Pics Of Blake Lively With Short Hair Are Such A Departure From Her Iconic Full Mane

Since Blake Lively stepped into the spotlight, she's largely maintained a signature look. We caught a good glimpse of her luscious long blond hair in 2005, when she starred as Bridget in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," and of course, it was a major part of Serena van der Woodsen's enviable aesthetic on "Gossip Girl" just a few years later. Whether she's portraying a fictional character or strutting down the red carpet of the Met Gala, you can almost bet that her locks will be long, so the few times she has gone for a shorter look have been understandably jarring. In nearly all cases, the only time she's strayed from mermaid lengths has been for her art.

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In the 2020 thriller "The Rhythm Section," Lively played the role of Stephanie Patrick, who tries to get revenge on her enemies for killing her family. A departure from her go-to glamorous roles, playing Stephanie required Lively to hide her blond mane under an array of not-so-flattering wigs. She posted a selfie around the time that showed her in a page-boy look that featured a bob length and eyebrow-grazing bangs. 

Hair and makeup designer Siân Grigg told Glamour in 2020 that Lively's faux hair was so integral to the story that there was a whole team managing the "A Simple Favor" star's wig catalog. "In the end, we decided that she had home-bleached her hair at some point, and then she'd put some crazy color through it at one point, and the end result were these nasty canary-yellow peroxide ends that were virtually grown out," Grigg explained of the page-boy look. "And there was a haircut that she'd sort of done herself. It was meant to look like she didn't care."

While Blake Lively did get to have fun with some more glamorous wigs toward the end of "The Rhythm Section," she was also given a second cropped wig, this time brunette and layered. "She didn't care if she looked terrible and didn't mind how much time it took," Siân Grigg explained to Glamour. "She wanted to look absolutely right for the part." While the dark, textured wig was far from the most flattering cut we've seen on the "Deadpool & Wolverine" actor, Grigg noted that the deeper shade still looked good on her: "She's just a lucky person like that — she's quite a chameleon, so you can do a lot with her."

The shaggy brunette look was strategic in that it had to be a natural evolution from the first page-boy wig that Lively wore in the film. "It had to be shorter, basically — we had boundaries," Grigg revealed. "We didn't want it to look like she'd just gone and had her hair blown out and she was suddenly a completely different character. But, also, we wanted her to look good for that bit, and to be able to look the part for the character that she was taking on, as the double agent sort of thing."

In the stunning transformation of Blake Lively, neither of her short wigs from "The Rhythm Section" were standout beauty moments for the right reasons. But like the most awful outfits Blake Lively wore while filming "It Ends With Us," they were necessary for successful storytelling. When she's not purposely being styled to look bad, Lively actually looks gorgeous in short hair, and we have the receipts to prove it.

Another film that required Blake Lively to wear multiple wigs was 2015's "The Age of Adeline," in which her titular character magically stops aging and has to keep up appearances as the years go on to hide her secret. Since the film spans several decades and Lively's protagonist was born in 1908, vintage styles were indeed required. In one scene set in the 1940s, she wore a wig that was classic for the era: pin curls. This time, the gold tone of her wig was closer to her natural color.

While the shorter length was still jarring for those used to seeing Lively in her flowing Serena van der Woodsen waves, it was the perfect example of how she can look gorgeous in a bob when it's not intentionally hideous. Another good example was the chic bob that Lively wore to the 2017 screening of "All I See Is You," a snap of which her hairstylist, Rod Ortega, posted to Instagram.

Once again, it appears that Lively didn't actually cut her hair, but simply styled it to look short. In any case, fans gave it their tick of approval. "The faux bob goes perfectly with the suit/Skirt outfit!" one follower wrote in the comment section. "Omg she cut her hair?! Never thought I'd see the day! She looks amazing," another gushed. History shows us that Lively probably won't cut her hair for real anytime soon, even for a movie role, but if she did, she'd probably look even more like a goddess. Of course, not all stars are so lucky; check out the drastic hair changes celebs admit they regret.