Celebs Who Look Nearly Unrecognizable With Their Natural Hair

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Every celebrity has a calling card when it comes to their style, and for many, it's their hair. From bombshell blondes to mysterious brunettes and lively redheads to those who don't shy away from their gray manes, entertainers have made a living off their looks and how they change them up. Between the intense treatments and elaborate wigs that the Hollywood elite have taken to adorning themselves with, it's becoming much rarer to see the most famous people in the world without their original styles.

But there is a growing trend where more famous folks are embracing their natural style. Some of those celebrities have embraced their own hair textures, such as Taraji P. Henson and Zendaya. Others like Hilarie Burton and Paget Brewster let their hair change color naturally. "I've never felt more powerful," actor Andie McDowell said of her gray hair to Vogue. "I feel more honest ... I feel like I'm embracing right where I am. I feel really comfortable ... I just feel like it suits me." There are a number of actors, musicians, and entertainers who not only own their original looks but also break into the beauty industry to help others learn to love their hair, too.

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Many celebrities have taken to showing off their real hair not just in their daily lives but on screen to show the world. Viola Davis was no exception, and when the actor removed her wig on screen during a pivotal episode of the ABC drama "How to Get Away with Murder." In the scene, Davis' character, a tough-talking law professor, removes her wig while in front of her vanity, showcasing the character's vulnerability. The moment was significant in TV history, and it was Davis herself who spearheaded the decision to feature it prominently in the episode. "I knew it was going to be a moment," Davis told Marie Claire. "Because we made beauty a part of acting when, in fact, it has nothing to do with acting."

Davis continued this practice in her own life, often appearing at red carpet events or in press tours rocking her natural hair instead of wigs. The Oscar-winning actor says that this was a purposeful step into owning who she is both as a performer and as a person. "I wanted to step into who I was," she told Anderson Cooper on an episode of "Anderson Live." "What I felt like was every time that I put on a wig, I was apologizing for who I was."

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Before she was a bonafide Hollywood A-lister, Nicole Kidman was known in her native Australia for her curly red hair. Even as she made her way into the industry with films like "Days of Thunder," she only maintained her original locks for a little while longer before opting for a sleek blonde superstar look. "I wanted to conform and be the Aussie beach girl," she admitted to Who Magazine. Her transformation eventually cemented her as one of the most recognizable actors in the world, but she hasn't fully given up on embracing her homegrown waves. She has shown off her natural hair in social media posts alongside her husband, musician Keith Urban. It's rare to see the star show off her curls, particularly on the red carpet, but it's never far from Kidman's mind when it comes to personal beauty. "I wish I had my curls back," she shared with Who Magazine. "I tortured them to death. I always say, 'Don't ruin the ringlets!'"

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Taraji P. Henson has been showing off her natural texture on screen on and off since the early 2000s, but 15 years later, she decided to put an end to heat treating her hair, which was causing damage. "I would lean more toward straightening my hair," she told HuffPost. "I just decided to cut it all off and start from scratch ... So now I'm in the phase of letting it grow."

Taking charge of her looks has been important to the actor for years. Before she was an entertainer, Henson had dreams of being a cosmetologist. Though that dream never panned out fully, she took her passion for beauty into her own hands. In 2024, she created her own hair care line, TPH by Taraji Henson, specifically designed to treat scalp issues for women who wear weaves and installed units. Additionally, she hopes to not only spread the message that young women's own hair is beautiful but also affirm to all that past messaging was damaging to so many. "What we've been told, 'Your hair is nappy.' It's not nappy, it's curly," she continued to HuffPost. "We need to convey that message because I see a lot of girls [not] really understand what that is."

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Oscar nominee Amy Adams once admitted that she had to change her hair color to help her career in Hollywood take off. A natural strawberry blonde, she recalled that she first dyed her hair dark red for a role in the 2004 television series "Dr. Vegas" opposite Rob Lowe. When production cast another blonde female actor alongside her, the team then determined that one of the actors would need to dye their hair to differentiate between the two.

