Valerie Bertinelli Turns Heads with Her Dramatic New Look Featuring Fully Gray Hair

The "Hot in Cleveland" star has never been afraid to run her fingers through her hair — or rewrite the rules when it comes to her look, and once again, she's stunned fans.

Valerie Bertinelli, long associated with her signature brunette locks, has unveiled a shocking new hair transformation — and this one stops just short of unrecognizable. With expert help from celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton, Bertinelli appears to be leaning fully into her silver vixen era, debuting the striking new shade.

A Silver Surprise Debuts Online with a Playful Transformation

The dramatic reveal played out for all to see on February 4, when "The Drew Barrymore Show" shared an Instagram video capturing Bertinelli alongside her close friend Drew Barrymore, surrendering their hair to Appleton's expert hands.

At first, the actresses appeared with their natural hair colors before the clip, set to audio inspired by the hit show "Heated Rivalry," flipped the script entirely. Suddenly, the duo emerged, posing confidently with luminous gray hues, flashing bright smiles as Appleton joined them.

Whether the transformations were achieved with wigs remains unconfirmed, but Appleton later pulled back the curtain just enough.

He revealed the Schwarzkopf Professional products he used to achieve the look, including items from the BlondMe Lightener and Igora Vibrance lines. The post's caption read, "Gray hair .. challenge accepted."

A Creative Partnership That Keeps Reinventing Her Look

The actress and Appleton have clearly been relishing their creative freedom, repeatedly pushing the boundaries of her look with playful abandon. Back in November 2025, Bertinelli found herself back in Appleton's chair once again, this time arriving with her familiar brunette hair.

By the time the celebrity stylist was finished, however, the transformation was complete — her darker strands had been replaced with a bold, attention-grabbing blonde.

The 65-year-old proudly took to Instagram to debut the look, sharing a selfie that quickly set tongues wagging. Bertinelli's golden blonde hue was styled in loose, cascading waves with a center part. Meanwhile, darker roots peeked through for a deliberately undone, effortlessly chic finish.

"New hair who dis?" she joked in the caption, before pulling back the curtain on the transformation. The actress revealed the blonde bombshell look was actually a wig styled by the celebrity pro.

A Brief Blonde Detour Sparks a Return to the Girl She Still Recognizes

Bertinelli, however, didn't cling to the blonde fantasy for long. While scores of admiring comments flooded the post — praising the actress as stunning in her lighter locks — she returned to Instagram just one day later with a very different reveal.

The actress smiled softly into the camera while sporting her familiar brunette mane, signaling a return to something far more personal.

"Back to the real me 🥰," she began in the caption, striking a reflective note. "It's always fun to play dress up and fool around with hair and make up, but when I look in the mirror, I want to see…me."

Bertinelli added that she had spent most of her life blending into the background and minimizing herself to keep others at ease. She explained that she now wants to acknowledge the younger version of herself who felt unheard and finally give that part of herself a sense of voice and power.

"That little girl that was always on her best behavior, tell her some people don’t deserve your best behavior. That perpetual people pleaser that thought it was normal for people to walk all over her, tell her boundaries are healthy," she continued.

Bertinelli ended her note with a reflection directed at her younger self. She said, "Tell that little girl that thought she had to do and say anything to make someone love her, that she was always lovable all on her own. That little girl, has brown hair."

The Long, Center-Parted Style Fans First Came to Know

Bertinelli's ever-evolving hair story stretches all the way back to the very beginning of her rise to fame. In 1975, at just 15 years old and debuting as Barbara Cooper on the wildly successful sitcom "One Day at a Time," Bertinelli was rarely seen without her long, flowing hair.

Her locks fell well past her shoulders, typically parted straight down the middle, with the front sections neatly tucked behind her ears. This soft, understated style perfectly matched her fresh-faced innocence at the time.

Riding the Style Swings of the 1980s

During the 1980s, Bertinelli proved she wasn't content to stand still when it came to her hair. The actress moved away from the relatively natural styles that preserved her original texture and embraced feathery layers that felt distinctly of the decade.

