Olympian Lindsey Vonn Has Had A Stunning Hair Evolution

Alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn has had a successful career spanning multiple decades. And while everything that she has achieved is praiseworthy, today our sole focus is Vonn's hair. Yes, Olympic athlete Lindsey Vonn has had a stunning transformation over the years, and while her hair never changed drastically, there have been subtle changes in color and cut that made the athlete look different.

Vonn started out as a natural dark blond, and over the past two and a half decades, she has bleached her hair bit by bit to gradually become platinum. Her haircut also changed, as the star went from bold layers to blended face-framing cuts. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Allow us to take you back all the way to the aughts, when chunky highlights and choppy cuts were all the rage — and Lindsey Vonn was a teen about to enter her 20s and still figuring out what hair suited her best.

In the early 2000s, Lindsey Vonn's hair was a slightly darker shade of blond than the one she rocked throughout most of her career. At the time, Vonn was experimenting with subtle highlights, but her hair still had plenty of her natural color in it. 

While Vonn has been dyeing her hair for most of her career, she is also a natural blond. In 2004, the alpine skier turned 20, and as she embraced the new decade, she was opting for more and more highlights. Of course, since it was the 2000s, they were a tad chunkier and not as well-blended as they became in the 2010s.

As far as Vonn's haircut goes, the Olympic gold medalist cut off some of her length, opting for a choppy layered haircut with plenty of face-framing pieces. In fact, even though the layered haircut is reminiscent of the time, face-framing tendrils are one of the 5 Y2K hairstyles and cuts that still work in the 2020s, according to our hairstylist.

By the late 2000s, Lindsey Vonn's hair noticeably changed. The professional athlete embraced longer locks, often styled in loose and messy waves. At the time, beachy hair was at its prime, and Vonn was great at styling her tresses in a nonchalant manner. Years later, the styling trend is just as popular; however, now minimizing damage to hair is key, as we talked about when discussing how to get perfect beach waves without using heat.

Even though Vonn's hair-bleaching journey began in the early 2000s with subtle highlights, by the early 2010s, the athlete's hair was an overall much lighter shade. Over the years, her highlights became much more blended, and by 2012, Vonn was rocking light blond hair that had dimension but no chunky highlights. The Olympian usually rocked it in a side part — a hair trend that was very popular at the time. 

As hair trends were changing, Lindsey Vonn was embracing them, and by 2015, she was rocking straight and shiny hair far more often than beachy waves. That year, she walked the red carpet of the ESPY Awards with a deep side part and platinum blond highlights. 

Speaking to Beauty Launchpad, her hairstylist, Laura Polko, revealed that the look was a collaboration between the two. "I started with the hair wet, prepped with mousse at the roots through to the ends and serum on the ends. I rough-dried until about 80% of the moisture was out," she explained. "For the front, I worked with Lindsey to find a side part she liked. From there I directed the section down and over to get a swoop that wasn't in her face too much. I flat ironed the ends to keep them smooth."

By 2017, Vonn's hair was the lightest it had ever been. "Someone told me you can never be too blonde," Vonn shared on Instagram in 2017, alongside a photo of her bleached hair. In 2018, she captioned an Instagram red carpet photo of herself with "Long hair don't care." Of course, maintaining platinum-blond hair is probably more expensive than you think, but Vonn had access to professional hair care and great stylists, both of which help when trying to go light blond with minimal damage.

By the time 2020 rolled around, Lindsey Vonn was completely platinum blond. The alpine skier's hair was all one-toned, and the lack of dimension made her hair fall a bit flat. The slightly more yellow tone of her platinum blond at the time contrasted her skin a tad too much as well. Vonn and her hairstylist probably figured the same, and by 2023, the professional athlete was rocking an ashier shade and subtle shadow roots, which allowed for hair dimension with minimal damage — a trend that was very popular at the time.

During a 2021 appearance on "The Keep Going Podcast," Vonn revealed that her hair length was all natural — no extensions. "You don't need hair extensions or Botox or injections, just be yourself," she shared, adding, "With my dogs, they love me no matter what, and that's how we should treat other humans. That's just how I see it."

The mid 2020s marked an era in which Lindsey Vonn seemed happy with her hair color and haircut. The Olympic gold medalist continues rocking platinum blond hair with cooler, ashier tones, often achieved through subtle highlights and lowlights that give her hair dimension. Vonn's shadow roots remain another constant she has stuck to for a couple of years, probably because they also allow for more time between hair color touch-ups.

Since the 2010s, Vonn has mostly switched to a middle part, even though a subtle side part still makes an appearance every now and then. Long hair is what Vonn has always liked, and now her hair seems thicker and more luscious than ever. Subtle face-framing layers remain a part of her haircut, as Vonn seems to have found what she likes and she simply sticks to it. And while we're sure that there will be some subtle hair changes in the years to come, it's clear that Vonn is most comfortable as a blond with long hair.