11 Celebs Who Are Nearly Unrecognizable With Their Natural Hair Color

Celebrities love to change up their look. Some try a different hair color to represent a new era of in their career, others grab the dye to prepare for a role, and then there are those who just want to try something fun and new. For those who are known for a specific hair color, though, these changes, or even a return to their natural hue, can make them entirely unrecognizable.

In Gwen Stefani's case, her natural hair color isn't platinum blond. Shocking, we know. The former No Doubt singer and occasional "The Voice" coach shared a collection of throwback photos on Instagram in 2023, which showed she grew up with dark brown locks. And we've grown so accustomed to seeing her as a glam blond over the decades that we barely recognized the singer. Stefani told Harper's Bazaar she first tried lighter locks when she was 25 and knew instantly it felt more her, explaining, "It was like I'd unlocked the key. I remember feeling like, 'I have arrived. This is me. Finally.'"

But she's far from the only famous face who ditched their natural shade and adopted a new signature color. From Shakira's black hair to Laura Prepon being a natural redhead (who knew!?) these celebs look unrecognizable sporting the hair they were born with.

We know Shakira best with warm, yellow, or dirty blond locks, but did you know she's actually a natural brunette? And we're not talking a light brown shade, either. When the "Hips Don't Lie" hitmaker first shot to fame, she wore the color she was born with: dark black. Shakira was still on the dark side in her "Inevitable" music video from 1999, in which her deep brunette hair created a much moodier look.

Shakira told Cosmopolitan she lightened her mane because she wanted to try something new, not as a career move. "It wasn't like, 'Oh, I want to reach the American audience — let me be blond and let me get a pair of blue contact lenses and bleach my skin.' I didn't want to be white. I just thought my curls looked cool with a blond, beachy style," she explained. 

The Colombian superstar even teased a potential return to her jet-black roots one day, which would mark quite the change from the shade that's become synonymous with her look. "I love dark hair," she said. "I sometimes miss my super-shiny black, dark hair. It never got to be the same because once you put bleach on your hair, it just never shines the same way."

Dita Von Teese has made quite the name for herself as a raven-haired Burlesque beauty with a vintage aesthetic, to the point that we couldn't even imagine her with another hair color. But underneath her vintage-styled black locks beats the heart of a natural blond. 

The beauty showed us what she looked like with light locks in an Instagram throwback photo from 1991 – and we didn't even recognize her, even with her signature red lip and eyeliner. "#tbt 1991 with my natural hair color, a touch of suntan," she captioned the upload, which showed her with a shiny, dark blond mane in an up-do.

Speaking to Into The Gloss, Von Teese recalled having very long, blond locks when she was younger, which gave her a totally different aesthetic. "I looked more like a California girl ... a pale one. Growing up, I tried to conform to the more traditional, American look a few times ... but it never worked," she recalled. "When I would dress modern, people would tell me that I have such a retro look, and I would tell them that I was trying to wear something new!"

Dove Cameron tried a host of hair dyes after landing her role on The Disney Channel's "Liv and Maddie" as a teen — but none were true to her natural hair color. "I was dyeing my hair by the time I was eight. I was obsessed with the idea of different characters and transformation," she told Nylon.

Cameron returned to a hue very similar to her natural color in 2024, a gorgeous medium blond with dimension that complimented her skin tone. "Jacob [Rozenberg] and Schwarzkopf [hair dye] were able to get me back to nearly my natural color with some honey highlights and some low tones — there was so much brown dye beneath it that it was quite the experiment to get us here," she explained. 

Though there's no doubting her return to the locks she was born with made her look gorgeous, Cameron looked radically different compared to her other hair eras. The light shade was the total opposite of the dark black 'do she wore to the premiere of "Barbie" the year prior, when she presented a cooler-toned, almost gothic vibe.

Years after the iconic Rachel 'do became one of the trendiest haircuts of the '90s, Jennifer Aniston found a second signature style with highlighted, dirty blond, straight locks. But while California blond has become a huge part of her laid back and casual look, the actor was born with much darker tresses. 

Aniston is a natural brunette, with snaps from the early '90s showing her sporting a glossy, chestnut brown 'do with a slight red tint. The rich shade made her look totally different, as it was missing the easy, breezy west coast aesthetic she became so well-known for.

The "Friends" and "Along Came Polly" star worked with colorist Michael Canalé for years, and he spoke to British Vogue about how he slowly lightened her locks to better reflect her personality and coloring. "Jen's the original bronde. Over time, you can see that I sanded out her hairline, making it brighter to bring out her eyes and warm complexion," he shared.

