The Bear Star Abby Elliott Looks Nearly Unrecognizable After Her Dark Hair Transformation

Fans of "The Bear" know Abby Elliott as a blond, since it was the signature look for her character, Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto, throughout the series' run from 2022 to 2026. Yet in September 2026, Elliott dyed her hair and now looks nearly unrecognizable after her dark hair transformation. While you could say that Elliott is among the celebs who went from blond to brunette (and stunned both ways), her color also has a blend of red and orange, creating what her hairstylist called "toasty copper" in an Instagram post. Elliott debuted her new look at the Toronto International Film Festival, and then showed it off again days later at the Emmys. She posted photos on her Instagram, where fans commented things like, "The hairrr ... stunning gf!" and "This hair color on you made my whole day." 

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Like her "The Bear" co-star Jamie Lee Curtis, who had a totally different vibe before she found her signature hair length, Elliott's hair transformation gave her a whole new look. Perhaps Elliott was over the blond upkeep, since just months before, she posted a photo showing her natural darker roots growing in. However, she may have chosen to go with the copper tint since both of her children are redheads. Either way, Elliott isn't afraid to switch things up. She told InStyle in 2024, "It's fun to experiment with different looks and step outside of my comfort zone." Elliott hasn't changed her hair only for fun though, since it's also been an important part of her acting roles.

It seems that Abby Elliott's hair has been an important part of her TV characters. For "The Bear," for instance, she used her hair to show Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto's personality over the years. She explained to InStyle, "Young Natalie was very 'Girl Next Door'... She experimented with her hair and still wore her brother's old T-shirts." Ally Vickers, the head of the hair department on "The Bear," also used Elliott's hair to show Sugar's character traits, telling IndieWire that some ideas for Sugar's hair came from her belief that Sugar was into "Gossip Girl." 

Elliott even underwent major hair changes for Sugar, like dyeing it brown to play the younger version of the character in a flashback scene. "We colored her hair for about a week in the middle of shooting," Vickers told Backstage in 2024. While it may not have been one of the most stunning celebrity hair transformations of 2024, it certainly was one of the fastest, since the dye job only lasted a week before the blond was back. Vickers added, "It needed to be an exact match. Abby is literally the best ... she was down for anything." Elliott was also down to change up for hair for the 2015 sitcom "Odd Mom Out," when she went super blond to depict her character's high maintenance lifestyle. It seems that for Elliott, hair is something that she isn't afraid to change, whether it be for a role or a glamorous red-carpet moment.