Home Improvement's Patricia Richardson Is Nearly Unrecognizable After Bold Hair Transformation
One of the most beloved sitcoms of the '90s starred Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson as parents to three rowdy sons on "Home Improvement." Richardson played matriarch Jill Taylor, who sometimes felt like she was raising four boys, based on her husband's antics. While her hairstyle wasn't nearly as iconic as Jennifer Aniston's "The Rachel" look on "Friends," audiences came to recognize Richardson based on her brunette bob with bangs.
However, the veteran actress looks much different from her "Home Improvement" days. In 2023, she attended a SAG-AFTRA event and was photographed rocking long, white hair — a total 180 from how audiences knew her. The new style worked for her, but it did make her appear completely unrecognizable at first glance. Even her IMDb profile photo features her with the new 'do. Richardson, along with the rest of the women from "Home Improvement," is aging like fine wine.
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Richardson began growing her hair out and keeping it natural back in 2020. "Ok here we have covid hair grow out. Just don't want to cut it! So.... new covid fashion raccoon hair?" she captioned on Instagram. Comments on the post were overwhelmingly positive, with people saying her new look was gorgeous.
Her white hair seems here to stay
In October 2025, Patricia Richardson guest-starred on Tim Allen's show, "Shifting Gears." She, along with fellow "Home Improvement" stars Richard Karn (Al) and Debbe Dunning (Heidi), had a mini reunion with Allen on the Season 2 premiere. Richardson rocked her white hair on the episode, as well as when she helped promote the "Home Improvement" reunion on "Good Morning America" in late September.
Allen's onscreen daughter on "Shifting Gears," Kat Dennings, noted during that "GMA" special that Allen, Richardson, Karn, and Dunning hadn't really aged, which she joked "was very annoying." She's not wrong! While Richardson's hair has drastically changed, the rest of her looks exactly the same, as it does for the other three "Home Improvement" stars.
Several years before her "Shifting Gears" guest-starring role, Richardson appeared on a Season 19 episode of "NCIS" — complete with white hair. Shortly before that, she spoke to Entertainment Tonight about her "Home Improvement" days and debuted her new style. Clearly, this look is here to stay for her, which is totally fine, because she wears it well.