Celebs Who Rarely Show Off Their Naturally Curly Hair

It's rare to see a celeb with hair that's anything less than perfect. Once a person reaches a certain level of fame, it feels like they hire a traveling hair salon to follow them around and keep their strands silky-smooth and camera-ready. Whether that's true is up for debate, but whatever the reason, it's also rare to see celebs rocking their natural hair.

Curly, straight, or something in between — what is it with wanting to avoid one's natural hair texture? For some, it's a case of looking nearly unrecognizable with their natural hair. For others, their natural texture is a source of insecurity. And curly-haired celebs are certainly not immune when it comes to avoiding their natural hair.

Some of the celebs we think we know and love have curly hair they rarely display to the public. Here are some celebs we'd love to see wear their naturally curly hair more often.

Ariana Grande's high ponytail has become her signature look. Even though she wears the style less often as she has gotten older, it's hard not to associate her with the sleek, brunette ponytail she wore for much of her early career. It's a great look, but Grande's natural curly hair is arguably just as iconic.

Despite having naturally curly hair, Grande has rarely been spotted with it. So when she uploaded a video sharing the lip products in her bag on her makeup brand R.E.M. Beauty's Instagram, her curls were all anyone could talk about. While fans love to see her natural hair texture, Grande is particular about when she shows it off. 

In a 2020 episode of the "Zach Sang Show," Grande shared that she associates different hair with different eras of her life. Her curly hair, she says, "reminds me of me as a kid. It's who I am, privately." While she doesn't rule it out, she thinks it's unlikely that she'll wear her hair curly as part of her music career. "To be a person who does what I do is a blessing," she says, "but there are times when I'm really grateful for that degree of separation."

Although it feels like a lifetime ago, Taylor Swift first emerged as a curly-haired teen in the country music scene. And while some have suggested her curly hair wasn't entirely natural, a look inside Swift's childhood photos quickly proves her curls are the real deal. In more recent years, Swift has worn her hair in straight styles more often than not, but not necessarily by choice.

In an interview with Elle, Swift shared that her hair changed texture before she turned 30. "It's the straight hair I wished for every day in junior high," she admitted. At the time, she jokingly asked fans to pray for the "safe return" of her curls.

Thankfully, Swift's curls are making a comeback. Several Eras Tour stops in locales with high humidity had Swift's hair returning to its roots, pun intended. And recent outings, as well as Instagram videos, show Swift's hair returning to its original texture. It looks like those prayers worked.

Cardi B can usually be counted on to rock long, flowing hair on the red carpet and in her music videos, but rarely shows off her natural hair texture during work events. That's not to say she's not proud of her natural hair; over the years, Cardi B has documented her hair journey on social media and what her hair was like before the fame. In fact, a homemade hair mask she posted on her Instagram was so popular that it inspired Cardi B to start her own hair care line.

In a 2021 Instagram post, Cardi B shared that she often hears misconceptions about her hair. "Being mixed don't mean your hair is always long and curly," she wrote in a lengthy caption about figuring out what works for her particular hair texture. She credits the natural hair community on YouTube and TikTok with helping her find what best suited her hair's needs.

"I want women of color with tighter curl patterns to know that you don't have 'bad hair,'" Cardi B wrote. "All hair is good."

Nicole Kidman gained fame as a young adult with a head full of fiery red curls in her home country of Australia. By the time her career was popping off in the United States, however, she was mostly wearing her hair straight, something she now regrets. Unlike the bright red color, Kidman's curls were very much natural but years of straightening ended up damaging her hair.

On "The Graham Norton Show," Kidman had a message for the curly-haired youth: "Keep your curly hair. Don't straighten it," she said. "After a while, you don't get your curls back." Tragically, Kidman is speaking from experience. She repeated the advice almost a decade later in a video with Allure, saying, "Embrace the curl."

Thankfully, Kidman's curls didn't completely disappear. "I can do that to my hair still," she shared, but only with humidity and "the right product." The curls have made a reappearance multiple times within the last year, so it looks like she found what works for her.

When Selena Gomez first graced the small screen on "Barney & Friends" as a kid, she wore her naturally curly hair in a variety of no-heat styles. It was a far cry from the straightened fringe she would regularly rock in "Wizards of Waverly Place" just a few years later. Throughout her career, Gomez has played with different cuts and styles but has hardly ever revealed her curls to the public.

