memory, Allison's radical hair change happened in episode 4 of the season titled "Kugelblitz." After Sloane wakes up to find her siblings, Jayme and Alphonso, dead, she runs off horrified with Luther following after her. Noticing this, Allison and Diego, both wanting intel from Sloane, go looking for the two and find them in the bathroom. It is there where Allison rumors Sloane into telling her the briefcase's whereabouts. At first, Sloane tries to resist, but eventually caves into telling Allison that she doesn't know where it is.
Not believing Sloane and at the brick of frustration, Allison rumors her again to the point where it becomes physically painful for Sloane. Luther stops Allison, which upsets her. After everyone leaves the bathroom, Allison goes to the bathroom mirror, rumoring herself to be happy before punching it and picking up a shard. In the next scene, Allison, now sporting a blunt bob, steps out of the Hotel Obsidian and finds Viktor with Harlan.
Also, in case you're looking to recreate Allison's look for cosplay or take some fashion inspiration from it, the Mayslie Jumpsuit from Paige and black Dr. Martens look very similar to the outfit that she wears in the episode. And if you're not ready to commit to cutting your own hair, Gorgius' wavy bob lace wig is a great alternative to try.
While a simple change of hairdo might seem trivial to some, cosmetic choices are often utilized to further storytelling, such as with Marianne's iconic hairstyle in the romantic drama Normal People and the fashion in the Halloween cult classic movie Practical Magic. Plus, Emmy Raver-Lampman's character isn't the only one in the show to change up their style. Viktor, played by Elliot Page, also got a haircut too this season after coming out as transgender.
Related: Elliot Page's Umbrella Academy Character Comes Out As Trans
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With the events Allison went through last season, including the loss of her husband and daughter, it is safe to say that her haircut was intended to depict not only her trauma but also the complete transformation in her character's personality and morals. In general, cutting one's hair is a common trope used in movies and TV shows meant to symbolize a turning point in a character's development, be it positive or negative. The most popular example of this trope can be seen in Disney's animated film Mulan where a whole scene is dedicated to showing Mulan cutting her hair with a sword, so she can disguise herself as a man in order to take her father's place in the army.
According to Racked, the trope of cutting one's hair works so well because it shows viewers a physical visual of a character's internal state, something educator, and film and TV critic Patricia Grisafi explains in more detail.
"In a practical sense, the depiction of a femme character cutting her hair after a traumatic experience condenses a multitude of complex emotions into one simple, visually arresting action," Grisafi told Racked in the 2017 article. "This can be reductive because it eschews all of these complex emotions, but it's efficient; over the years, viewers have learned to automatically associate hair cutting with a character's deteriorating mental state."
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Other hairstyles for Allison in The Umbrella Academy have also been used to show a shift in her character as well. In season 2 of the show, Allison goes from long blond curls to a straightened shoulder-length beehive after time traveling back to the 1960s, which makes sense given how fashion-conscious her character is already due to her occupation as an actress as pointed out by Screen Rant. Even her fashion sense complemented this change as she wore popular apparel from the era, which, incidentally, is currently making a comeback through specialty vintage retailers like Unique Vintage and designers inspired by the period.
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As such, the hairstyle change represented how Allison became ingrained in the time period's culture, leading her to eventually become a civil rights activist. In the case of Allison's hair cut in season 3, besides being a visual for trauma, it also showed her shifting into what some fans have called a villainous character arc. The claim does make sense given how unlike in the previous seasons, season 3 Allison ends up using her powers with no restraint to the point of hurting others-regardless of them being her siblings or enemies-killing Harlan, and briefly betraying her siblings by making a deal with Sir Reginald Hargreeves.
While fashion and hair weren't the main centerpieces of the My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way's The Umbrella Academy comics, that doesn't mean the Netflix adaptation didn't take some cosmetic cues from the work. According to Looper, Allison's haircut seems to be a very clear style reference to her comic book counterpart's bob-length hair. Allison's season 3 new hairstyle only further solidifies her shift into moral ambiguity and even villainy, as her comic book counter wasn't exactly shown to be a saint either.
In the comic books, Allison sometimes used her powers for self-centered gain. When Allison gets divorced from her husband, Patrick, she uses her powers to coerce Luther into kissing her, so she could cope with the pain. It is also revealed later in the series that she rumored Patrick to fall in love with her, to begin with. These storylines happen somewhat similarly in the Netflix show, and with that in mind, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to think that the costume design mirrored Allison's comic book counter in regard to her hair and even her grungier clothing style for this reason.
The Umbrella Academy is planning to make a return for its fourth and final season on Netflix. However, with no recent trailer announcements, it's hard to say when it'll hit the streaming platform. Filming for season 4 hasn't even started yet, according to Showbiz Cheatsheet.
However, with the previous seasons releasing within a year or two after each other, we can only predict season 4 will come out sometime in 2023 or 2024. Hopefully, fans won't have to wait long to see what Allison and the rest of her siblings are up to.
The Umbrella Academy: Season 3 is available for streaming on Netflix.
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