As Captain Olivia Benson, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay has tossed hundreds of criminals behind bars while rocking the most gorgeous hairstyles we’ve even seen a cop wear on TV. And through the years, SVU ride-or-dies have declared their favorite Olivia Benson hair eras, and that now includes showrunner Michele Fazekas.
Fazekas hopped aboard SVU as showrunner in Season 27 after previously writing for the NBC nail-biter from 2001 to 2006, so she’s seen many shades of Benson throughout the decades. Like the legion of SVU fans who obsess over Hargitay’s gorgeous mane, Fazekas has a favorite Benson hairstyle: the shorter cut.
In recent seasons of SVU, Benson has donned a longer style with gentle waves. But in earlier seasons, Hargitay went for the big snip — and it turns out that Fazekas, as she revealed in an interview with NBC Insider, was a huge fan of the style.
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Law & Order: SVU‘s showrunner on her favorite Olivia Benson hairstyle: “I love the short hair”
While Fazekas was Hargitay’s biggest cheerleader after she rolled up to the Season 3 set with a pixie cut, the SVU icon didn’t have the same reaction to the change-up. After debuting Benson with medium-length hair, the pixie was a big change that Hargitay famously had some hesitations toward. But when asked about her favorite Hargitay hairstyle from across the decades, Benson’s short cut was the first to come to Fazekas’ mind.
“Oh my God, she’ll kill me. I love the short hair, and it’s not just because I have short hair,” Fazekas told NBC Insider. “Her hair is beautiful … She cut her hair a little shorter for her play. She’s got a little bob going.”
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Hargitay’s been repping the chic bob during SVU’s summer hiatus as she makes her Broadway debut in Every Brilliant Thing. The revamped look gives Fazekas a bit of déjà vu after working with Hargitay in earlier seasons of SVU, when Benson had the pixie cut that eventually grew into an ultra-chic bob.
“She texted like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna cut my hair.’ I’m like, ‘Great!’ I’m a short-haired girl,” Fazekas recalled. “I loved the short hair, and her hair is freaking gorgeous, and she did not like the short hair, but I was a big fan of the short hair. But that was also just maybe because that’s when I was on the show.”
Mariska Hargitay knows “what works and what doesn’t” for her hair
While Fazekas and SVU fans far and wide will agree that Hargitay looks incredible in virtually any hairstyle, Hargitay can’t help but cringe while looking back on the early-SVU pixie cut. Aside from confessing that she feared she’d lose her role as Benson after getting the haircut without former approval, Hargitay has admitted that she understands styling much more now than she did then.
“I love to play around and try new looks, but I’ve definitely had some hair crises over the years,” Hargitay told Allure in 2023. “I had short hair for a while, and then I hated having to grow it out. We didn’t have the styling right, and I made some mistakes with the color, too. I was trying stuff out and didn’t have the experience with hair or the attention to detail that I have today.”
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Who among us doesn’t have a haircut horror story? But the years have taught Hargitay plenty of tips and hairstyling tricks, and the SVU star has mastered the art of knowing what looks best. “Now I know immediately what works and what doesn’t,” Hargitay told the magazine. “But it took me some time to get there.”
Reporting by Stephanie Gomulka
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