Saying he was fully in charge of his hair for the first time was a bad choice of words. I mean more that his parents strike me as the sort to heavily dictate what his style was growing up, and Eddie seems the type to just go with that. It was easier, and it suited him well enough, so why bother to change, ya know?
But in the military, he would've been completely not in charge. It needed function and to meet the dress code so he probably just kept it short rather than messing with gels or stuff, even when he was at home.
Plus I imagine Shannon liked it soft and product free, easier to stroke a hand over.
But now, in LA, he styles it. He's clearly experimented, even if only a little, with gels and mousse and a brush technique that isn't straight back away from my face.
S3 hair was best, S4 was a little too carefully-ruffled, and sadly I'm yet to see any of S5 (I'm not paying ÂŁ30 a month to get it) outside of clips and stills, but it looks better.
You veered away from our joking back and forth about the best hairstyle and went meta with it. đ
That's fine. We can talk Eddie's hair. That's a hot topic with me anyway. đ€Ł
We've had entire discussions about his hair before. Particularly his Season 3 hair and what led to that and the symbolism of allowing it to grow out again in Season 4. And then from that post, @extasiswings does that thing she always does and went even deeper turning the evolution of his hair into an entire character study in this fic here.
There are different ways to look at this.
That being said, before I continue, I honestly think his Season 2 hair was just a decision on the part of whoever was in charge of Ryan's style when he was first brought on. And they probably just went "Hmmm. đ€ This seems sexy! đ"
But let's talk about it inside the narrative instead!
While I'm certainly no fan of Diaz parents, I honestly don't think they'd have been dictating his hairstyle into his late teens and early adulthood. That seems like a bit of a reach.
I do agree that when he was young he probably didn't care, but I'm gonna bring up Chapel's reply on this post from earlier:
Because whether there's a narrative decision behind his style for Season 2 or we're headcanoning something here, I think it's highly likely that he got out of the army and went right back to what he knew.
That he fell back into how he styled his hair before enlisting because that's what he was used to. That's what he knew how to do.
And that would kind of make sense when you consider what I mentioned jokingly (but also not jokingly) earlier that it was too young for him and didn't quite work. That it seemed like an older man trying to style his hair in a way he thought was cool and attractive only to miss and seem like he's trying too hard. Little things like how thin his hair looked around his hairline at times and how it looked thinner than it should around the edges for that kind of style don't lead me to believe it's a new style for him.
It comes across to me as something that worked before, so he went back without realizing that it doesn't work the same way anymore. I don't really see it as something that developed post-service.
I'm not going to repeat everything from the posts I've linked above for what I think happened with his hair from S2 to S3 and even S3 to S4. You can read them if you're curious.
I absolutely do not agree that his S3 hair was his best look. I literally mentioned in those other posts that I think he cut it off to avoid having to focus on it in his grief.
But I'll admit that what does and doesn't look best on him is all a matter of opinion.
In Season 4, his hair began to grow out again, and I've talked about the symbolism of that before. But I think it's a bit notable that it was kept so neat and carefully styled. Everything with Eddie in Season 4 had to be picture-perfect. From his hair to his relationship to his pillows. Everything had to look right.
And we see it being a bit less controlled in Season 5 as those picture-perfect ideas fall to pieces around him. His relationship. His mental health. Himself. It's there and he works at it, but every strand is not in place. There's still a lot more of Season 5 left to go, so we'll see what happens.
But his hair is definitely an interesting topic.