Plus, since Adams' complexion was pale and freckled compared to her co-stars sunkissed tan, production leaned towards the former to undergo a hair makeover. Luckily, the dye job went well — so well that it shaped the trajectory of Adams' career. "The minute I went red, it was quirky and fun instead of flirtatious and dumb," she shared at a TimesTalk event (via People). After that role, Adams decided to keep her hair red for the majority of her roles, and when she did dye her hair, it would mainly be alternating shades of red. The hue became a calling card for the actor, which she sometimes credits as a reason why both audiences and creatives alike would take her more seriously in her field. "People began to see me in a different way, for different roles,

" Adams continued. "I don't know if I can give credit to just the hair color, but maybe it did help people see me past blonde."

Similarly to her colleagues, Gabrielle Union embraced her own hair rather than opt for heavy treatments and wig installations after undergoing 25 years of extensive treatments. In 2017, the actor and entrepreneur released her own hair care line, Flawless, which embraces both natural beauty and hair wellness. The star also said that the endeavor is a way to show what natural hair really is to people who may not know it. "I just look at it as each person has their own hair journey, and they're all amazing, valid, worthwhile and beautiful, no matter what," Union told Beauty Inc.

Her story behind her own hair awakening came long before her time in the spotlight. Union traced the impetus behind starting Flawless all the way back to her childhood in Omaha, Nebraska. She spent years applying natural relaxers to her hair, thinking that the longer she left it in, the straighter it would be. Relaxed hair is chemically straightened to make it less curly or coiled, a common practice among Black women, though it can sometimes cause damage over time. That led to open wounds and other issues with her hair until she decided to stick with her natural hair as the base of her style. "It's been a helluva hair journey," she posted to Instagram.

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While some actors have dyed their hair blonde to appeal to producers, Olivia Wilde did just the opposite in order to make her stand apart from the crowd. After spending the first part of her acting career as a platinum blonde, and mainly booking jobs as the clichéd sexpot bombshell, she decided to darken her hair. The result changed the trajectory of her career and the roles within it. "I think the perception of brunettes being more intellectual persists," she shared with Into The Gloss. "Even though it makes no sense!"

But her journey with her hair started long before her career in Hollywood took off. Growing up, the actor took to her flowing locks to express herself by dyeing them numerous times. Changing up her style was a way for the then-adolescent Wilde to well, get wild with her personality and embrace the different feelings that came with changing your physical identity. "I feel like I've actually done every single color, and somehow my hair hasn't fallen out," she admitted to Into the Gloss. "Now, I only change it for work. I try to give it a rest, otherwise."

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Emma Stone is another actor who found elevated fame by going red. The natural blonde originally went brunette at the beginning of her career with roles in films like "Zombieland," but she took a chance with a bright red dye. She eventually landed roles in "Superbad," "The House Bunny," and the film that launched her into superstardom, "Easy A," all with an auburn mane. She's maintained the red hair on and off throughout her career ever since for both personal and professional reasons. "I really like having red hair," she admitted to British Vogue.

Stone has since changed her hair color multiple times for other roles, most notably when she went platinum blonde for "The Amazing Spider-Man" series and black for "Poor Things." But in all of her roles, her hair has become a calling card no matter what color it is or even if she was wearing a wig as she did for "Cruella." However, she's never been one to shy away from really committing to changing her look for a role. In 2024, she reportedly shaved her head for the film "Bugonia."

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As she once said in one of her songs, Lady Gaga has affirmed that "I am my hair" throughout her career. Whether she is rocking her naturally short locks or donning elaborate wigs on stage or the red carpet, the Oscar winner's mane is always the talk of the town. Yet, her luscious locks are more than just a fashion statement; they are also a way for Gaga to express her musicality and artistry through new means. "When I didn't feel strong enough to be me, I created someone else," she admitted on stage at the iTunes Festival (via BBC). "And it worked!"

