non exhaustive notable Dana hair by season (1-7)
Pilot: very cute. Not my favourite but it looks good, I like the length, and we get updos!
Season 1: A little shorter than pilot but cute. I like it better as it gets later in the season and her hair gets longer with the little curl at the end (Miracle Man, E.B.E., The Erlenmeyer Flask). Plus we get lots of variations of updos (Ice, Darkness Falls, The Jersey Devil, Beyond the Sea, Deep Throat, Squeeze)
Dana in Squeeze. This is the only time she ever has this style, unfortunately.
Dana in Ice. We see a variant of this style later in season 3.
Season 2: heres where we get into it imo. I like the shortlived era of her little fringe as we see in the beginning of the season.
Then we get the abduction and the aftermath. Her hair looks really great in the boat scenes of One Breath.
in Firewalker, there are some stunning shots in the office in the beginning of the episode.
I love her hair in Red Museum and, one of the best overall, is Die Hand Die Verletzt, with the abundance of her curls.
Season 3: Okay so, I would say her hair this season is a runner-up to season 2. The curls are wonderful particularly in Apocrypha, Pusher, The Blessing Way, Syzygy.
And in War of the Coprophages we get her adorable half ponytail.
Unfortunately by this point the updos are mostly sequestered to when shes doing autopsies. (really, that trend started in s2).
Season 4: I like parts of this season's hair. I think my favourite is Unruhe.
Sanguinarium is good too.
I find the styling a bit more boring and just a little short. Seasons 2 and 3 are still the best. On the other hand, season 4 (and 5) are the best hair-wise for Mulder. I think a few updos or even like. something partially pulled back, could have jazzed things up here.
Season 5: So, this is where I got less interested in her hair, which lacks much curl or variation. In Chinga, we see her hair pulled back whilst shes taking a bath, and it looks very good.
More of that would've been nice. I also like her hair in Detour, especially when shes a bit dishevelled.
Season 6: I think I actually like her hair in this season more than 5. I like how it's layered and she looks cute (especially Rain King, Arcadia).
I like her hair also particularly towards the end of the season, like in Field Trip and Biogenesis.
I still think its a bit short but shes so cute. Oh and Triangle- love her 1930s hair.
Season 7: Very mixed bag. We start off extremely strong with her ponytail and glasses combo whilst shes doing research in the Sixth Extinction. Then the end of Amor Fati is... not very good, for some reason. After we just had this beautiful style, why do away with it?
The episode stretch from Hungry through the Goldberg Variation is strong hair-wise. Especially the last one. We get a lot of curls (amazing. bring them back.) and it seems like things are going well.
Dana in the Goldberg Variation.
This is where they should have stopped because after that, for a while, she has a style that I find far too severe and thin and short and I don't know what the thought process was. It gets a bit better as the season progresses, I particularly like her hair in Hollywood AD where she gets dressed up for the premiere. She looks cute in Je Souhaite as well.
What is there to conclude here besides the barrage of my opinions on this topic where I prefer to have her hair longer and curlier more often than not?
In the beginning of the show there was a lot more experimentation and variation in hairstyles and then it slowly lost that element. And in the brief times Dana has her hair pinned back or something in later seasons where her hair is shorter, its proven that even with that length she could still pull off variations but she doesn't. This could have to do with just styling preferences behind the scenes, I'm not sure, and its so very minor, but I wanted to point it out. Also the periodic loss and gain of curls is somewhat interesting.
My recommendations: more style variety and curls