Riverdale's Hairstylist Just Shared Her Best On-Set Beauty Secrets

We should warn you: The CW's Riverdale is more addicting than Pop Tate's chocolate milkshakes. After one episode, you'll be dreaming about Jughead Jones' furrowing brow and wondering why Betty Cooper looks so skeptical all. The. Time. And since we've been there before, we figured we'd do you a favour and divulge the show's behind-the-scenes secrets now so you never have to wonder if Archie's red hair is real during your 13-hour binge.

To ease our constant curiosity, and because the series is well into its second season, we chatted with the head of the show's hair department Rosa Terracciano to find out all the on-set beauty tricks that come along with creating Archie, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty's signature looks. Read it for yourself, below.

According to Terracciano, all it takes to create Betty's slick pony is six hair products, a blow-dryer, hair extensions, a curling iron... and a special hair elastic. Yep, the only tangible thing you'll find in actress Lili Reinhart's on-screen hair is a black tie (and Terracciano says she's ordered more than 50 just in case she misplaces one). But despite the simplicity of the style, all those steps mean Betty's ponytail takes the longest to do of all the characters — 30 minutes in total.

When we sat down with Reinhart a few weeks ago, she admitted that while her sky-high, signature 'do is a "pain in the ass," it's actually not at all as painful as it looks. In fact, she rarely gets a headache from the pulled-back look. (Must be a very special elastic.)

Reinhart also told Refinery29 that the four main characters had to dye their hair for the roles. "When I was auditioning for Betty, I was originally auditioning as a brunette," Reinhart said. "[My natural colour is] like a dirty, ashy blonde. It's leaning more toward the brown side, but I was born a blonde. A dirty blonde."

As for Archie's character (played by K.J. Apa) and his fiery orange locks, his natural hair colour is a dark brunette hue. Terracciano says that his look requires the most upkeep, while Jughead (played by Cole Sprouse) — with his jet-black head of curls — takes less than 2 hours to transform in the salon. When the latter actor needs a touch-up, Terracciano covers Sprouse's dirty blond roots with a black root concealer.

In case you haven't noticed, the hairstyles the show aren't even close to the comics you'd find in the popular digest. As for Cooper, she never has scrunchies or bangs in the show — or that sunshine yellow hair colour. "There definitely was a lot of discussion for our pilot episodes about my hair and what shade it should be," Reinhart explained. "But we knew Betty's character is stark yellow so we weren't going to do that. We wanted it to have some dimension and more natural looking."

Her best friend, Veronica Lodge also doesn't have the '50s bangs from the comic books, though she does have the raven black hair. But this stylistic decision wasn't an accident. According to Terracciano, the show's creators wanted modern twists on the classic characters.