The "Rare" singer does let the curls out from time to time, though maybe not as often as fans would like. In 2020, Gomez shared a few selfies with her natural mane on her Instagram, and her followers liked what they saw, to the tune of nearly 9 million likes. Three years later, she posted a throwback curly-haired selfie and asked if she should bring the look back. Given that the post has 10 million likes and still regularly gets comments praising the look, fans say yes.

Gomez still offers the occasional glimpse at her curly hair, but seems to love changing it up too much to commit to just one style. Who can blame her when she makes everything look so good?

It's hard to imagine Mariah Carey as anyone other than a confident diva, but that hasn't always been the case. According to the "Honey" singer, her naturally curly hair was a source of strife during adolescence. Growing up biracial, Carey has shared that she didn't feel as though she belonged anywhere and that feeling extended to her hair.

"As a mixed-race person with a Black father growing up in predominantly white neighborhoods, it was difficult," she told The Sunday Times. Her hair care was different from that of her Black and white friends, and her white mother didn't help: "We didn't have conditioner in our house because my mother was like, 'whatever, it looks fine.'"

Not knowing how to care for her hair made Carey feel insecure, which, she told CNN in a 2014 interview, led to her classmates laughing at her big dreams of being a singer. "Because of course at that point I still didn't really have conditioner or know how to comb through textured hair," she said. Carey ended up having the last laugh when she burst onto the music scene with her self-titled debut in 1990, curly hair and all.

When Carrie Underwood first appeared in the "American Idol" audition room, the first thing viewers noticed was her big, blonde curls. Her voice dominated the conversation shortly after, but Underwood's hair stayed on the "Idol" audience's collective minds. As she cycled through different styles during her time on the show, one question remained: What does Underwood's natural hair really look like?

Well, her curls are natural but definitely don't reach "Idol" levels of curl. In a 2015 interview with The Huffington Post, Underwood shared, "I tend to have a natural curl in my hair anyway, but not a whole lot." The "Idol" curls were the result of "a lot of product," according to the "Before He Cheats" singer.

From what she's shared on her Instagram, Underwood's natural hair is somewhere between a curl and a wave. She's let the curls out occasionally throughout the years, like in this Q&A video or in a more recent post bringing back her natural hair color. Her natural curls are beautiful, but we'd love to see Underwood bring back the "Idol" curls for nostalgia's sake.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has undergone quite the transformation throughout the years, most notably in regard to his hair — or rather, its disappearance. Johnson went bald at a relatively early age, though "went bald" might not be the best description. He maintains that it was entirely a stylistic choice based on how he feels about his natural hair.

How did he divulge this information? Why, in response to a gif of himself from his football days, of course. "Why I luv GIFS," he wrote in an X post, ostensibly because he was provided with a visual example of his old hair. "I'm not bald because I went bald," he continued. "I'm bald because my hair is a cross between an afro and hair from a Lama's ball sac," he finished, succinctly.

Comparisons to animal parts aside, Johnson might be too hard on himself. As iconic as he makes being bald look, his curly hair was also a vibe. Take a look at this photo of him as a 7-year-old he shared on Instagram: Johnson had swag in spades.

When one thinks of Anna Kendrick, curly hair is probably not what comes to mind. Even if you've followed Kendrick's career for decades, you would be hard-pressed to know the untold truth is that she has naturally curly hair. "I'm a secret curly," she told Alex Cooper on a 2024 episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "Like Kerry Russel in 'Felicity' level curly."

Don't expect to see the "Pitch Perfect" actor rock that hair texture anytime soon, though. According to Kendrick, she is "on a natural curly hair journey" and rarely lets even those close to her see her natural hair. Kendrick says her reluctance comes from growing up in a time when her hair wasn't seen as cool: "It was when ... super straight hair was the height of female attractiveness," she told Cooper.

Although she says she's still "self-conscious" about her hair, Kendrick is working on it. Kendrick's hair is ultimately her business, but fans would love to see her natural hair more often when she's comfortable sharing it with the world.

Lili Reinhart came to fame playing Betty Cooper on "Riverdale," but don't expect her to rock Betty's signature sleek ponytail in her personal life. Every so often, Reinhart posts a few selfies with her natural curls on Instagram just to remind her followers of how gorgeous they are. Unfortunately, these reminders are usually confined to her Instagram stories, but the curl pics do grace her grid occasionally.

