No one could forget Nathan Scott’s iconic grief shag from season 5.

One Tree Hill’s James Lafferty says gluing crazy hair extensions to his face for season 5 ‘took hours’: ‘So itchy’

No one could forget Nathan Scott's iconic grief shag from season 5.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on *Entertainment Tonight* and Popsugar.

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November 6, 2025 4:11 p.m. ET

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James Lafferty in 'One Tree Hill' season 5, episode 1; James Lafferty attends the Los Angeles Premiere of 'Junction' at Harmony Gold on Jan. 24, 2024. Credit:

The CW; Amanda Edwards/Getty

James Lafferty went through a lot of transformations for his role as Nathan Scott on *One Tree Hill*, but none are more memorable than the shaggy mane and scruffy beard he donned for season 5.

During a reunion with costar Chad Michael Murray, who played Nathan's half-brother Lucas Scott, for PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive issue, the duo reflected on their craziest hair moments on the show — including Nathan's infamous shag.

James Lafferty in season 5, episode 1 of 'One Tree Hill'.

"I had to cut my hair because they needed my character to have long hair, but they were going to do flashbacks. So, they ended up having to paste extensions in my hair," Lafferty recalled of how the look came to be. "I had this big, long lion's mane, and then they took the hair that they had cut from my head and they cut it into little tiny pieces and they pasted it with glue onto my face every day for several episodes."

The actor, who usually sported a short cut to portray the basketball star and father of one, lamented that the entire process "took hours" and since it was during the summer, was "so itchy."

The look drew a lot of criticism and mocking from fans, but it suited the tragic chapter in the character's life. At the time, Nathan was mourning the loss of his NBA career after a fight with fans of a rival team ended with him being thrown through a plate-glass window and paralyzed. The accident led to Nathan turning to alcohol to cope and straining his relationship with his wife, Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz), and son Jamie (Jackson Brundage).

Eventually, Nathan cuts his hair and undergoes physical therapy, later even learning to walk successfully again.

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As for Murray, the actor admits that he went through "a lot of hair journeys."

"I was like, 'Dude, Lucas is always the moral compass of the show. Can we do something bad for once? For the love of Pete, let me screw up and have some fun with it,'" he quipped. "I think that that's probably why I would shave my head or do something crazy with my hair."

Murray is man enough to admit that there's "a lot of cringe in there," recalling his short, buzzed look in season 4, a choppy in-between haircut, and even bleaching his hair platinum-blond.

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Chad Michael Murray, Hilarie Burton, and James Lafferty on 'One Tree Hill'.

The WB/Fred Norris/Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett

"I think there's a lot of finding yourself, you know, and when you get down to the truth of it, I just had no idea who I was," the *Gilmore Girls* alum said. "I thought I was something that I wasn't and I wanted to be this guy. And so, you're trying to do all these different things to be something, when really at the end of the day, just be you. That's all you can be, and it took me a long time to discover that and to finally be like, who I am.

Murray continued, "Just be you, just be the jovial guy that you are and I think that's why I changed my hair so many millions of times."

Watch Lafferty and Murray reminisce about their *One Tree Hill *days above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW TV”