For years, Blake Lively was defined by one unmistakable detail — long, glossy blonde waves that practically became a character of their own.
Audiences first met her in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, then watched her cement her status as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl. The blonde hair. The blue eyes. The effortless Upper East Side glamour. It was part of the brand.
Then came the moment that made people pause.
In 2020’s The Rhythm Section, Lively stepped into one of the most physically and visually dramatic roles of her career. Playing Stephanie Patrick, a woman spiraling into depression and addiction after her family dies in a plane crash — and later seeking revenge — she abandoned her signature look entirely.
The transformation was jarring.
A short, light brown bob with blunt bangs replaced her trademark blonde waves. In other scenes, she wore a black wavy bob. Then a long red wig with bangs. And in flashbacks, her natural blonde returned. The character required multiple identities, and Lively shifted between them seamlessly.
She even joked about the drastic change, posting a photo of herself in the brown bob and captioning it, “Facetune broke.”
But it wasn’t just about hair.
According to Vanity Fair, the hair and makeup team spent hours reshaping her appearance to reflect Stephanie’s emotional collapse. Subtle aging makeup, duller skin tones, darker under-eyes — everything worked together to create a woman unraveling before our eyes. It was a far cry from red carpet polish.
Lively didn’t stop at visual changes. She adopted an English accent for the role and performed her own stunts, reportedly injuring her hand during filming. It was commitment in every sense.
While she later experimented with a strawberry-blonde shade for It Ends with Us, nothing matched the shock value of The Rhythm Section. That film marked the clearest departure from the image audiences had grown used to.
In recent years, Lively’s public persona has often been discussed as much as her career. Still, one thing remains consistent: her hair makes headlines. In summer 2024, she launched her own haircare line, Blake Brown, which received mixed reactions from both outlets like Allure and customers.
But no product launch — and no red carpet look — stunned viewers quite like seeing Blake Lively without her iconic long blonde hair.
For a moment, she didn’t look like Serena. She didn’t look like Blake Lively at all.
And that was the point.
