The Secret Meaning Behind Betty’s Ponytail on Riverdale This Season

Whether you’re a casual Riverdale watcher, only know it from the ads, or have your own web of theories about what’s going down, one thing’s obvious: This isn’t the bright, happy town from the comic books. The first season was more of a one-to-one comparison, but as we’ve gotten deeper into the second season, things have taken a turn for the Twin Peaks eerie. And it turns out, a clue about that darkness has been hiding in plain sight this whole time—in Betty’s ponytail, of all places.

As if the constant fog (and death) weren’t enough of a tell, Lili Reinhart exclusively told Glamour that we should keep an eye on Betty’s hair this season. True, we’ve been doing that already. With her always shiny (thanks to this $3 mask), always buttery blond hair, it’s hard to look away. But according to Reinhart, there’s more than it seems to how Betty wears her hair. “When it comes to having her hair down or lower, like a lower pony, it’s usually reflective of her mental state,” Reinhart says. So as Betty’s hair has descended this season, it’s meant bad news for Betty, and potentially what’s to come.

We shouldn’t read too much into her top knots, Reinhart says (apparently Betty just shoves her hair up when she just wants it out of the way—real), but all of Betty’s other looks are pretty loaded. Take when the Black Hood started contacting her, Reinhart says: “In episode five, it was important to me that by the end of the episode, Betty’s hair was completely down, just because that perky girl next door façade was gone and faded and hollowed out. That’s why I had a low pony and a low bun in that episode, because she wasn’t putting in any effort into her appearance. She obviously had bigger fish to fry in the moment.” Handling a murderer will do that to you.

And if you’ve noticed Betty taking a turn for the dark(er) this season, her hair also holds some secrets about how far she’ll go. “Definitely as Betty evolves, and whatever she’s going through in her personal life, it’s seen on her hair. The ponytail is looser this season and not as slicked back and tight,” Reinhart says. The shift comes through in other ways, too: “In her makeup the latter half of the season, she gets a little darker, a little more made up. I think maybe that’s to compensate her breakup with Jug, or her trying to figure out her own sexuality and why that she did the (seductive) dance [in front of Jughead].”

Probably no one can identify with throwing on a black wig and torturing a boy in a hot tub, but Reinhart’s explanation for Betty’s beauty moves is pretty relatable (figuring yourself out, too much black eyeliner-relatable). As Reinhart says, Betty’s trying to figure out “who she is, and what she’s made of. And it’s kind of like [we’re] showing that with the way that she looks, it’s fun and interesting. Not too many people pick up on it, but it’s something that we’re doing behind the scenes intentionally.”

And for fans who love a theme, Reinhart says that they’ve been building to this switch since season one. “I had to battle with Roberto, our show runner, because I’d be like, ‘Can Betty have her hair down for this scene? Or maybe half-up?’ People on Twitter would ask that too, but I was like, ‘Just be patient! I’m fighting for it!'” Reinhart says. “But when Betty does have her hair down, there’s more significance behind it.”

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