QUEEN CHARLOTTE OF BRIDGERTON'S MOST POWERFUL WIGS, RANKED

With every new season set in 1800s high-society London, there are a few things fans can count on from the Bridgerton Cinematic Universe: the central couple will deliver an epic slow-burn romance (with one party suffering significantly more than the other), instrumental pop covers will soundtrack every dramatic entrance, and Queen Charlotte’s hair will defy both gravity and reason. And every time, I'm sat—snacks within reach—ready to gossip like Lady Whistledown from my couch and ooh and ahh over the oversized gowns and truly spectacular Black hair creations.

Whether the real Queen Charlotte was Black depends on which historian you catch on which day. But the Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, played by Golda Rosheuvel, absolutely is. And by the time Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story rewinds the clock (with a perfectly cast India Amarteifio as young Charlotte), it becomes obvious that the hair, the clothes, the drama of it all aren’t just for show. This is a woman who had to fight for the right to look exactly how she wants. So her wigs get taller, her curls get bolder, and suddenly fashion becomes less about taste and more about territory.

As a viewer—and a moderately obsessive fan—I feel genuinely lucky that Golda Rosheuvel is our Queen Charlotte. The prequel gave us emotional context and romantic weight, but in present-day Bridgerton, the Queen’s job description is fairly narrow: side-eye the newest scandals, loom ominously over court gossip, and stay locked in a long, petty chess match with Lady Whistledown. In less capable hands, she could easily fade into the background as just another colorful stop on the way to the season’s central love story. But Rosheuvel refuses to let that happen.

Her Queen Charlotte is both terrifying and tender, bored but deeply observant, sharp-tongued and strangely soft when you least expect it. She’s dismissive, deliciously quick-witted, and fully aware of her own power. She’s a bitch—and very much that bitch. One moment she’s giving Beyoncé, the next she’s channeling Queen Ramonda, regal and grieving and untouchable.

Across the series, her hair operates like a whole mood: intimidating when necessary, playful when warranted, and occasionally motorized. Dear Gentle Reader, here are some of her most powerful looks:

11: Gentle Ascension

This wig is a perfect representation of a young Queen Charlotte, still learning the weight of the crown. Its rounded, cloud-like volume softens her silhouette, while delicate crystal accents feel intimate rather than ceremonial. It captures a version of Charlotte before authority hardens into armor. Power is present here, for sure—just not fully sharpened yet.

10: Cloud of Judgment

This wig is doing architectural werk. Sculpted into a near-perfect dome, its symmetry signals control, while the height quietly amplifies her authority. Pearl accents and tightly dressed curls are placed with intention; Nothing ornamental is without purpose. It’s the kind of wig worn during conversations that sound polite but function as directives. Calm on top, command underneath.

9: Emotionally Available Monument

This wig trades symmetry for feeling. Its towering height is intentionally uneven, with loose curls and soft pink ribbon threading through the structure, giving it a slightly lived-in, almost tender quality. The scale still communicates power, but the detailing suggests vulnerability, authority weighed down by memory, duty, and disappointment. It’s formal court hair softened just enough to signal that the Queen is thinking, possibly reflecting.

8: Soft-Spoken Threat

This wig is intentionally unruly. Built wide rather than tall, its textured padding, loose curls, and scattered embellishments resist courtly symmetry. The asymmetry reads as emotional weight—grief, fatigue, restraint—while the sheer mass still signals rank. Power that doesn’t need to raise its voice to be understood.

7: The Parliament Puff

This wig is a governing body. Its exaggerated width, dense texture, and precisely placed floral accents turn her head into a site of debate and decision-making—every curl accounted for, every embellishment earning its seat. She wears it during the season’s most transactional moment, when reputations are weighed and futures decided.

6: Imperial Updo

This wig makes a radical choice by placing braids at the center of regality. Stacked vertically and threaded with gold and jewels, the structure turns a deeply cultural hairstyle into a symbol of sovereign authority within a traditionally powdered court. It's so iconic. And quietly defiant.

5: Vertical Thesis

Swept upward into a dramatic spiral and densely encrusted with jewels, it functions less like hair and more like a visual proclamation. The stark white height recalls traditional court wigs, but the excess

—the scale, the sparkle, the unapologetic drama.

4: Baroque Spine

Ribbed coils stack with mathematical precision, cinched down the center by jewel fastenings that function like vertebrae, equal parts ornament and structure. Best seen from behind, it’s less coiffure than couture architecture, demanding attention even when the Queen has turned away. Proof that in this court, authority doesn’t need eye contact to be felt.

3: Stately Apparatus

This image is from Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, late in the season, when Charlotte is fully established as Queen and operating with institutional authority rather than personal uncertainty. Visually and narratively, it’s one of Charlotte’s most ceremonial outfits—the hair is tall, structured, and paired with her most elaborate court gown of the season. The tone of this episode is outward-facing diplomacy and consolidation of power, which is why this hairstyle reads so aggressively regal.

2: Gilded Heart

This heart-shaped wig commits fully to the bit. Sculpted into an unmistakable heart and scaled to theatrical extremes, its symbolism is obvious given what we know about the Queen's husband. It’s a subtle reminder that love is always nearby, even when it seems like the Queen has a heart of stone.

1: Swan Song

Yup, you guessed it.

The wig that caused a lot of conversation when it was first revealed in a Season 3 teaser is the swan wig—mainly because of its innovation, boldness, and quite frankly, its historical inaccuracy. It features a white, Fabergé egg-inspired piece complete with an oil painted backdrop and motorized crystal swans nestled inside. It’s wild, and yes, motorized swans (or motorized anything) hadn’t technically been invented yet but this is a world in which interracial couples dance blissfully at Regency Era balls to covers of BTS and Pitbull, I think we can suspend our disbelief when it comes to a fun hairstyle.

Yes, the racial math of the Bridgerton universe gets a little shaky if you linger on it too long. But if you read Queen Charlotte as the symbolic center of it all—a Black woman holding court in a very old, very white institution—then her big, coily hairstyles feel far less provocative. This is just what “regal” looks like.

It’s not just that the wigs are fancy. It’s that in a version of Regency-era England, seeing that hair on that face reigning over a fictional kingdom feels thrilling and, if I'm being honest, slightly disorienting. Abolish the monarchy—except for this fake one, where the queen rocks two-foot-tall 4C hair with a literal motorized swan gliding through it simply because she can.