We associate certain hairstyles and hair colours with particular celebrities. There's Ariana Grande's ponytail, Zooey Deschanel's eye-grazing bangs, Gwen Stefani's platinum hue — you get the picture. Well, it turns out, these ladies didn't always have their signature 'dos (shocker, we know...). That's right, Gwen didn't come out of her mum's womb rocking a white-blond, asymmetrical bob — blasphemous, we know.
Curious what Ariana looks like sans ponytail? Or what hair chameleon Katy Perry's natural locks are like? Ahead, we take a trip down memory lane to show you. Click through to see what some of your favourite stars look like with their au naturel manes. Prepare for some serious double takes.
Ariana Grande's openly talked about her hair woes. After years and years of being dyed for the Nickelodeon show Sam & Ca t, her tresses suffered serious damage. As a result, Ariana's signature some-up-some-down style, which she wears with the help of extensions, is the only 'do she feels comfortable with while she allows her hair to recover.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
Ariana's hair skews on the curly side, as this throwback picture proves. This past September, the star also gave us a (very rare) glimpse at her modern-day ringlets, which are just as beautiful.
Photo: Joe Corrigan/Getty Images.
Britney Spears' name is practically synonymous with blonde hair nowadays. While she's experimented with length here and there, it's stayed steadily light since the early aughts.
Photo: Broadimage/REX/Shutterstock.
But when she first came onto the scene (think "...Baby One More Time" days), young Spears was a brunette with very on-trend '90s lipliner.
Photo: The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.
It's hard for us to picture Joan, err, we mean Christina Hendricks, without her signature fiery-red mane.
Photo: Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock.
Turns out, Hendricks is actually a bottle redhead. Her natural hair colour is blonde. She started dyeing it bright-red age 10 because she was obsessed with Anne of Green Gables.
Photo: Courtesy of Clairol.
Kerry Washington's hair is laid, straight, curled, and voluminous when she struts across our television screens as Olivia Pope.
Photo: Broadimage/REX/Shutterstock.
While we do get a glimpse of what we're meant to assume are Washington's natural curls on Scandal when she's standing in the sun with Jake, here's a flashback to what her hair looked like when she first started out. We're kind of obsessed.
Photo: Randall Michelson/WireImage.
We were introduced to Emma Stone as a snarky redhead in the hit comedy Superbad.
Photo: Stewart Cook/REX/Shutterstock.
We have yet another bottled redhead on our hands. The actress dyed her hair back to her born-with-it blonde colour for her role in The Amazing Spider-Man. "My natural hair is blonde, so it's kind of nice," Stone said in an interview with MTV. "I looked in the mirror and said, 'Oh my God, it's me again! It's been so long!'"
Photo: Amanda Schwab/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock.
Taylor Swift shocked the world when she dyed her hair a vibrant platinum-blonde last month.
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock.
Teenage Swift, though, was all about the natural, more subdued blonde version. Not only that, but Swifty is also a member of the curly club.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
Gwen Stefani has been (on and off, but mostly on) platinum-blonde for more than two decades. And it's clear that she has an affinity for the colour; she even has a song dedicated to it.
Photo: Chelsea Lauren/REX/Shutterstock.
The star once told InStyle, "I haven't seen my real hair colour since ninth grade!" Here is a throwback reminder of her dark, slightly wavy tresses. A complete 180 from the bleached-blonde we know and love.
Photo: Barry King/WireImage.
It's hard to keep track of what hue Katy Perry's hair is this week, let alone before she even became Katy Perry. Seriously, she's literally coloured it every colour of the rainbow.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
The only colour we haven't seen Perry dabble with is her God-given one: blonde.
Photo: Broadimage/ Rex/ Shutterstock.
Mariah Carey is all about the honey-blonde and stick-straight look nowadays.
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
But '90s Mariah and her full, dark curls will always be our baby.
Photo: REX/Shutterstock.
Scarlett Johansson has made a name for herself as a blonde bombshell.
Photo: Dave Allocca/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock.
Young ScarJo, though, had dark-chocolate locks — and we wouldn't be mad if they made another appearance.
Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/ Shutterstock.
Zooey Deschanel just isn't Zooey Deschanel without her shiny brown hair and bangs, right?
Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock.
Well, starting out, baby Zooey was a strawberry blonde with a love for middle-parts. Seriously, we hardly even recognise this bandana-wearing bandit.
Photo: Chris Weeks/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images.
Though Zendaya told us she's not looking to change up her hair colour anytime soon, she has changed the style (via wigs) more frequently over the past couple of years than we probably will, like, ever.
Photo: Gregory Pace/BEI/Shutterstock.
The star has openly talked about her struggles accepting her naturally curly hair, and the damage her strands have been exposed to via heat tools. But when we're lucky, Zendaya shows off her bouncy ringlets (as seen here) in all their glory.
Photo: Via @zendaya.
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