Reba McEntire Looks Unrecognizable Performing Without Her Signature Bright Red Hair
The Queen of Country had more strawberry blonde-leaning locks during this 1982 performance.
Reba McEntire is a redhead through and through, but her current, signature bright red locks leaned more strawberry blonde during this performance in 1982.
On July 22, 1982, a 27-year-old McEntire took the stage at The Lone Star Café in New York City sporting a more subdued reddish-blonde color than we're normally used to seeing her rock. Either hair shade looks gorgeous on her, but it's such a trip seeing McEntire without her fire-engine red trademark mane:
The Voice Season 28 Coach looked radiant in this photo wearing a sequined blouse and large belt buckle to match.
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McEntire's fifth studio album Unlimited was released in June of that year, so it's a safe bet to say the star was touring in support of that record when this photo was snapped. Unlimited featured two songs that eventually hit number-one on the U.S. country charts: "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "You're the First Time I've Thought About Leaving."
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Reba McEntire's hair evolution through the years
In a 2024 interview with Glamour, McEntire spoke about her famous hair and admitted to having one "hair regret."
"In the early '80s I got a perm," she explained. "I have natural curly hair. And so when my hair would be a little past my shoulders with a perm, it was just super tight because if you add a perm to natural curly hair, it looks angry. And it did."
Longtime fans are well-versed in McEntire's hair evolution, and when the star chopped off her locks into a pixie cut in the '90s, it was a big story in the world of music. Looking back on that moment, McEntire said that cutting her hair off was "freeing."
"It was freedom. I loved it. It was in '96 or '97 when I cut my hair off, and it was freeing," McEntire admitted. "But you know what? I had to talk to my management and my stylist who did my hair, because it took almost a year for me to talk them into letting me cut my hair. They told me my hair was my image. 'You got your big hair all jacked up to Jesus. You can't cut your hair off.' And I said, 'Well, it'll give you something else to talk about.' And they said, 'Oh, OK. That's an idea.' So we did."
