There have been many times when I’ve sat down to watch a Sunday night HBO lineup and thought “Damn, I want that character’s hair.” I have screenshotted Carrie Bradshaw’s highlights in And Just Like That… and presented them to my stylist. I fear and respect Kate’s ability to serve bob on The White Lotus. But I never expected to covet the curtain bangs and artfully placed waves on Dina, Isabela Merced’s character in the post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us.
The show, based on the video game franchise of the same name, is nearing the end of its second season, which takes place five years after the events of its first, decades after a viral fungus turned much of humanity into deformed, zombie-like creatures. Though the show’s main characters have joined a peaceful, secured settlement in Jackson, Wyoming, the Infected, as they’re known, still pose a huge threat to the town and its people, including protagonist Ellie and love interest Dina, who leave this civilization for a cross-country journey (I won’t spoil why for those who somehow still don’t know), sharing a single horse and a whole lot of beef jerky.
Roaming pretty much everywhere that’s not Jackson, the Infected are starved for human flesh, and most of them are very fast. And if so-called “Runners” or “Clickers” don’t rip you limb from limb or turn you into a zombie yourself, a heavily armed independent militia could shoot you on sight, or you might find yourself abducted by a cannibalistic cult. Characters face countless obstacles in the endlessly dangerous and hopeless landscape of The Last of Us—but imperfect hair, weirdly, is not one of them. Amid this hellscape, Dina seems to have somehow found a Dyson Airwrap and a miraculously functioning electrical socket because her hair is perfect at just about every moment.