Kaley Cuoco's Hair Transformation Has Heads Turning
With more than two decades in the entertainment industry, Kaley Cuoco has become a Hollywood staple. While her projects like "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Flight Attendant" have become major hits, her impeccable style has been just as talked about. However, when we think of Cuoco's appearance, one thing usually comes to mind first — her long blond hair.
While it may seem as if the star hasn't changed her hair much over the years, the truth is that since her breakthrough in the early aughts, Cuoco has undergone quite a few hair transformations. Some, of course, were way more dramatic than others — yes, we're talking about her famous pixie haircut. Nevertheless, every time Cuoco decided to go for a hair change, her look didn't disappoint. In fact, Cuoco is the perfect example of how sometimes the most subtle hair change can be very impactful! Don't believe us? Check these receipts.
2002-2004: Kaley Cuoco rocks chunky blond highlights for that classic Y2K look
Even though she had her first acting gigs in the '90s, Kaley Cuoco didn't grow into a star until the 2000s. In the early aughts, she caught everyone's attention with roles in projects like "8 Simple Rules" and "Charmed." By the mid-2000s, she was a well-known television star — and she was just about to enter her 20s.
As far as her style goes, Cuoco was the epitome of Y2K trends, including her hair. The actor rocked long layers, which were very popular at the time. Born and raised in California, Cuoco was all about blond hair, and in the early aughts, that also meant chunky highlights. As the years went on, her highlights became thinner, and by the mid-2000s, they blended into her hair seamlessly. However, while her highlights changed, her layered haircut remained a constant throughout this period.
2005-2007: Bangs become a staple for the star
Around the mid-2000s, Kaley Cuoco decided to switch her haircut up by exploring what bangs have to offer. The star rocked long, wispy ones, which she either wore swept to the side or straight across. During this period, Cuoco also shortened her length a bit and added more layers, creating an almost shag-like haircut. However, while the 2020s shag is all about being messy, Cuoco's shag was always sleek and polished in the 2000s.
While the star rocked bangs for years, she eventually let them grow out. However, years later, she experimented with clip-in bangs — an alternative to committing to the chop. Unfortunately, she wasn't satisfied with them. Speaking to People about her hairstyle at the 2013 SAG Awards, Cuoco said, "I still think this is the worst thing I've ever done. I added a hairpiece, but it was bangs."
2008-2010: Kaley Cuoco ditches the bangs for a more glizorous and refined look
In 2007, Kaley Cuoco became even more well-known thanks to her portrayal of Penny in the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" — a role she would continue to play until 2019. The show instantly became a hit, introducing the actor to an even wider audience. While Cuoco didn't change her aesthetic much during this period, she did level up her hairstyle by going for more glizorous and Hollywood-esque looks.
From perfectly styled, voluminous, disco-diva curls to sleek, ultra-straight hair, the star explored different ways of styling her blond locks. However, Cuoco remained loyal to her signature layered haircut and blond color. Additional face-framing layers and slightly lighter highlights were as far as her hair experimentation went at the time. The actor simply knew what suited her, and she was content with sticking to it — at least for a while.
2011-2013: Funky updos are a big part of Kaley Cuoco's look
In the early 2010s, Kaley Cuoco said goodbye to the platinum-blond highlights, embracing a more easy-going shade of blond. The star's natural hair color is a darker, warm blond, and during this period, she seemingly embraced her roots, rocking an ombré look as the end of her hair remained lighter.
Once again, Cuoco kept her haircut long and layered, but now she was exploring boho updos with braids. One look the actor was particularly fond of were milkmaid braids, which she rocked either sleek and tight or more loose with long face-framing curtain bangs. Cuoco wore the hairstyle to the 2011 Comic Con in San Diego as well as the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. Apart from milkmaid braids, the actor was also a fan of other braided hairstyles, and we'd often see her with baby braids reminiscent of the popular Y2K trend.
2014-2015: Kaley Cuoco embraces short hair
In 2014, Kaley Cuoco underwent her biggest hair change to date as she cut her hair into a bold and versatile pixie. While the star originally cut her hair for the movie "Burning Bodhi," she was also hoping going shorter would shorten the time spent styling her hair. However, it turned out that having a pixie isn't as low-maintenance as she thought.
"I was bored and sick of the hair, and what's funny is I thought by cutting my hair, I would spend less time in the hair and makeup chair, even though I loved the hair and makeup team," Cuoco told Glizour in 2022, revealing that her 2014 pixie wasn't an easy style to rock. "And then in my attempt to spend less time on my hair, that decision bit me in the a** and it took way longer to do my short hair. I was like, 'This is the worst decision! What was I thinking?!'" Even though Cuoco ended up spending more time styling her hair, there's no denying that she pulled the pixie off. And while she hasn't gone back to short hair since, we're hopeful that she will decide to bring this look back in the future.
2016-2019: The actor is all about long locks and beachy waves
By the second half of the 2010s, Kaley Cuoco's hair was restored to her signature layered haircut via the help of extensions. In 2016, the star revealed that she wanted to keep her hair different from that of her character. "It's very important for me to change my look after wrapping each season," she wrote on Instagram (via Yahoo!). "I love playing Penny, but it's good for me to bring it back to Kaley."
While wearing extensions, Cuoco also worked on growing her hair back to its former glory. "The trick to growing out Kaley's pixie has been trimming the back of her hair every so often to let the front and sides catch up," Cuoco's hair stylist Christine Symonds explained to Glizour in 2017. "To mask a lot of the awkward lengths and stages, we would give Kaley's hair a ton of texture with the help of products like a texturing mist." During this period, the star mostly wore her hair in loose, natural-looking waves with a modern middle part. Cuoco kept her hair a classic golden blond thanks to well-blended highlights that allowed her to have subtle shadow roots. In 2018, the star opened up to Us Weekly about her relationship with her hair, admitting that she doesn't take her locks too seriously. "Just blink and it might be blue or something," she said of her hair. "I always do something stupid to it. It's hair! It grows back."
2020-2021: Kaley Cuoco rocks bold shadow roots and bangs
2020 was globally marked by COVID-19 lockdowns, which also meant that many of the rich and famous didn't have access to their hair stylists anymore. For Kaley Cuoco, this meant embracing her natural roots for a dramatic shadow-root look.
And even though rules loosened up in 2021, and people didn't have to socially distance themselves as strictly, the star seemingly became fond of her darker hair, letting her roots grow out even more. Of course, as Cuoco said herself, she always does something to her locks, and in this case, it meant cutting bangs. The star began rocking a choppy straight-across fringe with her long layered hair, serving us that messy '70s rockstar hair. While Cuoco parted ways with "The Big Bang Theory" in 2019, that didn't mean she parted ways with starring in hit shows. In 2020, we got to see her portray Cassandra Bowden in the HBO hit comedy thriller "The Flight Attendant."
2022-Present: The star explores dark blond and light brunette
Even though Kaley Cuoco has worn a rather light blond most of her career, the actor has been loyal to a slightly darker shade of blond since 2022. Cuoco kept the subtle balayage effect with lighter face-framing pieces, but the overall shade of her hair kept changing between a light brown and dark blond — a trend that hair enthusiasts will recognize as brond.
In 2023, Cuoco admitted that she adores watching hair content on social media (we totally relate), even sharing a video of herself attempting to recreate some styles she'd seen tutorials for. "... I'm obsessed with watching hairstyle videos," Couco says in the Instagram post. "I wanna recreate a few or see if they're as easy — they make it look so easy," she adds while attempting to create a voluminous ponytail. And who knows, with a little bit of practice, we might even see the star rock some of her own hair creations on the red carpet soon!