Keke Palmer Looks So Different With Short Hair

When you hear "Keke Palmer," a specific image may come to mind. Perhaps it's of a 12-year-old Palmer who starred in "Akeelah and the Bee" in 2006. Or perhaps you were introduced to her as a tween when she served as the titular character of the Nickelodeon show "True Jackson VP." Or, maybe you didn't know who she was until she won Entertainer of the Year at the 2025 NAACP Image Awards. Either way, Palmer is a former child star who grew up to be gorgeous. However, the image of Palmer in your head is likely one with long hair, which remained the star's signature style until August 2025.

Ahead of her 32nd birthday, the "One of Them Days" actor decided to do a big chop, and by the looks of it, she has no regrets. "My birthday is just around the corner... " she captioned the carousel of selfies she posted to Instagram. She went as short as she could with her hair, shaving it into a messy pixie cut and dyeing it a copper-y, red-orange hue. So far, though, it has her fans divided.

One user expressed in the comments, "No KeKe. That's just too much. Looks like you were almost scalped in the bang area. Did you have breakage from all the wigs?" On the other hand, another fan praised the new look: "Hello I'm obsessed! I love your hair short."

Though the great pixie cut debate of 2025 has been the most significant change so far, Keke Palmer has actually had quite the stunning hair transformation. In February 2021, she posted a throwback photo to Instagram, writing a powerful sentiment about embracing her natural hair in the caption.

In the pic, Palmer is rocking fabulous natural hair, but is making a disgusted face at herself. "So back then it was all about weave and interlocking for me. If it wasn't thick straight or wavy then I wasn't impressed," she wrote in the caption, before expressing how she's come to love her hair in any and every form: "I really wanted regain the confidence I had as a kid when it came to my hair in its natural state while still being able to explore a wig a weave or anything! I just never wanted to feel like I needed it more than the actual hair on my head." She closed the post by saying that she was growing her hair out again. Not because she felt like she needed to, but because that's what she wanted. Keke Palmer is and always will be a celebrity who looks just as gorgeous with her natural hair.