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Most of you will know who she is, but for those of you wondering, Leighton Meester, 31, is one of the former stars of Gossip Girl. After that series wrapped she did a handful of movies, mostly indies, and was on a series on Fox last year called Making History, which lasted for one season. (She also put out an album in 2014.) Leighton married actor Adam Brody in 2014 and they have a daughter, Arlo Day Brody, who turns three in August.
Anyway Leighton recently went from her brunette hair to blonde and she definitely looks different. She posted the photo below along with the details of her hair treatment.
Given all the Nexxus hashtags, this looks sponsored, but the way Leighton’s colorist explains it to E!, Leighton came to her with a photo of Jayne Mansfield. It’s implied that it was Leighton’s idea and that she asked for that specific color.
“Leighton had a few different inspirations ready to show me and we used a picture of [Mariska Hargitay’s mom] Jayne Mansfield as the main inspiration,” Leighton’s hair colorist Aura Friedman shared with E! News exclusively. “She had a lot of pictures of the old Hollywood platinum blond as inspiration for the color.”
In between the bleaching and toning process, Aura says she did an Olaplex treatment followed by a Keraphix treatment, which is a new product from Nexus.
Aura, who works at Sally Hershberger Salon in New York City, says it took about four to five hours to complete. And yes, everyone was thrilled with the end result.
“It was so much fun. We had a lot of fun doing it. I think we all are extremely happy with the results,” Aura shared. “It’s stunning on her.”
While we don’t know what husband Adam Brody’s reaction was to seeing the new style for the first time, Leighton did think “he was going to be very excited about it,” Aura said.
I would say five hours is outrageous, but I’ve gone from red to blonde and it took that long. My colorist had to do a couple of processes on my hair to get the shade right. That said, I don’t think this is flattering on her. Leighton had highlights before, here’s a photo of her from January of last year. She’s so pretty!
Wikipedia has this photo (below) taken by E!’s Kristin Dos Santos in 2009, and she looks a little more like herself here. I definitely prefer her as a brunette, these highlights are too visible.
Usually when I switch up my hair radically it’s due to something that’s going on in my personal life. My hairdresser told me that when women come to him with dramatic change requests he tries to talk to them to make sure they’re making the right decision. Sometimes people just want a change though, especially during a new season like spring or fall. When will spring get here? I’m so ready for it, I’m definitely getting highlights.
Here’s Leighton last summer and fall. She’s more striking as a brunette.
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In February of last year:
Photos credit: Backgrid, Instagram/Leighton Meester, Kristin Dos Santos/Wikipedia
Oh Blair. It looks like she has very thin hair to begin with, this won’t help. She looks Kardashianish now. Why do all women think blondes have more fun? Because we do!!!! lol
To me she looks more like young Gwen Steffani. Especially with the bold lip and eyeliner.
This blond hair looks like dogsh*t and if I were the colorist, I would not want my name on this.
There is clearly a filter on this photo bruh
Yes, she is sooo classy! Always loved her. Everything with her looks natural.
But, I do not like her as a platin blonde !
I agree! She is syill pretty but brunette hair suites her better.
Same… I think she’s beautiful, but that colour is just wrong.
I think it’s cute, actually, but that eyeliner ain’t helping.
She looks best as Blair in dark hair.
Man I feel for her with all that breakage around her crown in that IG photo. I went from black to blonde recently and my hair is in similar shape. She has really strong red undertones which makes ice blonde really difficult to achieve. Again, I know from personal experience.
I honestly think she’s just a stunning woman, whether brunette or blonde.
Yeah, she’s stunning both ways.
But this look……..very few can pull off dark eyes and bright blonde.
True..Brittany did it pretty well back on the day (emphasis on “back in the day”). Gwen Stefani makes it work.
I don’t know….I actually like the contrast of dark eyes and light hair but it’s the skin tone that is key for me. I’m probably alone in this but I like platinum/brown eye combo best on olive or darker skin. I think pink undertones and platinum with dark eyes usually just looks washed out.
But she pulls it off because she is just beautiful.
But BritBrit wasn’t really bright blond – even at her lightest it was still sort of tawny, plus she has that tanned/somewhat olive tone.
I did it, but I definitely went more silver-white blonde than any natural blonde. When you have dark eyes, it’ll never look natural (brown eyes with natural blond hair is genetically rare), so I suggest do a full Lean In to the most ridiculously unnatural shade of blonde you can do.
Also, Kitten’s right about skin tone having to do a lot with – I have fair skin with pink undertones, so I had to pull the tone of the blonde to an ashier/cooler category than platinum. (You also have to absolutely change your makeup, at that. Completely alters your color balance.)
Her hair looks broken and fried. All that damage for a color that doesn’t flatter her.
I totally agree with you, Kitten! I have Irish ancestry with pale, freckled skin that gets easily irritated and reddish, and green eyes. But I like to change my look a lot so I’ve been blonde a couple of times. The first time was traumatic because most of my hair broke off!! But anyway I felt like I had to wear a TON of makeup to make it work. Now I’m in my 30’s, I recognize that as fun as blonde seems, it’s not for me. So now I have what I call my “superhero hair” —Dark base with thicker, widely spaced, ombré, bright magenta highlights. I really recommend it for anyone with dark hair who wants to spice things up! Way more fun than blonde 🙂
Yes I noticed the hair looked dry. It wasn’t a good job and she looks washed out. She looks better with her old hair color.
