Stars Who Ditched Their Natural Hair Color

Every time celebrities step into the spotlight, whether it be on the red carpet for a movie premiere or on stage in front of thousands of fans for a performance, they are projecting who they are (or want to be) to the public. This is precisely why most major celebrities have makeup artists, stylists, and hairstylists at their disposal, including whenever they want to change up their look. It's not at all uncommon for musicians, movie stars, and other stars to make bold changes to their appearance, especially when they have a desire to start presenting themselves differently.

Without a doubt, the simplest and most effective way for a celebrity to achieve a new look is by changing their hair color. Sometimes, celebrities dye their hair early in their career so that their image can better match their desired reputation. However, there are plenty of examples of celebs dyeing their hair mid-career in an attempt to reinvent themselves. No matter the case, it's always interesting when public figures ditch their natural hair color — let's take a look at 12 prominent celebrities who have done so, some of whom look nearly unrecognizable with their natural hair at this point.

Katy Perry emerged on the scene in 2008 with hit songs like "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot 'n Cold." From early in her career, she turned heads with her daring looks, which often included a surprising hair color. Throughout her time in the spotlight, Perry has embraced practically every hair color you can imagine. From red to blue to pink to purple, the singer has stunned with various hair colors. According to Perry, she began experimenting with different hair colors when she was still a teenager, which suggests that she's not a big fan of her natural look.

In a 2015 interview with Glamour, the "Firework" singer said, "I'm naturally the most boring dishwater squirrel brown. So I've been playing with colors since I was 15. I loved the grunge green, and shocking blue was fun. Colored hair is such a huge accessory that you don't even need to add extra stuff." Even when Perry is less bold with her hair color choice, it seems like she never chooses to revert to her natural brunette. Often, Perry embraces black hair, which is the color she has chosen to sport the most in recent years.

Just like Perry, Gwen Stefani hasn't been seen with her natural brunette hair since becoming famous. Stefani rose to fame in the mid-'90s as the lead singer of the band No Doubt and quickly became known for her striking platinum blond hair. Over the years, the "Just a Girl" singer has experimented with some other hair colors, such as baby blue and pink, but she has always gone back to her signature blond look.

In a 2016 interview with E! News, Stefani's hairstylist, Danilo, revealed that he had touched up her roots every week for over 20 years. However, to keep her hair relatively healthy, he revealed that they implemented a deep conditioning process and stopped using bleach in the early 2000s. "We haven't used bleach since 2004," Danilo claimed. "I developed a high-lift formula that achieves the same effect but saves the quality of her hair. I did a lot of research and really looked at places of origins for blond hair color like Germany and Scandinavia. I've spent years finding and testing new lines and technology."

Clearly, Stefani and Danilo developed a system to allow her to always stun with her platinum blond tresses. However, over the years, the singer has posted throwback photos on her Instagram that show off her natural look. These photos give fans a peek at her previous brunette hair.

Ariana Grande's natural hair color is dark brown, but she has changed her look many times over the years. Not long after emerging on the scene, Grande dyed her hair red while starring on the show "Victorious." Since this series ran for four seasons, she became known for her red hair as a young singer and actress. Then, in the mid-2010s, when Grande reached popularity as a pop singer, she started adding some blond highlights to her brunette locks. 

In 2022, she fully committed to blond hair after getting her part in the "Wicked" movie and its sequel, "Wicked: For Good." Until October 2025, Grande fully embraced her role as Glinda the Good Witch and continued to stick with the blond look in real life. Just as fans became used to her having blond hair, she switched back to a light brunette, which is closer to her natural color, before the release of "Wicked: For Good."

Speaking about her hair with Entertainment Tonight, Grande revealed that she wanted to "play with the storytelling" while on the press tour for "Wicked: For Good." "With the first ['Wicked'] press tour, I wanted to celebrate Glinda in a more on-the-nose way, and be an extension of her and extend the time with her through clothes, through the blond, through everything," she said. "Now I can show up as the actress that played her and play into the darker tones of the movie. It's fun to play with hair and makeup and fashion as an extension of what the story is doing."

Like many of the celebrities on this list, Lady Gaga has seen a stunning transformation over the years, playing with a range of hair colors throughout her career. Since emerging on the scene with bold singles like "Poker Face" and "Bad Romance," the singer has rocked hair colors like pink, red, blue, and even yellow and green, which are all drastic departures from her natural brunette look. Oftentimes, Lady Gaga has donned wigs, which helps explain how she constantly switches colors, but she actually dyed her hair early on in her career because people were confusing her with Amy Winehouse.

