24 Celebs Who Actually Look Better Without Their Natural Hair Color

It's no secret that changing one's hair color is one of the ultimate forms of self-expression. Thanks to a wonderful invention called hair dye, almost anyone looking to stray from their natural hair color and dive into a world with endless possibilities can DIY a transformation with enough time, patience, and reading comprehension. For those willing to pay a premium to avoid potential disaster, a day trip to a nice hair salon can also be readily arranged.

Not every artificial hair color works on everyone, with factors like skin tone, hair health, and even personality influencing how well one can pull off a particular shade. Some celebrities have missed the mark on dye jobs, while others actually thrive so well with dye that the result actually looks better than the locks they were born with. These celebrities have a special gift — the ability to change their hair for the better. 

Emma Stone is arguably one of the most famous redheads in modern Hollywood history, which is why it may come as a surprise that Stone's natural hair color is blonde. Stone first dyed her hair for "Superbad" (2007) and hasn't looked back since. While Stone's original color looks fine, it does give off a "girl next door" vibe. Red, on the other hand, makes Stone pop like no other. 

For those wondering how to get Stone's iconic red hair, the answer is relatively straightforward: Use good products and get to the color slowly. In 2018, colorist Tracey Cunningham told Refinery29, "Any color — be it red, blonde, brown, or jet-black — will look exponentially better on healthy, nourished hair."

Reese Witherspoon is one of the industry's most popular blondes. Witherspoon started dying her hair blonde in the mid-'90s and has remained loyal to the general color scheme since, although she's changed her look for movie roles several times. 

With that said, it's a bit jarring to see Witherspoon with her natural brown hair color. Although the darker shade doesn't look bad by any means, brown hair transforms her into a totally different person that borders on unrecognizable. This was particularly noticeable in 2013, when Witherspoon appeared on "Good Morning America" with hair so dark that, depending on how it shone in the stage lights, it almost looked copper. Elle Woods who?

Scarlett Johansson's transformation from child star to Hollywood icon is largely due to two natural factors: talent and beauty. Johansson's natural hair color, as evidenced by some of her earliest professional and papped photos, falls somewhere on the light brown spectrum. When in doubt, people can usually find Johansson rocking some sort of blonde shade instead.

The interesting thing about Johansson is that she doesn't just look good as a blonde, but with virtually every other color out there. To date, Johansson has dyed her hair many different shades of brown, blonde, and red — while some styles have been more popular than others, none have ever looked bad. 

Katy Perry has had pretty much every hair color over the years. Red, blue, pink, green, platinum blonde: Whether short or long, if there's a color on the spectrum, Perry has probably rocked it at some point. Perry usually pivots back to her signature jet black hair color at the end of the day, a choice that beautifully brings out her bright blue eyes. 

For someone who looks so good with dark hair, it may be hard to reconcile that Perry was actually born a natural blonde, although her hair has darkened a little over time. "I'm naturally the most boring dishwater squirrel brown ... I've been playing with colors since I was 15," she told Glamour in 2015. 

The stunning transformation of Bella Thorne dates back considerably to the early 2010s, when she was a Disney child actor. After Thorne left Disney, she began experimenting with a variety of hair colors — something she still readily seems to enjoy today. In 2016, as one memorable example, Thorne rocked fabulous red and green tresses. 

With a beautiful face and facial features that can carry any type of hair, it's hard to imagine Thorne with her natural hair color — and, contrary to early Disney photos, it's not red. In 2014, Thorne told Allure, "I'm not actually a redhead. I'm a blonde. I dyed it for [the HBO TV series] 'Big Love'."

Amy Adams has rocked her signature long red hair for what feels like forever, which is why it's hard to picture her with any other color. It turns out Adams' natural hair color is not the red she's known for. "It's kind of a strawberry blonde, but like most blondes, the blonde has gone kind of ashy, so I assist it with the red," Adams told Vogue in 2014.

A good number of natural blondes can rock red hues better than they may think, since certain shades like copper and auburn tend to work particularly well on those with light roots. This is the case with Adams, who has a perfectly complementary complexion and features that can handle the rare color.

Like Bella Thorne, Cole Sprouse, alongside his twin brother, Dylan, spent a large part of his childhood on Disney sets. While at Disney, the Sprouses were instantly recognizable with their matching blond hair, which grew longer as they got older.

Sprouse dyed his hair black in 2016 to play Jughead in the CW series "Riverdale," a drastic but exciting change. Not everyone can pull off black hair, yet Sprouse's dye job easily enhanced his features without washing him out. Sprouse's hair is now a brownish hue, but the black phase will never be forgotten. 

