I really like Kate Winslet's hair in the 1995 movie. It was wild and tightly curled, almost always on the verge of defeating her pins, with tendrils escaping on the sides. It was a beautiful metaphor for her temperament as a wild spirit forced to conform to society's expectations.

This is what the director said about their hair: "I'm a little bit sick of the sort of fetishization of that time period, and this idea that everybody spent, like, seven hours doing their hair and makeup, and everything was always pristine, and somebody was always waiting to help you out of your dress or whatever. I'm not a historian, but I don't buy all of it." - director G.Oakley talks Sense and Sensibility with Vogue.

With so little understanding of the period from the director I  lost hope for the adaptation, not going to lie.

Unkept hair would be good for Marianne to signal seriousness of her illness. They could have saved it for visual showcase of her fever.

This film company keeps trying to fuse Jane Austen with Charlotte Brontë. It drives me right out the door.  Both Austen and Brontë used the outdoors, weather, wind , rain and snow but in very different ways with different meaning. You can’t shove Austin’s characters out onto the wild moor and you can’t drag Heathcliff into the ballroom. Put your damn hair up, Marianne

Such a missed opportunity to have the audience witness Marianne's gradually go from being worn down, to half up, to fully up as a representation of the impact of romance on her girlhood.

When I watch a period drama I want to be transported into that era not a modern take on how a person from today would live.

Marianne goes to parties , that means she is out in society . She would wear her hair up. I think in that scene where hair is cut her hair is down as an exception . Maybe it was a relaxed moment , not a formal gathering, after the meal . There is also the possibility he asked her to let her hair down . I dont think the makers of this version understand how important  details like this were during that time period . No woman of Marianne class , and a young lady on the marriadge market would go out not looking respectable. Marianne is passionate , young , she is not a rebel just someone innocent who makes decisions with their heart. Like you said hair was not just fashion or preference it was a question of morals .

In Anne of Green Gables, set in Canada (and roughly the 1890s), Anne and Diana talk about how they will change their hair styles to updos when they turn 16.

I always took the "tumbled down her back" line as:  it had to be released  from a bun or such to then tumble down.  I read it as Willoughby asked her to let it down so he could cut it which makes the moment even more intimate and daring on his part.  

Also, I believe, "being out in society" meant that a girl was officially available for marriage and therefore wearing her hair up.  This could be as young as 15 or not until she was 21.

Keira Knightly as Elizabeth had her hair down when she goes to Netherfield to take care of a sick Jane.  I always thought that was weird.  In the 1995 version, Jennifer Ehle's hair was never down, unless it was a scene at night in her bedroom.

Gives me flashbacks of when the Persuasion trailer dropped [gasp] Dakota Johnson's hairstyle being, in the end, the least problematic on a long list of grievances 😔

Her hair and look in this trailer make her look more like the mentally insane hidden wife in Jane Eyre than our Marianne- incredibly anachronistic for the period.  Another not-so-period period piece :(

Her mother's character is so aligned with Marianne that I don't know why she would need to rebel.

All of these newer adaptations are so tiring. Why do directors feel the need to style the characters like it’s 2026? We as the viewers are very aware that it’s a different time period. Personally, I want to feel like I’m seeing the characters in their own time period, not in some weird 1815-2026 hybrid. I don’t care if beauty standards have changed. Is that what directors are afraid of? That we won’t find the characters attractive and interesting if they’re styled appropriately? Because Jennifer Ehle wears her hair up in almost all of 1995 P&P, and she looks both beautiful and period appropriate.

My mom and I have been joking about Anne Elliot being a tramp for coming to breakfast with her hair down in the Netflix persuasion adaptation for a couple years. So when I told her I saw gifs of Sense and Sensibility, where ELINOR HAS HER HAIR DOWN OUTSIDE AND IN THE COMPANY OF A MAN, we both went right for the jugular. Seriously, buy her a boa and drive her to Reno, because she is open for business!

Someone commented that they felt like they were looking at Catherine Earnshaw running through the moors and that would make much more sense (hah!).

As someone with long hair, you also wouldn't want to leave your hair unkempt because it would get knotted and eventually matted. Doing a dry shampoo would not only remove excess oil, it also gave the hair some "grip" so it stayed up better.

Marianne wasn't really counter culture for the time, her Sensibility was part of a popular line of thinking in art and literature. She only rejected social conventions when they dictated her to act a certain way that was against her true feelings (i.e. lying about her real thoughts to make someone feel better). She had a strong sense of moral conduct though and was, to a degree, very sensible of improper behavior (like when she blushed when Willoughby picked her up to carry her home or when Anne Steele acted overly familiar towards her)

Most likely a girl had to start wearing her hair up when she came out into society. Let's remember that Marianne already attended some events (so she was out), and even in her current financial status, she was still a gentleman's daughter, such as Elizabeth.

I think that the whole scissors scene could be a subtle way in which Jane Austen pointed out Marianne was starting to be reckless, and slightly opening the door for a dangerous situation. After all, she wasn't flirting with a saint 🙄

Another commenter added this too, but one of my biggest red flags with this film was the director talking to Vogue and saying women being depicted as having their hair up so much in period dramas is fetishization and unrealistic, even though she is not a historian. So she basically admits she didn’t bother consulting historians on how the characters should look to make it a faithful adaptation.

The full quote from Oakley in Vogue: "I'm a little bit sick of the sort of fetishization of that time period, and this idea that everybody spent, like, seven hours doing their hair and makeup, and everything was always pristine, and somebody was always waiting to help you out of your dress or whatever. I'm not a historian, but I don't buy all of it."

I was pretty disappointed when I read that and don’t have high hopes for the film. I don’t know that I’ll actually watch it based on that. I get pushing back on the type of over the top stuff we’ve seen in Bridgerton, but adding a grunge look is a swing in the wrong direction.