Merria Dearman

Merria Dearman is an American wigmaker and hairstylist. Her work includes custom wigs for people experiencing medical hair loss and hairpieces for fashion and entertainment projects.

Early life and training

Dearman was born and raised in Sonoma County, California, and graduated from Santa Rosa High School. She later attended Vancouver Film School, where she studied film and television makeup artistry.

While studying character makeup, Dearman was introduced to wigmaking through a lesson on constructing facial hair. She later studied with Amanda Miller, a wigmaker associated with Saturday Night Live.

AARP reported that Dearman also developed her craft with Jeanna Hurd of the American Conservatory Theater and the San Francisco Opera and Ballet.

Career

Dearman trained as a hairstylist at Elle Lui salon in Santa Rosa and later worked at diPietro Todd. Her early work included hairstyling for the History Channel and for the cast of Berkeley Repertory Theatre's production of American [...].

In 2011, Dearman announced plans to move to New York with her business, Dearman & Archbell. By 2018, she operated a New York salon called Hår by Merria Dearman, where her clients included people experiencing cancer-related hair loss and other forms of thinning.

Medical hair-loss work

Dearman has said that her interest in medical wigmaking was influenced by an aunt who lost her hair during cancer treatment. Dearman altered a wig for her using methods she had learned during her training.

AARP reported that Dearman's work focused on creating wigs that resembled a client's appearance before significant hair loss rather than using a standard ready-made style.

The publication reported that one of Dearman's custom wigs generally required between 40 and 50 hours of work. It also reported that she spent approximately 70 hours creating a 40-inch hair addition for a Naomi Campbell photo shoot.

Dearman also worked with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to provide students with wigmaking internship training.

Human-hair industry

Dearman has commented on chemical processing and working conditions in the international human-hair industry.

In 2022, InStyle reported that Dearman had visited human-hair processing facilities in China. She described seeing chemical baths, fabric dyes and workers operating without protective equipment.

Dearman told the publication that repeated contact with processed hair had caused contact dermatitis and that some hairpieces reacted unpredictably to heat and coloring products.

Fashion and entertainment work

AARP reported that Dearman created a 40-inch hair addition for a Naomi Campbell photo shoot.

InStyle reported that she had created wigs for projects involving Naomi Campbell, Christina Aguilera and Karlie Kloss. The publication also reported that Gisele Bündchen commissioned a wig from Dearman for the 2018 Met Gala.

In 2026, Dearman created a long brunette wig for Madonna's Met Gala appearance. Vanity Fair reported that the piece required approximately 60 hours of work and a fitting in London with hairstylist Eugene Souleiman.

The same report stated that Dearman had previously created wigs for Madonna's Madame X Tour and Celebration Tour, Billie Eilish's November 2024 Vogue cover and a Savage X Fenty campaign featuring Rihanna.