Nowadays, more people focus on the tragic details of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's messy divorce than on how absolutely gorgeous she has always been. For much of her career, Jolie has presented herself with long, wavy, beautifully sleek dark hair. Depending on the event, Jolie either pairs the locks with bright, bold makeup or a more natural look. 

Jolie looks stellar no matter what her hair looks like, although it's a little hard to reconcile that, underneath the deep, dark tresses, she's a natural dirty blonde. "When I was 4 or 5, my mother dyed my hair dark brown, and she decided to keep it that way. And I stuck with that," Jolie once explained (via Buzzfeed). 

While Kristen Stewart had brown hair when she shot to international fame as Bella Swan in "Twilight" (2008), her natural hair color is actually a dirty blonde. Stewart sported her real tresses in the David Fincher thriller "Panic Room," in which she portrayed the daughter of Jodie Foster's character. 

Stewart began to experiment with her hair once "The Twilight Saga" ended and has rocked a variety of rather avant-garde hairstyles over the years, including an interesting blonde-pink look at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival that eventually turned entirely pink. With her natural, dirty blonde hair, Stewart looks rather angelic. With dyed hair, however, Stewart's demeanor does a cool 180. 

Demi Lovato, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, is another former Disney Channel star who reinvented their image after departing the company. Lovato has rocked red, blonde, blue, purple, and pink hair over the years. 

All colors and styles have looked fine, of course, but Lovato seems to truly shine brighter the darker her hair is. Dark brown to black hair particularly fits their tough persona and pop-rock sound, although at the end of the day, Lovato's transformations come from a variety of sources. "I think everything I do inspires my hair changes, you know, my mood and sometimes my relationships," she told Pop Sugar in 2024. "[My hair] isn't just reflective of my music, it's reflective of who I am."

When Megan Fox starred in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" (2004), she appeared with her natural dark brown hair. Over the years, Fox has dyed her hair blue, red, pink, blonde, and black in various lengths and styles as a blatant form of self-expression. In 2024, Fox talked about her blue hair era with People: "I think I bleached it, and I destroyed it ... I might as well run through all the colors before I go brown."

Although before-and-after photos of Megan Fox make her cosmetic tweaks obvious, they also reveal another thing: Fox has the unique ability to rock any hair color and style she sees fit. This could be due to her natural beauty or confidence. In either case, Fox's dye jobs are always something novel.

Leighton Meester, a natural blonde, dyed her hair brown to audition for "Gossip Girl" and has remained a memorable Hollywood brunette ever since, although she's experimented with different shades of box blonde over the years. 

While blonde looks fine on her, Meester arguably looks her best with dark hair. Brown hair helps Meester make an instant impression, whether in person or on camera. This, of course, is what helped her land the role of Blair Waldorf. "I wore a wig and they were like, 'You need to actually dye it,'" Meester once remarked to ELLE (via Nexxus). "['Gossip Girl'] was definitely a hair show where everyone had these long, flowing locks."

While Lady Gaga is arguably one of the most outrageously dressed celebrities in Hollywood history, her hair is almost always on point. Before Mother Monster revolutionized the music industry, she performed with her natural dark brown hair. Gaga first dyed her hair platinum blonde to stand out, and as they say, the rest is history.

Gaga has rocked a variety of colors and styles over the years, but platinum blonde looks so good on her that, with eyes closed, it's hard to imagine her any other way. Instead of potentially washing her out, Gaga's signature platinum blonde exemplifies her natural features and strong makeup looks. 

Photos of Jennifer Lopez before and after she found her signature hair color are a sight to behold. In the earlier years of her career, Lopez rocked her natural, dark, curly hair. Nowadays, Lopez struts her stuff with long, luxurious dark blonde hair.

While Lopez's natural hair color and texture are beautiful, her long, honey blonde hair complements her features amazingly. In 2014, Lopez's colorist, Rita Hazan, told Glamour, "I felt like [Lopez's dark hair] was too harsh for her skin tone and her personality ... I created a honey-highlighted hair color for her and people went crazy over it."

Troye Sivan, a natural brunette, frequently cycles between different shades of brown and blond. In between, Sivan has briefly sported colors like silver, red, and black. While Sivan's natural brown hair looks good on him, he has the perfect facial features and general composition to pull off blond hair. Platinum on Sivan is especially eye-catching, even if the bright, bleached shade is more difficult to maintain.

