Kelly Clarkson Looked Like A Different Person After Her Dark Brown Hair Transformation
Kelly Clarkson was 20 years old when she won the first season of "American Idol," becoming the first person to hold the title in the history of the show. She was a waitress who instantly turned into a pop star at the time. Decades later, she's a talk show host who has had a Vegas residency and released 10 studio albums as of 2025. Clarkson has also made one of the most impressive transformations in Hollywood and exposed some tragic details of her life to the public.
But throughout her impressive career, the "Where Have You Been" singer's appearance has remained pretty much the same. Although Clarkson has changed her hair color over the years, she's mostly stuck to brighter hues like blonde or light brown. But in the mid-aughts, she went through a phase where her hair was a very dark brown — and she looked like a totally different person. In a 2007 photo at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards, Clarkson rocked a dark brunette lob with a middle part, a total departure from her usual look.
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In a 2013 post on X (formerly Twitter), the "Since U Been Gone" singer revealed the surprising reason she tends to stay on the blonde side of the hair color spectrum. "My favorite hair color is a chocolate brown but I think blonde looks better on me #iwannabeabrunette," she wrote, replying to a fan. She should dye her hair whatever color she wants — she doesn't look better or worse with darker hair, just extremely different.
Clarkson's weight changes have contributed to her transformation
Kelly Clarkson has also publicly spoken about her weight over the years, explaining to People in 2023 that her latest transformation started with moving her family from Los Angeles to New York City for her mental health and because her family needed a change. She later revealed in a January 2024 People interview that the move to the big city helped her lose weight for a surprisingly simple reason — she walked more in Manhattan than she did in LA.
Plus, she confessed that she actually started listening to her doctor's advice about her diet, something she didn't always do before. "I eat a healthy mix. I dropped weight because I've been listening to my doctor — a couple years I didn't," Clarkson explained. "And 90 percent of the time I'm really good at it because a protein diet is good for me anyway. I'm a Texas girl, so I like meat — sorry, vegetarians in the world!" she added.