Orange Is the New Black's 'Skinhead Helen' looks completely different in real life: Photos

Francesca Curran plays white supremacist Helen Van Maele, aka "Skinhead Helen", on Orange Is the New Black. But off-screen, she looks like an entirely different person.

The 24-year-old says she goes through an elaborate transformation process each day on the hit Netflix series' New York set to become her tough-as-nails, racist character.

She gets her head re-shaved every day on set, has dozens of fake tattoos applied, her eyebrows whitened, and brown gunk added to her teeth to look unclean.

"In real life, I'm so feminine. I'm so girly. I love my makeup, I love my jewellery, and all that," she told Insider. "So to really be stripped of all that...The first time I was like, okay, wow. I found myself in the mirror and was like, this is a striking...what a difference."

And unsurprisingly, she hardly ever gets recognised when not in her OITNB costume.

"Even fans of the show coming up to me in real life will say, 'Are you sure it's you?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm positive,'" said Curran. "It's kind of fun because I'll sometimes be out to lunch with the other girls on the show and they'll be getting recognized, and then they'll [fans] say to me, 'Who are you?' And I'm like, 'Oh I'm just not in Helen drag.'

"And you know, then it becomes a long, long wave of, 'No you're not.' And, I'm like, 'Okay.'"

Check out more of Fran's IRL pics below!