The latest celebrities to show off their natural hair

While we’ve become somewhat immune to the extravagant hair transformations of our favourite celebrities, from Kylie Jenner’s endless colourful wig collection to Lady Gaga matching her hair to her iconic periwinkle blue dress, what does take us by surprise is when a star actually embraces their natural locks.

Once a rarity amongst Hollywood’s elite, more and more celebrities are feeling comfortable to both share – and sport – their natural tresses both off and on the red carpet. Late last year, Jennifer Aniston shocked fans when she debuted her natural hair at The Morning Show’s NYC premiere, which surprise, surprise, is not actually straight! 

At the time, her long-serving hairstylist, Chris McMillan, who is the brains behind her iconic haircut ‘The Rachel’, described the rare beauty move as an "honour to be a part of" on Instagram.

"The hair is Jen's natural curl and waves," he confirmed in the caption, alongside a photograph of the former Friends star flexing her chameleon-like abilities at the premiere. 

The trend has continued since, with stars Cardi B – an avid lover of colourful wigs – and Vanessa Hudgens both taking to Instagram earlier this week to share an exclusive look at their natural locks. Hudgens shared a series of photos and videos with her followers, writing "Not even gonna try to do my hair with this weather lol sooo this is what it’s gonna be."

Below, we’ve rounded up all the latest celebs who have embraced their natural hair.

Jennifer Aniston

After helping Aniston embrace her natural waves, hairstylist Chris McMillan said it best:  “This was such an honor to be a part of. The hair is Jens natural curl and waves. Dried natural and touched up minimally.” C’est magnifique.

Selena Gomez

Gomez has sampled every hair look under the sun throughout her career, from her 'Blond-lena' era to her recent set of bangs, but nothing beats her natural curls. Posting a bare-faced, curl-embracing selfie to her Instagram alongside the simple caption "Me", the Rare Beauty founder confirmed that her natural texture is as stunning as ever.

H.E.R

H.E.R just wrapped her stunning performance as Belle in Beauty and the Beast Live! and is officially on holiday. Gone is the glamour of the stage; the 25-year-old has reverted to her “purest form” with a fresh face and a head of voluminous natural curls.

Joey King

King took to TikTok to showcase her own natural texture, and followers were obsessed with her curly look. "joey being a fellow curly queen has just turned my 2022 around 😍 🤗🤗," one wrote.

Bella Hadid

First on our ‘is it natural or not?’ list? Bella Hadid, who shared a stunning carousel of curly-haired snaps to her ‘gram. Could said curls actually be the work of a perm or a small curling wand? Sure. And yet we’re still wondering if perhaps we’ve long underestimated just how much gorgeous natural texture Hadid has been working with. Either way, we hope to see her wear her hair curly on the regular; it looks a treat.

Ariana Grande

In case you didn’t know, what with her hair always being up in her signature sleek high ponytail,  Ariana Grande’s actually a curly-haired girl. The singer and ex-Nickelodeon star has been vocal about having to rehab her hair after constantly dying it red and heat styling her hair on set left her with bald patches.

Zendaya

Rocking her glorious God-given curls, Zendaya proves once again that we are not worthy to exist on the same earth as her. That is all.

Sarah Hyland

Taking to the 'gram to share her new self-proclaimed title of 'Rubeus Hagrid's daughter', Hyland captioned the snap "this is what happens when you brush your hair #curlyhair". The comments were as hilarious as the pic too, with others even comparing Hyland's volume levels to Monica's in the infamous Barbados episode of Friends....

Khloé Kardashian

Kardashian has long teased her natural curls (AKA the opposite of the dark sleek strands Kourtney and Kim were born with, which she felt she had to emulate to fit in with her family), but wow oh wow, were they worth the wait. "I rarely wear my natural hair texture," she shared via Instagram. "Felt kinda cute with it (please don't ruin the feeling)." Nothing but appreciation (and the slightest dash of hair envy) from us!

"I've been getting straightening treatments on my hair for years," she later elaborated in an Instagram Story. "I've been getting Brazilian blowouts and other treatments since I've been a teenager. I stopped because of Covid. I actually kinda like my curls." Well, we kinda LOVE them.