In an interview with Z100 from when Lady Gaga was still a fresh face in the industry in 2008 (via YouTube), she said, "I was a total festival bunny, and I would get, 'Amy! Amy!' ... It was totally bizarre, and I just decided, listen, I don't mind being compared to Amy, but I wanted to really have my own image and impress a really strong shape into the brain of everybody when they think of Lady Gaga." So, she decided to dye her hair blond, which is the color she has stuck with for most of her career. Sometimes she shows her natural hair or embraces a color that's closer to it, such as in the movie "A Star Is Born," but Lady Gaga is usually seen with either blond or black hair nowadays.

Machine Gun Kelly adopted the same strategy as Lady Gaga and decided to embrace a blond look as he rose to stardom in the early 2010s. Since early in his career, Machine Gun Kelly's hair has been a major talking point, as many fans theorize that he received a hair transplant just a few years after getting his first taste of the spotlight. The rapper has never confirmed his potential hair transplant, but his hair has looked full for the last decade-plus after it was clearly receding earlier in his career.

In addition to the change in thickness, Machine Gun Kelly has experimented with various hairstyles, but he has almost always kept it blond. Because of this, it would be shocking if he ever returned to his natural light brown hair. At the 2024 People's Choice Country Awards, Machine Gun Kelly walked the red carpet with a striking half-blond, half-black look. Additionally, he dyed his hair pink in 2022, which further proves that he is willing to experiment with color. However, overall, it seems like Machine Gun Kelly is committed to his blond hair and prefers it over anything else.

Since Emma Stone has had red hair for most of her career, it may shock readers to learn that the two-time Best Actress Oscar winner is actually a natural blond. Even though most of her family are redheads, Stone grew up as a blond. It wasn't until she got cast in the hit 2007 comedy film "Superbad," which was her first major movie, that she dyed it red.

Judd Apatow, the film's director, reflected on the decision to change Stone's hair color in the book "I AM MCLOVIN: How Superbad Became the Biggest Comedy Hit of Its Generation." As reported by People, he said, "So we dyed her hair red, which I think she had never done before. And since then, she has cursed me because now people love her with red hair and she's had to live with that for a lot of her adult life."

While Stone has rocked blond hair in a few movies, such as the two "Amazing Spider-Man" films and "Birdman," red remains her signature color. And although she grew up as a blond, even her hair colorist, Tracey Cunningham, is obsessed with her red look. In an interview with Refinery 29, Cunningham said, "I always tell people that one of the biggest reasons why Emma's hair looks so incredible is because she looks like a redhead. I think there's something about those genetics that make the red shade look so gorgeous with her skin tone and her eyes — it's just a look that she can pull off exquisitely."

Just like Stone, many people don't know what Margot Robbie's natural hair color actually is. Since breaking into Hollywood with her scene-stealing performance in the 2013 movie "The Wolf of Wall Street," Robbie has been blond in most of her films, but she was born a brunette. Thanks to her leading role in the record-breaking 2023 movie "Barbie," Robbie is now even more universally beloved as a blond. Thankfully, she has grown used to being blond over her many years in the spotlight.

Robbie revealed to Elle in 2014 that she was initially "devastated" when she had to lighten her hair. The actress revealed that she always had dark hair in high school. After being blond for a few years, though, she says she ended up loving it as much as her dark brown tresses. However, she has admitted that dyeing her hair so much has ruined its health. "I've got really s**t hair so it's kind of hard to do my hair well. I really need a hairstylist to do my hair if it's going to look good. I have like three hairs left on my head," she told Harper's Bazaar in 2016. "People are always like, 'How do you have such healthy hair?' I'm like, 'I don't.' My hair is snapped off, it's s**t, it's gone, but hairstylists have suitcases full of fake hair and they make it look amazing."

Miley Cyrus quickly rose to fame after leading the cast of "Hannah Montana" on the Disney Channel as a teenager. In the series, she showed off her natural light brown hair as Miley, but donned a blond wig when she had to step into the spotlight as her alter ego. In real life, Cyrus has taken a page from Hannah Montana's book and rocked blond hair for well over a decade. Over the years, she has experimented with different shades of blond and even brown, but she wears this color more than any other.

