RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series four episode four recap: The queens let their hair down on the runway

The Drag Race UK series four queens celebrated their hair this week on the runway on BBC Three. But who was a cut above, and who had a bad hair day?

The Drag Race UKseries four queens celebrated their hair this week on the runway on BBC Three. But who was a cut above, and who had a bad hair day?

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK series four, episode four saw the queens wig out with a runway celebration to hair. The category is: ‘The Mane Event’. After all, to use a quote often attributed to drag icon Dolly Parton, “the higher the hair, the closer to God.”

This week’s runway category saw the queens open up about their experiences with hair. Le Fil discussed the freedom he found when he was finally able to wear his hair long, while Cheddar Gorgeous opened up about embracing his hair loss following a battle with meningitis.

On the BBC Three show this week, Black Peppa summed it up perfectly: “your hair is your identity,” and Baby and Peppa delivered runway looks that celebrated black hair. As for Dakota Schiffer, her ‘Mane Event’ look paid tribute to her grandmother, who found an unconventional way to let Dakota explore her desire to play with hair.

Drag Race UK guest judge this week was TV legend Alison Hammond – and if their hair looks did not impress her, there would be hell toupée.

Who had a hairy week on the runway, and whose looks had to be seen to be be-weaved? Decide for yourself with all the hair looks from the Drag Race UK series four, episode four runway.

For Danny’s fourth Drag Race UK runway, she transformed into “a hairy 80s icon realness thing,” complete with big curly red hair and even bigger furry arms.

She also paid tribute to a RuGirl sister by walking “Doggina de Campo,” whose red hair and silver lead was a reference to The Vivienne’s infamous comments in series one that co-star Davina de Campo only wore red wigs and silver dresses.

No stranger to big hair herself, Alison called the look “right up my street,” and loved Danny’s nails so much she said they made her feel bad about her own.

Cheddar was thinking outside of the (litter) box with her hair look. After talking about losing her hair in the Werkroom, the queen covered herself with fur on the runway to become the Cheshire Cat from the beloved novel Alice in Wonderland. “It’s not just a great hair day,” Cheddar said of her look, “it’s a great fur day.”

The series four queen was feline gorgeous on the runway, and brought the look to the next level by coughing up a furball right on stage.

“You made love to that stage” Alison said of Cheddar’s cat couture. She also could not resist a pun of her own, telling the queen, “babes you are purrfect.”

Pixie went right back to the Renaissance for her look. Her episode four look referenced Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, the iconic 15th century painting of the Goddess of love emerging from an oyster shell.

The Drag Race UK queen was strategic in her choice for this week’s outfit. She said she chose it to be a complete contrast to her look in the Catty Man improv challenge this week: “I really wanted to go for weird disgusting old lady in the challenge and then go completely the other end and give you absolute beauty and glamour.”

The risk paid off. Ru said she looked beautiful and praised her for the departure from her usual aesthetic.

It was curtains for Dakota on the runway. Literally.

In the Werkroom, Dakota shared a story of how her grandmother had allowed her to play with her curtain tassels when Dakota’s parents had taken all her dolls away.

In tribute to this, she wore what she called a “curtain tassel fantasy.” She wore an ornate tassel on her head, matching it with a dress made out of what looked like antique curtain fabric.

As with every one of Dakota’s looks on Drag Race UK series four, she mixed in some classic fashion references. In her confession, she said the outfit had three inspirations – “Moschino” (whose recent collections often play on household materials, “Galliano” (John Galliano, the former creative director of Dior known for her avant-garde silhouettes) and “grandma.”

Baby first wore dreads on the runway for her Rastamouse look back on series four’s BBC-inspired runway. For episode four, however, she made an entire cage dress out of them in order to serve “black hair, black culture, black beauty.”

The queen also said the look was inspired by the singer Grace Jones who modelled a similar cage dress for designer Jean-Paul Gaultier for his spring summer 1989 collection.

Alison had some major praise for Baby. She said: “dreadlocks are strong and powerful and that’s what I see in front of me, someone strong and powerful.”

A good drag queen finds inspiration even in the most unexpected places. So it is no surprise that Le Fil looked at her shower plughole and saw inspiration.

“I am serving you an outfit made from all the hair in my bathroom plug hole,” they said. The dress seemed to be made out of strands of purple and black hair, connected by drain protectors.

If the look was not surprising enough, Le Fil had a further trick for the runway. Midway through, their big purple wig came off to reveal their real hair. This reflected the queen’s earlier Werkroom chat where they discussed how proud they were of their hair after being forced to wear it short as a child.

RuPaul summed up the judges’ praise for the look: “The thought you put into this dress is amazing,” the Drag Race UK host said.

Black Peppa has had some big hair on the runway before, but nothing like this.

The queen’s episode four look was a Ru-demption from her headpiece malfunction earlier in series four, featuring as it did a huge headpiece of hair plaited into a giant circle. As Ru quipped, “plait’s entertainment.”

With this look, Black Peppa said she “wanted to give you empress, I wanted to give you goddess, I wanted to give you bow down to me.”

Inspiration for good drag can come from anywhere – as Sminty proved in episode four. After seeing a moth eating her clothes, she had an idea for this look.

With giant plaits styled to look like antennae and a mini-dress with a massive collar, Sminty turned herself into a giant moth – or as she called it, a “Mothy Kendoll,” a reference to her drag sister and former Drag Race UK contestant GothyKendoll.

Ru was drawn to the look like a moth to a flame, calling the ensemble “absolutely outrageous.”

Jonbers’ history working in fashion magazines has given her a brain full of fashion references that she puts into her drag. For episode four, she paid tribute to Raine Spencer, the stepmother of Princess Diana known for her love of fur and her bouffant hairstyle.

This Drag Race version, however, gave it a scandalous twist that had less to do with Countess Spencer and more with Jonbers’ unique sense of humour. Jonbers pulled off her fur coat to reveal she was wearing a fur bra and pants set. Per Jonbers, the look was “very itchy.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race series four airs Thursdays on BBC Three. All episodes so far are streaming on BBC iPlayer.