
For years, country singer and "American Idol" judge Carrie Underwood has built her look around her platinum blonde-dyed hair, which she tends to wear long and straight. Granted, it's not hard to see why she decided to stick with a look that works for her. Though she would later go on to own the misstep, curling her golden locks back when she was merely an "American Idol" contestant resulted in what was arguably her biggest hair fail ever. However, that's not to say Underwood's more modern look as a judge has been
without its hiccups. After all, not even her killer legs could distract from her dry hair extensions. So, it's a refreshing change to see Underwood return to something more closely resembling her natural hair after 30 years, if a bit unexpected due to how different it makes her look.
Underwood revealed that she had decided to embrace her hair's natural brunette color in an August 2025 Instagram post. "Well, the last time I saw my natural hair color, I was probably about 12 years old, but I thought it might be time to give it a second chance," she wrote, going on to thank her salon and stylist for "helping me get back to my roots." Clever!
In addition to the change in color, the photos and video Underwood shared show a slight curl to her locks, just not nearly on the same level as her past "American Idol" faux pas. Notably, the singer told the Huffington Post back in 2015 that her hair did naturally have a slight curl, but her perm-esque days were long over.
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Carrie Underwood Foreshadowed A Big Hair Change Years In Advance

Interestingly enough, more than a decade before she finally eschewed her golden locks in favor of her natural hair color, Carrie Underwood actually explicitly stated that she hoped to one day break out of the bright blonde comfort zone she had settled into. "[I] love to switch things up a little bit, but thinks everyone [else] is scared to do it," she told the Huffington Post in 2012, adding, "I wanted to dye my hair darker. I'm like, 'Let's change my hair color.' We'll do something for like two hours, then I'll walk away, and I'm like, 'This looks the same as before.' Maybe someday I'll do something a little more drastic."
Once again, though, we can't really blame Underwood for sticking to what works for so long. In that same interview, she revealed that finding a hairstyle that works for her took a lot of trial and error. Need we bring up the curly-hair debacle again? "I would just put stuff in my hair, and it was like, crunchy," the singer shared. Still, maintaining some level of ownership over her hair is clearly important to her. Though she obviously has stylists, Underwood does prefer to do her own hair and makeup while on tour, something the opened up about in a 2014 interview with Yahoo Beauty. "There are just so many people on the road, and it's kind of therapeutic for me to be able to sit on my butt, and have all my things, and it's quiet. It's my time to play," she said.
Read the original article on The List.