Laura Prepon, star of "That '70s Show" and "Orange Is the New Black," has become best known for being a light blond as well as wearing a super dark brunette shade. But, surprisingly, neither is her natural hair color. The star was born a redhead and has the most gorgeous, vibrant orange strands. The actor confirmed her natural color on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," explaining she began getting more attention when she dyed her hair blond for a movie role. "Everyone liked it, so they wrote it onto ['That '70s Show,']" she recalled.

The star returned to the red tone she was born with in 2023, revealing the start of her transition on YouTube. "I miss my red hair. I see pictures of myself as a kid and a teenager ... and I really look forward to being back to au naturel," she said as she proudly showed her red roots. 

Prepon then shared a gorgeous photo with deep red tresses on Instagram, in which she was holding an Aperol spritz. "When your hair matches your drink. It's a natural fit!," she jokingly captioned the image. But her hair was such a polar opposite to the tones fans had come to expect, some barely recognized her. "Wow! It's really you?!" one Instagram user commented on the snap.

We know pop star Bebe Rexha best for platinum blond hair, but her natural strands grow far darker. "My hair is black. Literally dark, dark, dark brown," she shared in an Instagram Story (via KIIS FM). The "Meant To Be" singer learned the hard way how much upkeep it takes to go from one extreme to the other, including how prevalent the tell-tale signs of hair damage can become. "If you're going to do bleach blond hair from black, it's going to be really hard to take care of it," she added.

That became especially obvious during the COVID-19 lockdown, when Rexha wasn't able to get her roots touched up. Her look changed drastically thanks to dark root regrowth in the photo she shared on Instagram. "Day 64 of Quarantine. My roots are growing in and it looks like the black hair is trying make a comeback," she wrote.

In big movies including "Fifty Shades of Gray" and "Madame Web," Dakota Johnson's hair was a mousey brown that looked gorgeous against her complexion. But it wasn't natural. Though she's famous for being brunette, Johnson's hair actually grows in dark blond. She stepped out with what appeared to be her natural shade for the premiere of "The Cheetah Girls" in 2003 with her glossy, dirty blond hair in two pigtails.

In 2017, Johnson returned to a color closer to her natural shade, with her  colorist Tracey Cunningham telling Refinery29, "We had been using a gloss to darken her hair colour to brunette, but she's naturally a dark blond, so the highlights were an easy transition." Clearly, Johnson is one of the lucky ones who can pull off a wide range of hair colors — even though she looks extremely different with lighter hair.

Though Katy Perry has experimented with a wide range of hair colors, her most famous look is the glossy, very dark brunette she sported early in her career, and has returned to several times since. Underneath the darkness, though, the "Part of Me" hitmaker has much lighter locks, something she confirmed in a throwback photo taken when she was 13. The star had shiny blond tresses at the time, but her hair seemingly transformed from blond to brown as she got older.

"I'm naturally the most boring dishwater squirrel brown," she told Glamour, adding, "I've been playing with colors since I was 15." And she certainly hasn't shied away from trying stand-out dyes, either. "I loved the grunge green, and shocking blue was fun," she said, recalling some of her past looks. "Colored hair is such a huge accessory that you don't even need to add extra stuff," she said.

Anna Camp has made a big name for herself as a blond. The "You" and "Pitch Perfect" star has worn light hair in many of her biggest roles, but it's actually not her natural hue — even though she's sported it for decades. "I'm naturally brunette and I haven't seen that color since the seventh grade, so it might be nice to go back and see what that feels like," she told WWD. "I keep waiting for a job for that, but they keep wanting me blond."

We saw how brown Camp's hair really is in an adorable childhood photo she posted to Instagram. The snap, which she captioned "#tbt brown hair me #rhyme," showed her with deep brown tresses and bangs. Her followers couldn't believe how different she looked without her luminous blond strands, with one writing, "This looks nothing like you what tha?!?!" Another wrote in the comments, "You look so different."

Jennifer Lopez's hair transformation has been nothing short of stunning, but her journey started with much darker locks than the caramels she's become known for. J-Lo's hair is very dark brunette naturally. She seemingly showed us the shade very early in her career at the Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards in 1996. She looked drastically different, as the color didn't compliment her skin tone the same way her iconic brond locks do. It even looked a little harsh against her complexion.

Lopez went on to develop a custom, signature honey brond shade, similar to the honey blond trend that dominated 2024. The hue is gorgeous against her tan skin and gives her a sexy, summery vibe. The "Can't Get Enough" singer sometimes goes a little blonder too, depending on her mood. 

"Sometimes I add in more blonde highlights, which blend with the honey and light brown tones," her colorist, Tracey Cunningham, told Refinery29. "Her complexion is very creamy and golden, so lighter colours add nice depth," Cunningham added, highlighting how important it is to take your undertone into consideration when finding your perfect hair color match.