Celebrities Who Completely Transformed Their Look With A Haircut

Everyone loves a good haircut, though some people are more limited in their hairstyles. In an interview with Vanity Fair, "Gone Girl's" Rosamund Pike explained, "Actresses generally aren't allowed to have haircuts, because short hair isn't considered as versatile." However, you wouldn't know that was true by looking at this list of celebs who've dared to shake up their looks in major ways. After all, wigs exist for a reason — and people should be able to have the hair they want when they want it. Like the oft-quoted, popular Pinterest adage goes: "Life is too short to have boring hair."

Haircuts are all at once thrilling, nerve-wracking, and liberating. A good haircut will have you feeling like you can conquer the world, and a bad haircut... well, a bad haircut will grow back eventually. While us non-famous folk are able to try a new 'do without becoming headline news, many celebrities don't have the same luxury. Luckily for these stars, however, chopping off their locks only served to prove that they can rock pretty much any cut there is! Here's a look at the celebrities who completely changed their look with the power of a haircut.

Taylor Swift redefined country music forever when she released her first studio album "Taylor Swift" in 2006. Since then, the world has seen Swift evolve from a soft-spoken country crooner to an outspoken pop music queen. And just as her musical style has changed immensely throughout her career, so has her look.

When Swift first stepped into the spotlight, her long, blond, and curly hairstyle was her signature look. It was nearly impossible to imagine the budding superstar without her famous mane — but in 2014, Swift fearlessly chopped off a major portion of her locks. The "Sparks Fly" singer debuted her chin-length bob with Little Mermaid-esque bangs on Instagram in a February 2014 post (via Vanity Fair) — and, according to Swift's famous friend Karlie Kloss, Swift's cut was inspired by the model's own 'do. 

Kloss explained to The Cut in a 2013 interview that Swift was a fan of Kloss' hair from the moment they met. "I met Taylor Swift last night," Kloss revealed to the publication. "And she said, 'Ohhh, I want to cut my hair. Karlie, if you see me in a few months with that haircut, know it's because of you.'"

Khloé Kardashian spent many years feeling inferior to her big sisters, Kourtney and Kim — largely due to comparisons of her physical appearance with those of her sisters. The youngest Kardashian sister revealed on "Revenge Body" (via MTV): "I always had blonde, really curly hair, and when you're young and you're chubby and tall ... I would have teachers be like 'Oh, you're Kourtney and Kim's sister?'"

However, in 2016, Kardashian shut down any talk of her being the "chubby" sister by debuting an incredible 40-pound weight loss transformation. In addition to the extra pounds, Kardashian also shed a few inches of hair — something she said "needed" to happen following now-ex-husband Lamar Odom's months-long hospital stay.

"I cut all of my hair off because I was in the hospital and I just felt like I needed ... to get rid of this negativity," Kardashian explained on "Live! With Kelly and Michael" (via People). The reality star continued: "You shouldn't do haircuts when you're that emotionally confused but I did, and I love it, though! It's so much easier."

Emilia Clarke made a name for herself by playing the woman with too many names to remember — Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men... you get the picture. While her breakout role as the Mother of Dragons on HBO's smash hit series "Game of Thrones" had the actress sporting long, flowing platinum locks, Clarke herself has proven that in the real world, she prefers to walk on the shorter side. 

In 2018, the "Game of Thrones" star debuted a fresh new pixie haircut while enjoying herself at a Florence and The Machine concert (via Harper's Bazaar). Later, Clarke took to Instagram to reveal the inspiration behind her new hairdo on Instagram, posting a photo of the super-short cut and joking that she'd asked her stylist for a style reminiscent of "when Gwyneth [Paltrow] and Brad [Pitt] had the same hair cut." Mission accomplished!

Much like Emilia Clarke, Emma Watson skyrocketed to international fame for portraying a beloved character with a signature mane. However, unlike Clarke's character's long, enviable, platinum tresses, Watson's Hermione Granger had a famously thick, bushy hairdo. To be fair, Hermione was far too busy saving Harry Potter and Ron Weasley from certain death to spend much time at all on her hair — but that's a story for another day.

After the original "Harry Potter" film franchise wrapped its eighth and final film, Watson decided it was time to shed Hermione's voluminous locks and rock a haircut that was all her own — a Tinkerbell-inspired pixie cut. 

"It was weird. My hairdresser was like, 'When are you going to freak out?' Most people cry or go into shock," Watson revealed to Entertainment Weekly. She continued, "But I was very calm. I knew it was the right thing." While we thought the actress totally rocked the shorter cut, her father made sure to keep Watson the down-to-earth gal we know and love. According to the actress, her pops told her, "You're not Audrey Hepburn yet, darling." Oh, Dad.

Is there anything Beyoncé can't do? Of course, that's a rhetorical question, as we've all learned the answer is a resounding, "No." Even if you're not a part of the "Beyhive" (though you totally should be), you have to admit that this woman has proved time and time again that she can absolutely conquer anything she puts her mind to — including pulling off a hairstyle most of us would be too terrified to try.