Megan Thee Stallion

While her 'body-ody-ody' is no doubt a serious blessing, Megan Thee Stallion was also blessed with some seriously lustrous locks. She recently showed off her freshly washed curls via Instagram, revealing that she was on the hunt for black-owned brands designed to nourish her natural texture. "Kellon and I are about to see how healthy and long we can get my hair 💪🏽 drop any of your favorite black owned hair care lines for natural hair 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾," she captioned the video, which was shot by her longtime hair stylist Kellon Deryck.

Ashley Tisdale

Despite the fact that we got to know Tisdale with Sharpay Evans' signature blonde blowout, her natural hair is actually both brunette and curly. But while she's been rocking a colour closer to her natural one for some time now, she recently took to Instagram to show off her curls.

"The older I get the more I appreciate my hair texture," she captioned the picture. "It’s so funny how when we are young we want what we don’t have. When these are the things that make us different, and THAT is what makes us unique and beautiful."

Madison Bailey

As one of the stars of Netflix's 2020 breakout hit Outer Banks, Bailey is certainly no stranger to beachy texture. But while she often embraces glossy blow-waves and sleek updos for events, she also loves to show off her gorgeous natural curls (and we'll bet you can see why; they're stunning). "My natural hair wanted to show OUT today," she captioned this recent Instagram Story snap, and we are here for the hair positivity.

Emily Ratajkowski

Okay, okay, we'll admit it; Ratajkowski's recent Instagram Story didn't exactly drop any details about her 'do, so it could be the work of a heat styler designed to give a natural effect. But the way we see it, she's either blessed with god-given tousled texture, or envious enough of those who are to replicate the look. Either way, it looks an absolute treat on her.

Lili Reinhart

Natural skin isn't the only thing that Reinhart likes to spotlight via social media; her natural hair comes out to play every so often as well. Our favourite thing about this look? It's not a fresh-from-the-shower snap just to show her curls – it's a full-fledged look that serves as a curl-celebratory styling suggestion, with a face of low-key but luminous makeup and a baby pink bandana polishing off the vibe perfectly.

Phoebe Tonkin

Yes, we know we all knew she had incredible natural texture (Cleo's curls on H2O: Just Add Water were epic, after all) but it's certainly been a minute since we've seen Tonkin show them off IRL.

No Mako Island moon pools were involved this time, though; Tonkin shared via an Instagram post that her curls were set free by a classic ocean dip. Guess the 'just add water' thing still rings true in the hair department.

Cardi B

We’ve all come to know and love Cardi B’s DIY hair masks for strengthening and nourishing our damaged strands, but now the rapper has shared with us the lengthy progress she’s made by utilising the hair growth potions herself. 

In a Twitter post, the 29-year-old said of her hair journey: “So I’ve been so consistent with my hair mask routine and drinking alkaline water, and look how much my hair has grown!”

Unfortunately though, the trolls of the Internet took Cardi’s celebratory social post as an invitation to share their opinion on how her hair should look based on her mixed race heritage. 

Cardi quickly clapped back with an insightful and personal response on Instagram about her experience with hair discrimination – especially in regards to the widespread myth pertaining to hair texture: 

“Why everytime I post my natural hair I hear “you’re MIXED you’re supposed to have long hair”? That’s not true and very misleading. I [have] been posting pics of my hair journey for years and being mixed [doesn’t] mean your hair is always long and curly, that wasn’t my case. Since I was a child I have [had] problems with managing my hair and [a] couple years ago I [found] different methods that work for me and look at my length now.” 

“They’ll try to make us believe our hair won’t grow this long – it’s not true. A lot of hair products we used back then [weren’t] good for our hair but that’s all we had to choose from also we couldn’t afford to get to the salon regularly, if at all. Now everybody is getting better options, making affordable GOOD products, learning from natural hair YouTube and TikTok about how to care for our hair better. I want women of colour with tighter curl patterns to know that you don’t have “BAD HAIR” there’s no such thing as bad hair. And “good” hair [doesn’t] mean a certain texture. ALL HAIR IS GOOD.”

If you're searching for more natural beauty inspo, check out some of Australia's best natural skincare brands!

Main image credit: @vanessahudgens