Celebrities Who Look Totally Different With Their Natural Hair

Celebrities tend to be style chameleons by nature, changing their looks to suit their latest roles. This means that, somewhere along the way, the celeb sheds their original look. And it all seems to start with the hair! What don't stars do to their coifs? Coloring, cutting, straightening, curling — celebrities tweak their hair more than most people change their sheets. So, when their natural hue or texture makes the occasional cameo, it can, frankly, come as quite the shock.

On one hand, it's almost impossible to imagine that certain stars' iconic tresses aren't natural (we're looking at you, Mandy Moore). But, while the following celebrities could likely rock any kind of locks, there's something undeniably cool about seeing their authentic hair. It's like peeking behind the Great and Powerful Oz's curtain.

Here are a few of Hollywood's natural hair transformations that'll surprise you — they very well may inspire you to update your own. 

When you step into the spotlight as young as Zendaya did (she was barely a teen when she landed the role of Rocky Blue on Shake It Up), your "look" can become synonymous with who you are. For years, Zendaya straightened her naturally curly hair to align with her public image. "Growing up, I wasn't very confident in my curls," she told People StyleWatch (via Mic). "It wasn't like the hair that girls around me had. And nobody really knew what to do with my hair." 

Fast forward to January 2017, and The Greatest Showman star shared insight into her natural hair journey: "When you've spent the past however many years growing your damaged hair back, avoiding heat, wearing wigs and trying every natural product in the world and you finally see a little curl pattern comin back," Zendaya wrote on Instagram, underscoring the sentiment with multiple praise hands emojis. In the time since, she's rocked it everywhere from award shows to movie premieres, and often doles out advice on caring for natural black hair. 

Here's an ironic twist for you: Like her Gossip Girl costar Blake Lively, actress Leighton Meester does not share her character's hair color naturally. However, Meester's roots are closer to Lively's character, and vice versa! In fact, it was Meester's willingness to go dark that won her the iconic part of Blair Waldorf. 

"I grew up with blonde hair and it turned ashy light blonde around 13, 14, I wanted to recapture it as a teenager," she told Elle in 2018. Accordingly, Meester had been a blonde through and through when she auditioned for Gossip Girl. That wasn't going to stop Meester, though. "She came in and she was really funny, and really smart and played vulnerable. But there was one problem: she was blonde," series co-creator Josh Schwartz told Vanity Fair in 2017. So what did Meester do? She went right to the sink and dyed her hair brown to secure the role which, c'mon, was pretty darn Blair Waldorf-y of her. 

When Nicole Kidman first burst onto the Hollywood scene in the 1990 film Days of Thunder, her cascade of gingery corkscrew ringlets nearly stole the show. As the actress' star continued to rise, though, that captivating coif of curls gave way to hair that was straight and blonde. It's a look Kidman has cultivated so well over the course of her career that her natural hair is little more than a distant memory.

However, let it be said that no one regrets the transition more than Kidman. When asked by PopSugar Australia what advice she'd give her 20-year-old self, the actress didn't have to think long. "I wish I had left my hair alone!" she said, laughing (via Female First). "Because I kept straightening it I would always be told, 'Your curls are so beautiful' and I never believed them."

She reiterated this regret to Australia's WHO Magazine (via Today), saying, "I wish I had my curls back. I tortured them to death. I always say, 'Don't ruin the ringlets!'" Admittedly, it would be killer to see Kidman's ringlets resurrected. 

Red hair is a thing of beauty, but not everyone can pull it off — especially people who don't naturally have the distinctive hue. If ever there was an exception to this rule, though, it's La La Land actress Emma Stone. You may be thinking, "Wait, she's not a redhead IRL?" The shade comes across as so organic on the actress that it's hard to believe she's really a blonde. Yet, true story. 

Tracey Cunningham, co-owner of the Byron & Tracey Salon in Los Angeles, often works with Stone to color her mane. And according to Cunningham, Stone feels most like herself when she's red. "I forget Emma is not a natural red-head — she's a blonde! She looks like such an authentic red-head with this coloring and her personality!" Cunningham told People in 2017. 

To keep Stone's hair healthy despite the constant coloring, the celebrity colorist relies on twice-weekly applications of Olaplex No. 3 at home. "All my girls, including Emma, love it," Cunningham insisted. 

Not everyone can pull off red hair, but Amy Adams certainly can. In fact, she does it so well you probably thought her tresses were natural, right? What makes Adams' dye job so extraordinary is that — despite being known as one of Hollywood's most in-demand redheads — she didn't dye her hair this distinctive hue until she was 27 years old. 

In 2004, then-blonde Adams was cast opposite Rob Lowe in the now-defunct TV series Vegas. However, there was a hitch. Another blonde had also been cast and, apparently, two blondes don't make a right. Producers insisted one of the actresses would have to change their hair color. "She's tan with these beautiful lioness green eyes and this mane of blonde hair," Adams told Backstage in 2012. "And I looked at her and me, with my pale freckles, and thought, Gee, I wonder which one of us is going to go red!" 

Not that Adams is complaining now. During a 2016 TimesTalk event, the actress admitted the dye job changed her career. "People began to see me in a different way, for different roles," she said (via People). 

While Angela Simmons was once only known for being the daughter of hip-hop icon Rev Run of Run DMC, she has since made a name for herself in her own right as a socialite, entrepreneur, and reality TV personality. And back in 2011, Simmons really landed on the public's radar when she revealed her natural hair. 

"Nobody was negative," Simmons said of the big reveal. "They just didn't know I had so much hair underneath when I wear weaves." Simmons would go on to explain to Curly Nikki that, at that point, she'd already been natural for three years. Calling her natural texture "soft and big and thick," Simmons credited its healthiness to multiple trips to her stylist each week. 