In an interview with Today, Cyrus revealed she considered switching things up and giving her fans a major throwback by dyeing her hair brunette in 2022 for "Miley's New Year's Eve Party," which she co-hosted with her godmother, Dolly Parton. "I've never seen Dolly actually scared before," Cyrus claimed. "She acted like I told her the worst news you could imagine ... She goes, 'You can't do that. You are me.' So I'm somehow some extension of Dolly Parton, where she looked like I had just given her the worst news you've ever heard. So I will be blond." In subsequent years, Cyrus did branch out to some darker colors, but she still added prominent blond highlights to the mix. Therefore, it seems like Cyrus will continue to follow Parton's wishes and embrace her blond hair, at least in part.

Cyndi Lauper has never been shy to experiment with hair colors, to the point that her natural color is still the subject of speculation. When she first rose to fame in the '80s after the release of her debut album "She's So Unusual," which included hits like "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "Time After Time," she was instantly recognizable for her distinctive red hair. The singer actually debuted this red hair when she showed up to film the music video for "Time After Time." She also shaved about half of her head for the video, which, as she stated in an interview with "Good Morning America" Digital (via ABC News), symbolized her rebellion.

In the interview, she said, "If you're going to color your hair, you might as well... color it a color." Lauper has lived by these words her entire career. Over the years, she has stepped into the spotlight with her hair dyed blue, pink, and purple, and has never been afraid to try unique hairstyles as well.

Much like Lauper, Marilyn Manson quickly started experimenting with hair and makeup after becoming famous. Manson actually took this much further than most celebrities, since he created a whole public persona to match the sinister vibe of his music. The singer told The Guardian in 2015, "I created a fake world maybe because I didn't like the one I was living in." To fully immerse himself in this "fake world," Manson wore makeup to make himself look much paler than he actually is, wore unsettling contacts, and dyed his hair black, which was a departure from his natural brown hair.

Manson has maintained this hair for most of his career. Because of this, even some of his most die-hard fans might not recognize him if they passed him on the street. For over three decades, Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, has been completely dedicated to the character he created, and his black hair is a crucial part of that. Sure, Manson has been spotted plenty of times without makeup and even showed off his natural hair color during a brief cameo on the show "Eastbound & Down," but overall, it's hard to catch the "Sweet Dreams" singer out of character.

Since Kelly Osbourne is the daughter of one of the most eccentric musicians of all time, it's not surprising that she has experimented with many different hair colors. While the hit reality series "The Osbournes" was airing between 2002 and 2005, fans of the family got to see Kelly embrace a punk rock look and sport hair colors like hot pink, which was a major change from her natural blond hair. Years after the series ended, she dyed her hair lavender, which became her signature look for many years.

In a 2017 interview with The Cut, she said, "I wish I could put the feeling in a bottle and sell it to the world — I'd just give it away, I don't even want the money — of how I felt the first time I looked in the mirror with lavender hair." While she hosted "Fashion Police" from 2010 to 2015, she became so well-known for her lavender hair that she was contractually obligated to keep the color.

Even though her lavender hair became part of her public persona in the 2010s, Osbourne admitted to The Cut that she was bullied for the bold color. "It was before anybody did it — people wore wigs, of course, but they didn't dye it in this color," she said. "I got told I should kill myself, that I looked like an old lady, Dame Edna's ugly child she didn't want, all sorts of stuff, but I loved it." In the years since her time on "Fashion Police," Osbourne has experimented with other colors and has even gone blond at times, but she hasn't been afraid to revisit her iconic lavender look either. In fact, when she hosts shows, she is still most commonly seen with lavender hair.

Following in the footsteps of various other pop stars like Britney Spears and the aforementioned Gwen Stefani, Kesha rocked a bottle blond look as she pursued a career in the music industry. After rising to fame after being featured on Flo Rida's hit single "Right Round," her blond hair was a perfect fit since she embraced a party girl-esque image. Throughout the 2010s, Kesha had plenty of bold looks and consistently experimented with makeup and different hairstyles. However, she often stayed loyal to her blond hair, which makes it hard to believe that she is actually a natural brunette.

In 2019, she was almost unrecognizable as she rocked brunette hair during a performance at a party at The Paradise Club in New York City. Even though she changes up her look a lot, Kesha has rarely embraced her natural hair color throughout her career, other than during this one performance. She seems to prefer blond over any other hair color.