From Pink Highlights to a Blunt Bob: What Lucy Hale's Hair Transformations Really Meant

Before growing out her natural brunette hair, Lucy Hale chopped and dyed her way through her years on Pretty Little Liars. Now in her 30s, she’s opening up about why.

Actress Lucy Hale has experimented with her hair over the years, from a blunt bob to long hair, to shades of black, blonde, ombre, and even pink. For the 37-year-old star, these hair transformations told a deeper story.

Hale famously played Aria Montgomery on “Pretty Little Liars,” a rebellious character whose fashion choices she describes as “loud.” In a 2018 interview, she shared that she admired how Aria did things “not for anyone else but just for herself.”

Playing Aria also inspired her to make bold choices with her own hair. At the time, those bold changes were about more than just hair. “I think when I was chopping it, dyeing it...It’s interesting because now I look back and that was when I was like really working on myself as well,” she recently told People. “So it’s almost like I was trying on different looks to figure out what I liked best.”

Hale, who considers herself a brunette, is now embracing a more natural look, which she credits to a big shift in her 30s. “You sink into your skin a little bit more,” she says. “You have more of an identity. You have more self-acceptance.”

Still, Hale says she’s not “attached” to her hair, especially if a role requires her to switch things up. “If someone was like, ‘You gotta shave your hair,’ I would. If someone said, ‘You gotta go purple,’ I would,” she said, adding that it could be fun.

For now, Hale is growing out her natural hair, though she admits, “I do miss having short hair.”