In 2020, months after COVID-19 sent the world into lockdown and Netflix's "Tiger King" dominated social media, Sivan, ironically, admitted to Vogue that he briefly considered a platinum blond mullet but eventually decided to try it with brown hair. "I mean, [platinum blond is] fine and cool, but not the vibe. We wanted to avoid going into Joe Exotic territory," he said. 

Christina Hendricks, a natural blonde, has famously dyed her hair since childhood. In 2015, she told Marie Claire, "My mother used Clairol to make me a redhead when I was 10 because I was dying to be Anne of Green Gables."

Hendricks has sported blonde, brown, purple, and pink hair over the years, but always goes back to red in the end, which is a fantastic choice, as it is undeniably Hendricks's color. No matter the particular shade, red hair makes Hendricks stand out beautifully. 

Singer-actor Mandy Moore is most recognizable for her brown hair, which she first sported in the 2002 movie "A Walk to Remember." Before the film came out, however, Moore stuck firmly to her natural hair color. Moore looks great as a blonde and brunette, but the brown hair gives her an immediate edge.

"My natural hair is like dirty dishwater," Moore told Refinery29 in 2017. "​​I feel most like myself when I'm a brunette, even though I was bright blond for the early portion of my career."

As a child, Dove Cameron's natural blonde hair made her easily look like a princess on the Disney Channel, a la Rapunzel. Like the other Disney alums on this list, Cameron reinvented herself, starting by dying her hair dark brown after she gained fame. "When I dyed my hair it was a reclamation of deciding who I was versus who I felt I always had to be," she told E! News in 2022. 

Cameron's dark hair may seem drastic, but it actually fits her incredibly well. The contrast between her hair and physical features is pronounced but not over the top, which helps give her an interesting, more mature appearance. 

Dakota Johnson, the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, has rocked dark brown hair throughout most of her career. Johnson actually came into the world with blonde hair, which may not be that surprising, since her mother and grandmother, Tippi Hedren, are known for their own blonde hair. 

Based on Johnson's witty and generally aloof demeanor, in interviews, her dyed brown hair seems to fit her personality better. As the popular saying goes, "Blondes have more fun." Johnson appears fun in her own way, but not one that aligns with typical blonde tropes. 

It's hard to tell at first glance, but Bella Hadid's dark brown hair, while stunning, isn't au naturale. In reality, Hadid is blonde like her older sister, Gigi Hadid. "I have a darker personality," Hadid told Allure in 2016. "My sister being blonde and me being brunette, it's a good separation."

In this case, Hadid's decade-old comments are right on the nose. Hadid has gone back to blonde several times over the years, and while the lightly-colored hair looks fine, her features pop amazingly, especially on camera, with darker locks. 

Sophie Turner, another staple blonde in Hollywood, has rocked her natural locks for most of her career. While Turner portrayed Sansa Stark on HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones," she had to dye her hair red. "Whenever I think of my red hair, I relate it to such a strong woman," Turner told People in 2018.

Not all natural blondes can pull off red hair, despite the seemingly common pathway. Turner is another celebrity who can do so with ease, though. The "Game of Thrones" shade Turner sported before going back to blonde was dark enough to help her features pop, yet light enough not to overpower her complexion. 

Before Dua Lipa achieved international stardom as a singer-songwriter, she worked as a prospective model. At the start of her career, Lipa rocked her natural dark brown hair, although she's experimented with different styles in red, blonde, and black in the years since.

Out of all the hair colors Lipa has tried, her dip into cherry red (or cherry cola) remains a top-tier moment. The dark red and brown mix suited her impeccably and complemented her features amazingly. Hopefully, one day she'll return to the beautiful shade. At the time of writing, Lipa is back to dark brown (although she still looks stunning either way). 

There's no doubt about it: Zayn Malik is one good-looking person with an incredible face card. When Malik shot to fame as a member of One Direction, he sported short black hair that grew out over time. After he left the band, Malik began to experiment with different hair colors.

To date, Malik has rocked blue, green, pink, and platinum locks with incredible ease. Like Bella Thorne and Megan Fox, Malik's colorful hair transformations work so well because they naturally elevate his cool aesthetic without looking over-the-top or gimmicky. 

Lana Del Rey is another singer-songwriter who is undeniably gorgeous. Based on childhood photos of the star, Del Rey is a natural blonde whose hair darkened over time. Over the course of her career, however, Del Rey has sported various shades of brown, with occasional dips into black and red. 

Out of all the hair colors Del Rey has rocked, the darker colors stand out from the crowd — more than her blonde and-slash-or light brown hair ever could, although the lighter tresses are still nice. Dark brown on Del Rey, in particular, helps her features pop without creating too much contrast.