It's rare to see her without a wig, but Gaga's naturally dark hair is usually dyed platinum blonde and kept very short. At the beginning of her career, she had long, flowing brown hair with blunt bangs. As she grew in her career, and her musical characters began to take shape, she even turned to fellow pop divas with similar style mentalities to help bring those now infamous hair moments to life. "I feel very supportive and blessed that Cher has been so supportive of me borrowing her wigs," Gaga once told Style.com (via Refinery29). "That shows the mark of a real artist."

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When it comes to hair, Keke Palmer has definitely experimented with a number of different styles. Whether it's straight or curly extensions, relaxed or not relaxed, she has played around with multiple factors to change up her look. But it's more than just changing styles for the actor and singer — she is adamant about maintaining a certain routine to keep her hair both healthy and fresh. "I grew up around women who were into hair, so I've always been very into taking good care of it," she once told Essence.

Despite having flexibility with her locks, it required Palmer to have the patience and persistence to learn what works best for her hair. That also played into her confidence when it came to her hair, natural curls and all. She eventually became the Chief Brand Officer of Creme of Nature in 2024, a Chicago-based beauty brand that specializes in black hair care, which was a way for her to not only embrace her natural hair but also help others find love for theirs. "I think it took me a long time to get to the place of being able to really appreciate my hair in all its uniqueness and what it can do — and only it can do," she revealed in a video for Vogue.

Pop diva Ariana Grande has long been known for her hair journey, starting from her original brown locks as a child actor on Broadway all the way to her platinum blonde extensions for her role in the "Wicked" film adaptation. Over the years, she dyed her hair frequently to keep up with her roles, particularly in her redhead era while on the Nickelodeon series "Victorious." The result of those years of harsh chemicals on her head has caused her locks to be greatly damaged, something that Grande has struggled with in the years since. She's since resorted to using wigs and extensions in a variety of hues to make her mane stand out. "It's even more difficult for me to have to wait forever for my natural hair to grow back and to have to wear more fake hair than every drag queen on earth combined," she once shared on Facebook.

It's increasingly rare to see Ariana with her natural hair, but she has on occasion revealed her normally brown waves. Many people online have taken to commenting about the damaged nature of her hair or have criticized her use of fake hair. But after years of facing the difficulties head on, Grande now takes it all in stride. "It's just hair after all," she continued in the Facebook post. "There are way way way more important things."

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Even before she was wowing television audiences on "Mad Men," Christina Hendricks rocked a bright red 'do years prior as a model. Despite being a natural blonde, she spent her early years dyeing her hair enough that when she found the right color, she knew when to stick with it. "Red has always felt like me," she shared with Glamour.

In fact, her role on "Mad Men," in which her character was often referred to as "Red," was in part due to her standout hair color. So, when she dyed her hair blonde after the show's ending, fans were shocked to see something different from the star. But it didn't last long — she changed it back to red and has mainly kept it that way ever since. "People have a lot of opinions about me as a redhead," she told Glamour. "I think maybe more than with other colors."

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It's not just the ladies who have let their natural hair (or lack thereof) take the front seat. Many male celebrities have come forward about either embellishing or letting their normal hair go. From Michael B. Jordan to Odell Beckham Jr., black men have brought their ordinary 'dos back to the forefront. But even though the trend has become more common, it has also shaped into a movement towards better representation, training, and space when it comes to styling black artists in Hollywood. "When I asked why I couldn't get my hair cut at work, it was because ... they didn't have the budget for my hair," "New Girl" actor Lamorne Morris revealed to The Guardian.

Conversely, some male celebrities like Bruce Willis and the late Sean Connery have decided to let their hair fade away naturally and embrace being bald. In Connery's case, he chose to go bald at an early age rather than undergo a hair transplant. While he did wear hairpieces in the James Bond films, he chose to embrace nature and look like himself as much as he could in his later work. "My hair went much earlier ... when I was 35," he shared in an interview with Take2MarkTV. "It's not the end of the world."