Of all the popular film franchises to have come and gone from the zeitgeist, none have created legacies quite as eclectic as Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe has been quietly doing whatever he wants with all the money he got (and if he keeps choosing projects like Swiss Army Man, we all win), Emma Watson has used her platform to forward her advocacy and activism vocations, and J. K. Rowling continues to double down on her vile anti-trans rhetoric while churning out a trio of paltry Fantastic Beasts screenplays.

Now, it’s Jessie Cave‘s turn to make another big post-Harry Potter headline, by way of an OnlyFans dedicated to trichophilia.

As you can see in the video above (assuming you’re not already familiar with Greek prefixes), trichophilia is a type of, ahem, enamored hyperfocus wherein the harborer is aroused by hair, whether it be by seeing, touching, or listening to the brushing of said hair. Special fixations can occur with wet hair, different hair colors, different hair lengths, or different hairstyles. Hair grown on the head is the most common subject of fixation for trichophiliacs, although it’s possible for some to focus on body hair as well.

Cave, with her many square miles of dirty blonde locks, saw this opportunity and has since taken it. Speaking on her Before We Break Up Again podcast yesterday, Cave reflected on the comments she’s received about her hair throughout the years, which partially prompted her decision to start this venture.

I do a lot of videos with my hair on Instagram and I have now for a while. I just noticed that I always get comments. They’re never sexually depraved or lascivious. It’s never dirty comments, but I do get lots of interest in the hair thing and I just thought, ‘… I’m going to do something that is very niche.’

But this decision goes beyond a monetary opportunity as well. Indeed, Cave sees this as a way to push the boundaries of how she’s perceived and, by extension, how she expresses herself.

It’s been quite liberating. I really am choosing to think of this as an empowering moment for me because I have been this very straight, prim actress for a lot of my career and this is very much a way of me saying, ‘Okay, I’m doing something that is not normal. This is weird and me and a bit kinky. And why not?’

During the Harry Potter heyday, Cave portrayed one Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor student and a classmate of Harry’s in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows duology. She briefly romances Ron Weasley in Half-Blood Prince, and goes on to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows, where her life is ultimately taken by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback.

Since then, Cave has continued acting in film, television, and theatre, and also published a comedy-drama novel titled Sunset in 2021. In 2012, she made her Edinburgh Fringe debut with her show Bookworm, while her critically-acclaimed show Sunrise served as her sophomore bow in that festival. She also runs a YouTube channel known as Pindippy.

If HBO Max’s Harry Potter series wasn’t garnering enough controversy since yesterday’s announcement, it now appears that the situation has only gotten stickier. While disgruntled fantasy fans have been displeased with the decision to reignite the once-rested franchise, a separate portion of the internet has zoomed in on the parade of controversy and questionable choices that has plagued the franchise for years — even before the fresh-faced show was publicly announced.

In this particular instance, folks are understandably irate after uncovering a controversial recasting that occurred during the peak of the Harry Potter movies. The recasting revolves around the Lavender Brown character who, in the first two Potter films, was portrayed by two Black actresses. The aforementioned actresses, Kathleen Cauley and Jennifer Smith, portrayed Brown in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, respectively. However, when the time came for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it was revealed that the character had been recast with a white actress, Jessie Cave.

In the years following the recasting, many fans have speculated that the move was done in an effort to completely whitewash the franchise. Furthermore, a strong portion of fans have insisted that the recasting was implemented due to the fact that Brown was expected to receive a larger role in the sixth film — especially when you consider the fact that she had a fling with main character Ron Weasley.

On the other hand, other fans have maintained the stance that Rowling never specifically states Brown’s skin color in the novels, insisting that the film’s creators were the driving force behind the decision and eventual recasting. Either way, to recast a character solely based on skin color is a harmful choice that has since reflected badly on the franchise’s legacy. At the time of this writing, it’s not yet been confirmed if Brown will be featured in the series.