From there, she played with curls and soft waves throughout the length of her hair while keeping her bangs consistent in the front.

At times, Bertinelli opted for loose, beachy waves that skimmed her shoulders, a carefree look that mirrored her growing confidence.

A Sleeker Era Takes Hold

By the 1990s, Bertinelli was clearly signaling a stylistic shift, mirroring a broader Hollywood move away from the big, layered hairstyles that had dominated the previous decade. The actress embraced shorter, more streamlined looks — a decision that would later spark a wave of nostalgia.

In 2017, Bertinelli revisited that era by sharing a throwback photo from 1994 on Facebook, showing herself with a cropped hairstyle alongside her son Wolfgang. "When Wolfgang and I had the same haircut," she wrote.

Subtle Shifts Signal a Woman Still Willing to Experiment

Even as recently as 2024, Bertinelli proved that subtle change can be just as striking as a dramatic overhaul. That year, the actress took to Instagram to share behind-the-scenes footage from her 2021 photoshoot for her memoir "Enough Already."

As she posed for the camera, eagle-eyed followers noticed something different — her typically warm brown locks appeared noticeably cooler, taking on an ashier, almost blond-leaning tone. While the shift wasn't a permanent departure from her usual look, it was enough to turn heads.

When a Viral Trend Goes Wrong, and Nostalgia Sneaks Back In

For the most part, Bertinelli's hairstyles have rarely missed the mark, with the actress wisely sticking to looks that flatter her. That consistency has served her well — until, briefly, it didn't.

In 2023, the TV veteran decided to flirt with danger by attempting a very trendy hairstyle, the wolf cut, that had taken over social media feeds everywhere.

The choppy, shag-inspired look exploded in popularity throughout the 2020s, and after seeing it repeatedly online, Bertinelli decided to take matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, the DIY experiment didn't unfold quite the way she envisioned.

As she later revealed in a TikTok video, the at-home haircut resulted in an unexpected blast from the past. Instead of a modern, edgy wolf cut, Bertinelli was left with a style that uncannily echoed her former fictional alter ego, Cooper from "One Day at a Time."

What began as an impulsive late-night decision ended with hastily cut bangs and a finished result that felt far more 1970s sitcom than 2020s cool. The moment was equal parts humorous and humbling to Bertinelli and her fans.

At Crossroads: Gray Hair, Identity, and What Comes Next

Now, in 2026, Bertinelli appears to be standing at a far more vulnerable crossroads — one that has little to do with trends and everything to do with identity.

"Should I do it? Should I grow out my grey? 🤔😝In my book Getting Naked, I explore that a bit. But what is the real question—­the one lurking in the shadows—­ is it about something deeper? Does it have more to do with identity?" she asked on a reflective post on Instagram.

What might seem like a simple cosmetic choice has, for Bertinelli, cracked open bigger questions. The actress spoke of self-perception, aging, and the uneasy divide between the woman the world sees and the one she recognizes in private.

"Is one more important than the other? Should they sync up? What if they don't?" she questioned. Behind the scenes, she has reflected on the tension between appearance and emotion — the friction that comes from looking one way while feeling another.

For Bertinelli, the mirror has become less about vanity and more about truth. "What are we reflecting upon and what is reflecting back to us? she asked.

The actress added, "I don't know, you might explore some of these same questions when you look in the mirror too. Maybe I'm not alone here."

Bertinelli also admitted to admiring women who confidently embrace their gray hair, calling them beautiful. She acknowledged that she was envious of these women, but that she may not yet be ready to fully step into that chapter herself.

"I’m still looking for that little brown eyed, brunette girl to reflect back at me. The one that didn't have a voice, who held her emotions, the good little girl who behaved, did as she was told, didn't rock the boat, the people pleaser. I want to see her, that sweet little girl, and give her the emotionally safe life that she always deserved," she explained.

In embracing the gray, Valerie Bertinelli isn't just acknowledging aging — she's confronting who she is now and opening the door to whatever hair look she chooses next.