Unlike Regina George, Rachel McAdams Isn’t Actually a Natural Blond

Rachel McAdams rose to prominence with her iconic portrayal of the ultimate high school mean girl, Regina George, in 2004’s teen comedy “Mean Girls.” Her hilarious zingers, deadpan disdain, and awe-inspiring fashion choices in the cult-favorite flick have proven to be truly iconic over the years, but one of the character’s most memorable trademarks is her long, straight, Barbie-blond hair color. While the buttery hue was perfect for the role, you might be surprised to learn that it was, in fact, a wig, as confirmed by Seventeen. Which begs the question: what is McAdams’s natural hair color, if not blond?

It turns out the actor is a natural brunette, as shared by her colorist Craig Moir to Allure, who noted that blond is the actor’s “go-to color.” If you scroll through her history and look into older red carpet pictures, you might be able to spot the star wearing her natural hair color, which is a warm, dark brown shade.

McAdams has pulled off nearly every hair color with ease throughout her career, having tried everything from rich auburn to golden brown, and even pink streaks in the late aughts. Not soon after her breakout role in “Mean Girls,” she brought the timeless classic love story “The Notebook” to life, playing the strawberry-blond-haired Allie opposite Ryan Gosling‘s Noah. She’s also convincingly played an onscreen redhead a couple of times before going back to her natural dark hair for movies like “The Vow” and “Wedding Crashers.”

The actor is admittedly comfortable dyeing her hair and experimenting with different looks, especially when her big-screen counterpart demands it. In an interview with LiveJournal, McAdams opened up about how her love for dyeing her hair started early in her teenage years: “It’s a compulsion: I’m always changing parts of me. Even when I was young, I wanted to change my hair color. I was so determined that I dyed my hair with Kool-Aid. You dunk your head in a bowl of red Kool-Aid for four hours, and it comes out apricot. Not that pretty, but it is still transforming.”

In other cases, it’s her job that keeps her urges in check. “I still think about doing blue at some point,” she told Glamour in a 2012 interview, adding, “but I don’t like to change my hair before I’m about to do [a film] – you never know what that character’s going to be.”

So, there you have it – McAdams is neither a redhead nor a blond. Take a closer look at her natural brown hair color below.

Image Source: Getty / Albert L. Ortega/WireImage