Kim Fields starred as the beloved Regine Hunter on Living Single for five seasons. The RHOA alum’s character was the fashionista of the bunch, working in retail, and never inspiring female viewers to look their best. Her hair was always intact. And as it turns out, Regine’s affinity for a good wig was Fields’ idea to protect her natural hair.
Sitcoms shoot daily, or sometimes a few days a week. Multiple episodes can be shot in one day, leaving hair, makeup and wardrobe to be constantly adjusted to the storyline. Knowing this and transitioning from child star to an adult made Fields savvy in that department. She revealed in an interview that it was her decision to have Regine don wigs every episode.
“Here’s the big backstory about the Genesis of the whole idea of Regine wearing wigs; Kim Fields didn’t want to get her hair done every week,” she explained to Cocoa Butter, as reported by Hello Beautiful.
It was something she vowed to avoid after playing on sitcoms for years at a time as a child. “I had learned after 9 years in doing my hair every week in, week out on Facts Of Life, I ain’t feel like doing all that. So I wore this wig to the producers’ session – we just thought ‘well this could be kind of fun, actually.’ “Sometimes I wouldn’t even pin the [wig] on…I was almost wearing them like hats!”
Living Single remains in syndication and is available for streaming on several platforms.
Fields loved the show so much and admitted in an interview with Bustle that she took the show’s cancellation hard.
“I wasn’t angry at God, but I was severely disappointed,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘What are y’all doing up there with me? I felt like I planted tomatoes and I got telephone poles in my vineyard. It felt so foreign. My life at that moment was not what you would expect. I left Living Single a few episodes shy of completing the final season because the work, the process, and everything else didn’t feel the same for me. I was at that point either divorced, or about to be divorced. I started a production company, and we had all these great projects but no deals.”
She continued, “I went through a stage where I completely shut down. I had these blackout drapes in my house, and I closed the drapes and stayed in the bed for about two weeks, maybe longer. I kept running down my resume to God: I’m a tither, I’m a worshiper, I’m faithful, I’m a good person, I was a good kid — all the things that should not equal me being here. I didn’t claim depression, but if I’m being real with myself, I’m sure there was a little bit of that there.”
