For a show filled with fire-breathing dragons and blood-soaked battles, you’d think the hair and makeup would be an afterthought. But for HBO’s House of the Dragon—set roughly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood—the beauty looks are an integral part of the show’s storytelling. Who knew a few medieval braids could hold such meaning?

A wig-heavy show like this with as many as 20-30 principal characters may seem like a daunting task for a hairstylist, but this isn’t Rosalia Culora’s first dance with dragons. The hair department lead also worked on all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, so she knows a thing or two about maintaining the perfect shade of Targaryen blonde and tracking blood splatters across strands during large battle sequences. As the third season continues to air, she shares more details from behind the scenes of the fantasy hit.

How the hair in season three tells a story

Culora says that the hairstyles in the show are part of each character’s arc and personal evolution. “Each look has a backstory to it,” she says, especially with Rhaenyra, who is played by Emma D’Arcy and goes through a transformation from a princess to a warrior, fighting for her rightful title as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. “When we first meet Rhaenyra in season one, there's a vulnerability… her hair's down quite a lot,” Culora says. “Then, as she becomes more of that dragon rider [and moves] into her own identity, the hair becomes more armored.” This leads to more intricate braiding, she says, adding that the hairstyles for the characters who ride atop the beasts and fight in battles are “part of their armor.”

The hair designer was inspired by a specific tree in Sicily for the chainmail-like styles. “I've got family that lives right by this tree," she says. “The organic quality and the binding [of the roots]… there's an element of that that I like to put into the hairstyles.” She also takes inspiration from actual chainmail and fabric. “It's all about that texture and trying to create that texture in a hairstyle,” she says.

While Rhaenyra’s hair is shifting from soft to shield-like, the opposite is true for Alicent Hightower and Helaena Targaryen (Olivia Cooke and Phia Saban), who are both experiencing a loss of power this season. ”There's no trust in [The Red Keep] and it's like they don't want the handmaidens near them,” Culora says, adding that the styles were made to appear as though they’ve done their hair themselves. “You can tell that their hair isn't as regal as previous seasons, and we do see a lot more hair down and a lot more disheveled,” she adds.

After all of these years in Westeros, Culora has a bit of fun weaving in her own subtle Easter eggs into some of the styles. In episodes one and two of this season, Culora braided a figure three in some character’s hair as a nod to the third season. She did the same at the end of season two, weaving an eight through hairstyles for the eighth and final episode. “I do these hidden things that no one really knows about in their hair,” Culora says. “I actually feature my initials at the end of the last episode, an ‘R’ and a ‘C’ hidden into their hair. It's like a signature.”

Culora hints that there are other extreme changes when it comes to appearances this season, specifically for Baela and Rhaena Targaryen who are Daemon Targaryen’s twin daughters. Of course, she can’t give anything away just yet. “It's almost like they're losing part of their identity a little bit,” she hints.

What hairstyle would a dragon-rider have?

Besides braids and the intricate, armor-like weaving, Culora says the silhouettes of the hairstyles mimic the curve of the dragons that the Targaryens are riding. “It just creates this beautiful bit of cinema…and also it's not distracting,” she says. It’s also why we see so many half-up, half-down styles in the show. “It's a practicality, but it opens up the face and it just allows the cast to essentially act and not think about what's going on on top of their head,” Culora says.

More dragon riding in also means less room for frivolous hair ornaments, especially for Rhaenyra, that were prevalent in season one. “It has to be practical and if they’re on a dragon, it's got to be bound,” she says. During season two, the team focused more on binding the hair although they did have some dragon ornamentation, but this season, Culora has eliminated all of the embellishments.

The many wigs of Westeros

Culora says there are hundreds of wigs used in the making of the show, and almost every principal character that appears in House of the Dragon has custom hairpieces—including Olivia Cooke, who wears a three quarter wig to play Alicent Hightower. “We used about two inches of Olivia’s own hairfront,” Culora says. The wigs were custom-made by Alex Rouse—the London-based company that’s made all the wigs for the series since Game of Thrones—using human hair and a lace-front technique.

For D’Arcy’s character specifically, Culora cycles between three wigs—but there’s one in particular that she refers to as Rhaenyra’s “blood” wig. Since fake blood is so hard to get out of the white blonde color and often leaves behind pink stains, the hair team needs specific wigs dedicated to getting dirty. “I could write a book about that wig,” she says. “It's been there from day dot and it's been on their head for several different [scenes], like the birthing sequence. It was the same wig when young Rhaenyra killed the boar and there was blood everywhere.”

While the wigs aren’t washed every single night, they do follow a strict regimen of care. “We have to be really careful about where we dry the wigs and how we wash the wigs,” Culora says. “I wash them at an angle. You have to keep on top of it, especially because the seasons are so long and a character, like [Rhaenyra], does a lot. Their working days are long and they're in many scenes.”

Culora says they have to be especially careful with their wigs that have locs, worn by many characters who make up House Valeryon. “They do need regular upkeep and maintenance,” she says, especially during the first episode this season that featured the intense Battle of the Gullet. “When we got blood in the locs, I actually had to remove them and we had standby locs in place to stitch in,” she said.

The secrets behind Targaryen blonde

While Daenarys Targaryen was the only character with the silvery blonde hair of her ancestors in Game of Thrones (besides her brother, who was killed early on in season one), House of the Dragon centers around the dragon-riding family, meaning that the cast is filled with white-blonde characters. Unfortunately for viewers who want to cosplay as a Targaryen, the icy shade likely won’t be replicable at your local salon. The platinum recipe was created back in 2009 for the very first season of Game of Thrones, although it’s been refined over time. “In theory, it's kind of the same recipe,” Culora says. “There's seven different colors in that wig. It has evolved and each wig is ever so slightly different.”

To get the frosty look, Culora says it’s important to control what’s happening under the wig as well. “That's why we bald cap the cast. That way you see partings, you see scalp, you're not seeing hair [underneath],” she says. “There's a vast amount of hair color product that goes under the wigs as well in some cases.” Even for the brunettes. For example, Gayle Rankin, who plays Alys Rivers, had lighter hair than her character’s dark chocolate brown tone. “Sometimes the stocking cap is not going to cut it,” Culora says. “You have to almost use [the actor’s] own head and hair as a canvas in the prep and color it up to help sell the wig.”

While Culora doesn’t want to disclose any specific products used on set to avoid fans from selling them out, she says the most used product on set isn’t platinum blonde hair dye—although with the amount of Targaryens in the show, it’s likely a close second. But Culora says there’s something else she and her team can’t live without: “Lots and lots and lots of leave-in conditioner.”

Discover more behind-the-scenes beauty from your favorite TV shows:

• Euphoria Season 3 Makeup Is All About ‘Capital G Glam’—and We Have All the Details
• Inside Sarah Pidgeon’s $10,000-Plus Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy Hair Transformation
• The Exact Eyeliner Jenna Ortega Is Wearing at Wednesday's Season 2 Gala

Now, take a peek inside the hair and makeup trailer of Prime Video's “Elle":