Reinhart shared pics of her "curly hair vacation" on her Instagram stories (via Teen Vogue) and compared her curls to Olivia Newton-John's as Sandy in "Grease." It's an apt comparison for sure, but when Reinhart hit the same pose as Sandy, it also felt like she was giving old Hollywood glam. It would be wonderful to see Reinhart in a role as a starlet like Marilyn Monroe, where she could work with her curls.

Like many curly-haired people, the "Forbidden Fruits" actor hasn't always loved her curls. In 2018, Reinhart tweeted, "My hair never looks good when I try to curl it. I end up looking like the prissy mean girl on a Disney channel show." The jury's out on whether that's a bad thing, but with 4.2 million likes on this Instagram post, it seems like people like the curls.

Contrary to what you may believe, Pete Wentz was not born with spiky straightened hair. Wentz has worn his hair in different styles throughout his career, but his natural hair is curly thanks in part to his Afro-Jamaican heritage.

"A reminder that this is Pete's natural hair when he isn't forced to straighten it for years," wrote one X user in 2020 in a post with pictures of Wentz rocking his natural hair. The reminder came after Wentz trended on the platform after a post about Wentz and fellow Fall Out Boy member Andy Hurley's former band Racetraitor led people to learn of Wentz's biracial heritage. (via BuzzFeed)

Wentz's parents, who have a surprising connection to Joe Biden, raised him in "a pretty conservative area" near Chicago, he told Norman Brannon for his zine Anti-Matter. Growing up biracial and with liberal parents, Wentz said, "I kind of didn't really feel like I fit in anywhere." In an interview with Kerrang, he shared that he found "a community of like-minded people" when he got into the local punk rock scene.

In a world where seemingly every starlet is contractually obligated to wear her hair in a sleek blowout, Jennifer Lopez is as guilty as any. But just because she frequently straightens her hair doesn't mean she hates her natural curls. "I love my naturally curly hair," Lopez told Remezcla in a 2024 interview about her role in the film "Atlas," where she rocked her natural texture.

Though Lopez looks almost unrecognizable with her natural hair now that she often wears it straight, she regularly wore it curly at the beginning of her career. When she made her television debut in 1991 as a Fly Girl on "In Living Color," she was rocking some gorgeous curls, and she would continue the trend on red carpets for some time. Now, her curls rarely make a public appearance.

While Lopez might not wear her hair curly as often, she still lets her natural hair out from time to time privately, like in this Instagram post celebrating Earth Day. As she said in a viral clip from her documentary, "The Greatest Love Story Never Told," her natural hair reminds her of when she "was 16 in the Bronx and running up and down the block." As long as she's still reminiscing, it's likely the curly hair will never completely disappear.

Salma Hayek is one of those rare people who look good no matter what they do. Yes, she really looks that good with or without makeup. And of course, she looks gorgeous with a sleek blowout or her naturally textured hair. The universe truly has favorites.

"My hair is curly and wild when I'm not working," she told Allure. She follows a less-is-more approach and uses nothing more than a hair oil during her time off. That mindset extends to her skincare as well; after cleansing with some coconut oil, rose water, and a cleanser from her skincare line, Hayek doesn't cleanse her skin in the morning. "My grandmother taught me that at night your skin replenishes all the things you lost during the day," she explained.

As Hayek ages, she's also embracing her natural hair color and letting her grays show. "I don't want to spend what's left of my youth pretending I'm younger and then not enjoying life." Well, when she puts her natural color and texture on display, she certainly makes aging look chic.

Watching Gabrielle Union in films like "Bring It On" and "10 Things I Hate About You," one would think she always had long, pin-straight hair. At one point, Union would likely have loved people to think that. "I used to associate length with beauty," she told Bustle as part of its Hair Chronicles feature. "It felt like that was the only way I could feel attractive."

In an interview with Yahoo Beauty, Union spoke about "being a Black child in an all white community" and how that negatively impacted her perception of herself. "I also felt like blonde was the ideal of beauty, and if I looked nothing like that, then I must be ugly." Looking at Union as a grown woman, it's hard to imagine anyone could make her feel less than the gorgeous star she is, but childhood scars run deep.

Now in the midst of her natural hair journey, Union shares updates on her Instagram, like this reel showing her using products from her own hairline. And no matter how long her curls are, Union's no longer questioning her own beauty. "I don't need to be a slave to any Eurocentric beauty ideal to be thought of as beautiful or fly or worthy," she told Bustle. Beautifully said.