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After much anticipation, Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2 is finally here. Almost 20 years after the book it's based on, The Sea of Monsters, was first published, season 2 follows Percy, Annabeth, and Grover as they navigate a new playing field, the Bermuda Triangle. And with it comes a whole other world, with different monsters and different versions of our main characters. When it comes to creating that immersive experience for viewers, Jeannie Chow, the head of Percy Jackson’s hair department, spared no detail.
Chow and her team do everything from conjuring up looks for the monsters to perfecting the main characters' signature hairstyles. With a show like this, which already has a following from readers of the books, interpretations vary, and that’s something the team knows and wants to lean into.
“When I read a novel, I have it in my head how I envision the story, but sometimes seeing somebody else's perspective or vision can just make it that much better than how I imagined it in my own head,” Chow tells Teen Vogue. “And so I'm hoping that the viewers and the fans of the book are taking that in as well.”
Below, we chat with Chow about styling the characters of Percy Jackson season 2 and what to look forward to for season 3. But, scroll cautiously.
This story contains some spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
JC: From the very beginning, we just wanted them to look like kids. It's a coming of age story, it's a self-discovery story, and we wanted the kids to just look very approachable. We wanted them to look like everyday kids. There are other shows out there that I think really hit the fashion or the glam looks, and that's kind of what they're revolving around. I feel like Percy is such a deeper story, and you can meld both of those together. And it's not just about the visuals and what the latest trends are, or whatnot, which, of course, we obviously try to tie in together. But at the heart of the story, it's an adventure, it's a quest. It's about friendship and bonding, and learning about yourselves, so that's where the basis of all of those looks came from; we just wanted them to look real and authentic. There's a lot of fake out there.
JC: We wanted to aim for confidence and warrior energy. We wanted her to keep her looks practical, because she is on an adventure. They are on a quest. But we also wanted her to look like a young teenager, so [we were] balancing keeping her strong and age-appropriate, yet still practical for the scenes that she was doing.
JC: What's really nice about working with Leah, and working with her on multiple seasons, is seeing her grow, but also seeing Annabeth grow as well. And so I think once we get into season two, you'll see this kind of transition, where she has kind of come from a young girl to a young teen, and I'm hoping that's conveyed in her hair. There's a little bit more maturity, and there's a little bit more style to it, but it still is in tune with her being on an adventure.
JC: I'm really excited for people to see the C.C. Spa transformation. That was just a big scene in the book, in the novel, and I think that's just something that the fans will look forward to, because it's very different from their everyday looks, so I hope people will like that. And the chariot races that are coming up are pretty amazing. That took us two or three months of filming in the beating sun, and [with] lots of sand and everywhere, so I hope everybody likes that look, and the sequences of events that happen during that whole chariot race.
JC: It was really fun. Tamara [Smart], who plays Thalia, she was so wonderful to work with as well too, and she was so game for a big hair change. I suggested we can work with a wig, and she was ready for her full transformation using her own hair. It's always fun to work with actors that are ready for a big transformation that way, and I hope that it translates with the fans as well too. It was good. We did a lot of research and got a lot of different inspiration from different music and musicians. There's a couple of girls that I follow on Instagram in Paris that have this really nice feminine goth-core [aesthetic].
JC: We had a lot of fun with Say Yes to the Dress. Aryan [Simhadri] was looking forward to trying on a few different renditions of the dress. We had a good time with that. These kids are just so fun. They're so committed to their work, and to the characters, and it's so refreshing to work with that young energy. So, yeah, I think everybody will love it. There are some nice lace pieces coming up.
JC: Yes, exactly. I call it hair-acting. Because that's just it, when you have long hair and it's whipping around. With Clarisse, there were a lot of times when it was wet, and it is a choreography of your whole body, and making sure that you're opening yourself to camera, and that it sits and lands in a certain spot every take, for when editing comes in together. The choreography is amazing, the stunt scenes, and then just the movement in their costumes as well too, and just having that flexibility.
JC: The thing that we have to really be careful of is not putting too much product into his hair, because otherwise it gets into his eyes, and it's just not fun. But definitely, last checks and last looks before going to camera, and trying to match that. [To portray] the wetness, we use a few different wet gels. We've used coconut oils and aloe vera gels just to keep it really natural, and to get that nice perfect dripping off his hair. And his curls are so nice. We set him up with a really good shampoo and conditioner, and a really good haircut, so that even when it's wet, the curls just kind of nicely form together.
JC: Well, I think there's the gray streaks that are coming up once Luke and Annabeth take over Atlas's spot. I think that's been a big one for me to incorporate. We’ve got Artemis's hunters, and we have the Hesperides that are coming up as well too, so they all have really beautiful looks, and I can't wait for everybody to see those looks. I love it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
