Gilmore Girls Star Lauren Graham's Natural Hair Is So Stunning

It's hard to deny the influence Lauren Graham's on-screen presence has had on the beauty world. Her character Lorelei on "Gilmore Girls," had such a fun, spunky style and seemingly effortless aura to her beauty, including her enviable brunette waves; arguably one of the early iterations of "tv hair." But all of that was staged and styled. In reality, Graham is among the many celebrities you probably didn't know has naturally curly hair. As seen in throwback photos from the '80s and '90s shared on the Reddit group r/GilmoreGirls, the New Yorker's mane is actually thick and full of spirals. 

This may be a surprising revelation to some fans. After all, for nearly two decades, Graham has walked red carpets with straightened or carefully styled hair. As for why she opted for these sleeker styles when off-duty, well, it likely comes down to convenience. Because while today there are plenty of tips to combat common curly hair problems, back when Graham was a rising star, options were limited. "We didn't have good hair products back then," one Reddit user wrote in response to photos of Graham's hair. "Being curly in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s was kind of a nightmare. The weather mostly dictated our hairstyles." This was clearly the case for Graham in the early years, and then things changed when she got the part of Lorelai in 2000.

In her memoir, "Talking As Fast As I Can," Graham wrote about her hair on the show, noting that the team struggled to make it tv-ready. "The color was just one of my hair issues. My hair is naturally curly and extremely sensitive to the weather," she penned. "This means that in order for me to wear it curly, it has to first be straightened, then curled, which sort of defeats the whole supposed 'luck' of having naturally curly hair in the first place. So figuring out how best to make it last throughout a fourteen-hour day took some experimentation over the years."

Despite these challenges, Graham views her — or rather Lorelai's — hair with fondness. "I can tell time by what my hair looks like on the show," she told New Beauty. But while Lorelai's high styled hair waves may be forever locked in the 2000s, modern attitudes toward natural hair are changing, as people embrace their natural curls. Clearly, the actor is also nostalgic for her own old hair, too, because in a post on Instagram from November 2024, she shared a throwback photo of herself from the '80s with her spirals out on full display. She made sure to note in the caption that it was not a perm.