Black Widow did a lot right. From the fighting, to the sister-sister relationship, to the comedy, there was so much to love about this movie.
But personally, there was one tiny aspect of this movie that really solidified this film as a win in my book. It was the sole fact that Scarlett Johansson wore her hair up in almost every fight scene.
Since the dawn of time, action movies have loved to feature their female leads in fight sequences with their hair down, usually billowing in the wind behind them as they casually kick-flip through the air or sprint from danger.
Somehow they manage to scale buildings, fight alien robots, and generally flip around without their hair blinding their sight.
And for years, it was the same way with Natasha in every Marvel movie — to the point where Yelena even mocked her iconic hair flip.
But in Black Widow, Natasha actually tied her hair back for most fight/action sequences (which is what 99.9% of real-life women would do). Like here, in the Budapest scene:
Or here it was thankfully braided while she was being tossed across the bridge by Taskmaster.
And then we've got hella braids plus ponytail when she defeats Dreykov.
Scarlett herself even said she was thankful for the shift from the "hyper-sexualization of this character" to one that has really come into her own. The hair almost feels like a metaphor for that.
Honestly, I barely ever have my hair down, even when I'm just bee-bopping around my apartment, so you can bet your bottom dollar I'd put it up for a day packed with running and fighting.
Not that I don't love Natasha's hair down too! Putting it up out of the way just seems more practical and realistic.
