Game of Thrones season 8: The fashion of Daenerys and Sansa

(L to R) Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark and Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy – Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

How about that hair?

Here, we’ll start with the differences. With long hair and not much in the way of styling products, Sansa and Daenerys don’t necessarily have a lot of options when it comes to what to do with their hair. However, the key difference actually has to do with where their hair is placed. As almost always, Sansa’s hair is fully drawn back, and quite tightly so. This image of her reunion with Theon gives us the best look of her episode 2 hairstyle: small braided bun at the top, with one single braid running down the center.

It’s tight and controlled, with a lot of Northern influences in it. For example, Arya Stark and Lyanna Mormont, two of our other Northern women, also wear their hair tied back and tightly so, with no layering over the shoulders.

What’s Daenerys’ signature, and one that’s very obvious in the image of their conversation? Big, stylish waves, one hanging over each shoulder. It’s soft. It can easily get in the way; it’s even, dare we say it, a little romantic. We know Daenerys is capable of pulling her hair back when the occasion calls for it, but she’s presenting a very gentle image here, one that she maintains in her dialogue up until Sansa asks about the North. Then everything gets incongruous again as her expression hardens.

However, the base style each woman is sporting can be referred to in the same way: a half-up, half-down style, with a braided bun as a focal point at the back of the head. Symbolically, they have similar approaches, but it’s in the details that they differ, and differ heavily.