Kate Hudson Is Almost Unrecognizable With Dark Brown Hair

If there's one thing we know Kate Hudson for (other than her long list of film roles and sunny personality), it's her golden locks. Since the dawn of her career, Hudson has walked her fair mane down red carpet after red carpet, and now it's hard to imagine her with any other hair color. But we don't have to imagine the "Bride Wars" actor with dark hair, since she has gone down the brunette path a few times in the past — if only briefly! Maintaining platinum-blond hair is probably more expensive than you think, and while finances might not be an issue for Hudson, it's understandable that she'd want to give her locks a break every now and then. One of her most recent dark-hair moments was in the summer of 2021, when Hudson took to Instagram to promote her fantasy flick "Mona Lisa and The Blood Moon," which earned her a ticket to the Venice Film Festival.

In the short clip, filmed during Hudson's glam process, she can be seen with nearly black hair that contrasts with her icy blue eyes and glittery purple eyeshadow. For those who'd never seen her with dark hair before, the look came as a stark surprise, but the truth is Hudson's natural shade is darker than it seems. "I'm half Italian and I have this brown copper hair with dark blonde in it. My actual hair color is much more dark blonde, caramel, red," she revealed to People in 2025, adding that she discovered her natural waves and curls when she was a young teen. 

The only thing more jarring than seeing Kate Hudson without her blond hair is seeing Kate Hudson with hardly any hair at all. Though Hudson's natural bouncy and voluminous hair can always turn heads on a red carpet, the star also isn't afraid to chop it all off when she needs to. Back in 2017, she shaved her head for the film "Music," which she worked on with singer Sia, released in 2021. 

You'd imagine that it would take enormous courage to shave your head, especially as a public figure who's going to attract commentary no matter what you do. But Hudson was surprisingly blasé about the process. "It's funny, too, because when (the cut) first started, I didn't think about it because it was (for) the role," she recalled on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in 2017. "It was like, 'Oh, let's do this!'" It was only after they'd started shaving off her hair that she started to think more carefully about the potential outcomes. "'Oh! What is the shape of my head going to look like?'" she remembered thinking. "I really started to panic." 

But Hudson ended up looking dazzling with a brunette buzzcut — hardly a shock, since it's one of those transformative haircuts that brings youthful energy, no matter your age. She revealed on British talk show "Lorraine" the following year that she loved it. "I honestly think a woman in her life at one point just needs to chop it all off, there's something so liberating about it," she shared. For pop culture fans, Kate Hudson isn't the only star who's surprised the world with her hair choices. There are plenty of celebs who are nearly unrecognizable with their natural hair color.