In August 2013, Beyoncé shocked fans by cutting off her long, wavy, blond tresses into a short, trendy pixie — sending the media into a frenzy. To be fair, many celebrities had entered the pixie realm before Mrs. Carter — however, there's not much Beyoncé can do without making headline news. Speaking with The Guardian, Beyoncé's stylist, Kim Kimble, revealed that the songstress' new 'do was much more than a simple haircut — it was a statement. "It's a statement that, 'I'm young, I'm beautiful and I can do it all," Kimble revealed to the publication. 

As we said — there's nothing Bey can't do.

Anne Hathaway is one of the most celebrated and skilled actresses of our generation. However, we'll always remember her as her "Princess Diaries" character, Mia Thermopolis — you know, the girl whose thick, unkempt mane literally broke a hairbrush (via YouTube).

Of course, Hathaway has come a long way since her "Princess Diaries" days, and she's sported a variety of haircuts throughout her years as a Hollywood It girl. From her super short, "Les Miserables" pixie cut to her short-lived platinum blond color, to her signature shoulder-length, chestnut brown tresses — Hathaway has always been #HairGoals. However, the actress completely switched up her look in April 2019, with a '70s inspired 'do — and the new look had us running, not walking, to the closest salon.

On April 27, 2019, Hathaway's stylist, Adir Abergel, took to Instagram to post a photo of Hathaway's new, layered shag. "New cut. New vibes," the stylist captioned the photo. 

Hey, Anne, the 1970s are calling — and they want you to know that you're totally pulling this look off.

In 2017, Katy Perry went from her recognizable shoulder-length blond hair to a bold buzz cut. "The main reason she chopped all her hair off was that she wanted to do something drastic like a tattoo or this after her recent breakup with Orlando [Bloom]," a source told Hollywood Life at the time.

Perry's new look was certainly a big change. She kept the top section of her hair fairly long and blond, while the back sections were cropped very short and brunette, leaving her with a powerful, punk-ish look. Perry opened up about how this dramatic chop helped her feel stronger in her own skin. Without her long hair, she learned to find beauty elsewhere. "It's fun, it's freeing, it's liberating, and I don't think that 'sexiness' and 'femininity' is just one thing — long hair," she said to Byrdie (via Glamour). "I suppose the goal is to redefine what femininity means to me."

Perry's decision to chop off her hair was also related to her desire to take back control of her life. "I so badly want to be Katheryn Hudson [Perry's birth name] that I don't even want to look like Katy Perry anymore sometimes ... That is a little bit of why I cut my hair," she said (via Refinery29).

In 2022, "Wednesday's" Jenna Ortega ditched her long hair for a layered shoulder-length bob, known as a wolf cut. The trim certainly gave Ortega a much more grown-up look. Her stylist, David Stanwell debuted the fresh look on Instagram, writing simply: "We did a thang." Many of Ortega's "Wednesday" co-stars commented on her post about the haircut, expressing their appreciation of the chop.

As Stanwell told Allure, he used the Authentic Beauty Concept Amplify Mousse and Beachy Texture Spray to create her textured shaggy look. "I then used a curling iron randomly throughout the hair — very roughly creating bends the way I wanted the hair to move," he said. The key to this look, it seems, is a slightly haphazard, creative approach — the messier the better.

Who knows, maybe Wednesday Addams will also have a whole new shaggy look in the next season of "Wednesday," too.

In 2022, Lily Collins debuted a brand new haircut. Though it was quite a subtle new set of bangs, the look caused quite a stir — especially when Season 4 of "Emily in Paris" was released. Collins' new bangs coincided with a big change for her character, who took it upon herself to cut her own "trauma bangs," as her friend Mindy called them. 

And by the sounds of things, Collins will be keeping her bangs for the foreseeable future. "Honestly, they make a ponytail or a bun extra chic," she told Glamour. "Even if it's messy, it's just like, 'Oh, there's something that's different.' ... And you can wear them so many different ways. They can grow out and be curly. They can be shorter. I love them." Sounds like these trauma bangs are not quite as traumatic as we imagined.

Yet another actor who shaved her head was Cara Delevingne, who went completely bald in 2017 while preparing for her role as a patient with cancer in "Life in a Year." Even though the haircut was done for a role, not everyone was thrilled with her decision to pick up the razor.

"Before I even got the project, I said to the director, 'I want to shave my head for it,'" Delevingne told Elle in 2017. "My agents and managers were like, 'Please don't! Why would you do that?'" Delevingne didn't listen to their advice. Instead, she went after the role she wanted in the most dramatic way possible. "I needed to feel what it would be like to have no hair," she said, adding that it was "one of the most liberating things I've ever done. I really like it a lot. It's been really amazing."

Delevingne is certainly a lot braver than us!