Danielle Fishel, best known for playing Topanga on Boy Meets World, revealed that she cut her real hair live during a season 4 episode — and even handed out pieces of it to the studio audience.
On the May 29 episode of the Pod Meets World podcast, Fishel and her former co-stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle discussed the episode titled Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow. In that episode, Topanga cuts her hair to show Corey, played by Ben Savage, that looks don’t matter.
“I really did cut my hair. It was not a wig. It was definitely my hair,” said Fishel, now 44.
Fishel explained that she had only ever had one haircut before — when she was just two years old. From then on, her hair grew down to her waist and kept its natural curls. “My mom decided I needed a trim, and they just cut off those ringlet curls,” she said. “Then I never had another haircut until that time I cut my hair on TV.”
Fishel had been wanting to make the change for a while. She asked series co-creator and executive producer Michael Jacobs if she could get her first adult haircut. At first, Jacobs said no. “He was very against it,” she recalled. “But I kept asking, and finally he said, ‘Okay, let me write an episode about it.’”
When filming began in front of a live audience, Fishel and Jacobs had to agree on how short she would go. “There was a lot of stress about whether or not I was gonna listen,” she said. “He knew I had all the power with the scissors in my hands.”
Fishel said she was careful and didn’t cut it too drastically. “I was such a rule follower. We definitely took it a little safe,” she said.
The live audience reacted with surprise. “There were big gasps,” Fishel said. And after the episode, they gave away pieces of her hair to audience members — something the cast often did with signed scripts or even wardrobe items.
Fishel also revealed that getting the haircut on camera was a challenge. The scene had to be done in one take. Director Jeff McCracken helped set the timing by shouting “Stop!” during rehearsals to prevent an early cut.
“But then, the way I was gonna know if I could cut it, you weren’t gonna yell stop,” she said. “And when it was quiet, I thought, ‘For real? For real? Because I’m gonna do it now.’”
Fishel’s live haircut became a memorable moment on the show — both for the cast and the fans who got to take a piece of it home.