But don't expect to catch Simmons with her natural hair too often. Per the Run's House star, "I'm the girl who changes my hair all the time. My friends just stopped commenting." 

Can it really be? Is Joan Holloway naturally... blonde? Okay, so we all know that Holloway is just the character Christina Hendricks played on the AMC series Mad Men. But, c'mon — she played that role so well that it's practically impossible to imagine Hendricks as anything but a feisty redhead. 

As it turns out, Hendricks has always felt the same truth was evident. She first dyed her hair from blonde to red at the tender age of 10. "When I was young, I was very much into Anne of Green Gables, and Anne had red hair. I also watched Gilligan's Island, and of course, I loved Ginger, and even though I Love Lucy was in black-and-white, I knew she was a redhead. There was just something about her... something sparkly!" she told Glamour in 2016. 

The hue has been good to Hendricks over the years. In 2015, she told People it helped her book more modeling gigs in her pre-screen days. Plus, she credits the color — which has "always felt like me" — with securing her career-making role on Mad Men. 

Jennifer Aniston is nothing if not a hair trendsetter. First (and, like, obviously) came her iconic Friends haircut, "The Rachel." After that, Aniston segued into her now signature "bronde" hue. Who among us hasn't asked our colorist to copy that oh-so enviable caramel color? 

Aniston understands the desire for a natural hair do-over, given she long ago abandoned her brunette roots. After dying her hair dark again for a role, the actress alluded to the swap. "I was born with this color, and after a few years of playing with highlights I lost complete track of my natural hair shade, so it's nice to be back," she told InStyle in 2014. 

The highlights Aniston mentioned are the key to the hue we all covet, says her longtime colorist Michael Canale. "Work with your own color. Enhance the color you already have, and stick to the tones that God gave you," Canale explained to PopSugar in 2011. To that end, Canale relies on foil highlights for Aniston, paying special attention to the strands framing her face.

When Keke Palmer got her start in the entertainment industry with early 2000s movies like Akeelah and the Bee, it seemed inevitable that the young actress-slash-singer's star would quickly rise. But as her career progressed, Palmer ran into a few challenges — one of which, she told StyleCaster in 2018, was her natural hair. 

"People say, 'Why do black girls perm their hair? Why do black girls wear weaves?' A lot of the time, that's the only way you can get a job. A lot of the time in entertainment, black people couldn't even get jobs if they came in with an Afro," she said.

Although Palmer readily admits she will still wear her hair relaxed for roles, she looks at doing so as part of the job. Outside of work, though, she routinely embraces her natural texture, telling Essence in 2015, "I like leaving the top part of my hair natural because it leaves me more flexibility." 

Though the public has become accustomed to seeing the Duchess of Sussex rock long, sleek (sometimes loosely curled) locks, fans suspected perhaps Meghan Markle — whose mother is African-American and father is Caucasian — could have naturally curly hair. One of those fans, TV host Kamie Crawford, proved persistent enough to ferret out a few throwback photos of Markle pre-fame (and pre-Prince), showing her natural hair. "SOLVED MY OWN CASE!" Crawford exclaimed on Twitter. "We got curls in the royal palace y'all!!!" Crawford also joked about wanting to start a petition to "get Meghan to wear a fresh wash & go around the palace." 

And why not? Markle's hair looks gorgeous both ways, likely a result of how well she cares for it. In an interview with Beauty Banter, the actress-turned-royal-bride shared her secret for healthy relaxed hair: "Kerastase (masquintense & the oleo relax line) and Wella, which has a hair oil that I am obsessed with. It smells like vacation and makes your hair slippery and touchable." Sold! 

When Michelle Obama was the First Lady, she had to put a ton of work into styling her hair. That was especially trying during certain times of the year when she couldn't give her hair a break. "Because we'd have [to host] parties every day. We'd open up the White House almost every day from Thanksgiving until like the 19th," she shared in an episode of 2 Dope Queens. "December was a tough hair month."

Indeed, Obama and her team had to develop "a whole strategy for hair that I'm sure a lot of white women are sitting over there going, 'Man, I didn't know all that was going on.'"

However, since leaving the White House, Obama has been rocking her natural hair in public more often. That included at the 2019 Essence Festival, where you could see her bountiful curls on full display, according to Glamour. 

If you're familiar with Ariana Grande, you've probably noticed that she always wears her hair in the same style. But as it turns out, there's a good reason for that, something Grande opened up about on social media. "I wear it in a [ponytail] because my actual hair is so broken that it looks absolutely ratchet and absurd when I let it down," she explained in a Facebook post. "It's all that works for now (AND I'm comfortable for the first time in years)."

That damage was due to having to dye her hair every two weeks when she was starring in Victorious, something Grande had to do for four years — and that took its toll. But if you were skeptical about her hair being terrible, you were right to be doubtful, as Grande showed the world her natural curls in a tweet in late March 2020. "Get a load a dis," she wrote in the caption. Who knew she looked so good with her natural hair?

Actress and LGBTQ+ activist Laverne Cox always manages to stun when she's on the red carpet. And, of course, part of that is due to her glorious mane of hair, which is always styled impeccably and cascades down her shoulders. But in order to make sure that her natural hair is happy and healthy, Cox turns to wigs when she wants to change up her looks. "I had been natural for two years but at the beginning of 2011, I relaxed my hair for a film," she explained in an interview with Allure. "By the end of 2011, my hair was brittle and breaking off. My hair does not like relaxers." So from that point on, Cox swore off them for life.

If you wondered what Cox looks like underneath the wigs, look no further than her Instagram page, which has shown her au natural and with no makeup. Of course, no matter what, she looks incredible!