OMG..she looks like Gwen Stefani used to look.
That was my thought exactly! A Young Gwen!
I always thought she looked kinda like Minka Kelly as a brunette, but yes, definitely Gwen vibes now.
I watched a couple of episodes of Making History. It was sooooo stupid that it was actually funny. Like, what the eff is this?! But you couldn’t look away.
Meh.
She looks like Gwen Stefani!
Hello Gwen Stefani
Why isn’t she on Peak TV???
She was the talented one. Why does Boobs Legsly have a bigger career??
Yells at the moon.
Leighton has appeared in more movies then Lively and has had 2 TV series to her name.
HW is a fight-club in it’s own, Lively isn’t stopping Leighton from anything.
Yeah I really don’t understand why people can’t talk about Leighton without taking a dig at Blake. It’s not pie–nobody is taking anything away from one another–they can both have flourishing careers at the same time.
@Kitten – Exactly.
I watched some bio the other day of ‘Women in TV’ & think it was the same with Charlies’ Angels in the 70s.
Kate Jackson fans apparently ticked that Farrah Fawcett ‘stole’ the attention and thus Jackson’s career.
As the world turns I guess……
I know they can both co-exist and that Blake didn’t steal her career, but the fact that Blake was considered the brake-out star of GG is a perfect exemple of everything that is wrong with H and our culture.
(Fake) Boobs and Legs trump Talent and that is just sad for me personally.
Leighton has worked quite a bit, she just isn’t a blockbuster star but neither is Blake Lively. In addition to tv and movies, Leighton was on Broadway in 2014 in a revival of the play “Of Mice and Men”.
Eh it’s not the end of the world. She probably wanted a change. I know that she’s a natural blonde, but she does look better as a brunette. She’s beautiful either way though.
I find her so stunning, and she was so great in Gossip Girl that I could never figure out why Blake Lively was the break out star of that show, when Leighton could act circles around her and was so much more beautiful!
In at least a couple of those pix, she looks like a prettier, more alive Alicia Vikander. Blair was the best part of GG and I’ll always be resentful that somehow Blake Lively became the star.
Me too
Wow! She’s always beautiful but I don’t think platinum blonde suits her too much, it definitely ages her.
On a side note, I’ve been wanting to lighten up my hair for a while, but every time I decide on it, the hairdresser ends up giving me bland highlights, which in no time turn to an off, orange-ish shade. I still have my ends covered by those horrible, dull streaks.
I can’t seem to find a good stylist who can give me the color that I want, even if I show them a picture! I’d like a warm, honey-blonde that can enhance my complexion (I have olive skin, hazel/green eyes and dark brown hair)- any suggestions?
You should go to a salon that does Olaplex. It’s the only thing that can really take the orange away.
Yes – do it yourself! I had the exact same problem – stylists never wanted to take my dark hair to blonde and just wanted to give me some easy highlights. I finally found one who tried. It took 7+ hours, several processes and it made my scalp bleed. After all that, it didn’t even turn out well. Much too orange.
Later I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and decided to do it myself. I bleached twice, then used the Wella T18 toner. Then I used Wella medium smokey ash blonde as well as a light ash brown to color my hair. I waited at least one day between each of these processes. I ended up with a really nice ash light brown & blonde color that I totally loved.
@Ally @Kitten
Thanks for the heads-up!
I had my stylist bleach my hair a few months ago (went from a light brown to platinum) and it took about 5 hours as it was two rounds of bleaching with a treatment in between and after. Totally normal for those of us with darker hair who want to go lighter.
That does not look good. It looks fried and thin and damaged. Even with Olaplex, going bright blonde from brunette isn’t going to work well for everyone. The color is harsh on her and not the fun color I think she was aiming for. Well… she can always go back!
Her hair looks fried! I think they should’ve taken a few weeks in between lightening treatments to give her hair a rest. (Since the stylist didn’t appear to know how to lighten so much without killing her hair.)
Definitely like her better as a brunette, but that first picture of her highlights with the fringe looks great, too.
Five hours is actually pretty short to go from such a dark brunette to platinum blonde. I occasionally watch Guy Tang on youtube; he is the only hairstylist that I would allow to do that to me if I were going so drastic with color. And he takes literally all day – like 8 to 12 hours sometimes – to achieve his amazing results. lol
I kinda like it, actually? I wish she was a bigger, better known actress. She’s criminally underrated, imo.
I’m not into that look at all. She looks a decade older and a lot harder.
Still, it’s fun to change up your look, and she got some free publicity out of it too.
I prefer her as a brunette but she’s very pretty as a blonde…her skin tone works with it so it’s not at all bad. Wish I could see her in more things…follow her on Instagram and she seems like a cool girl
She looks more like Gwen Stefani than the real Gwen Stefani does now!
I see Louise Linton.
At first I thought that was an old photo of Gwen Stefani, you know from back when she had her original face on. I would not have done this if I was her, she is too pretty for this mess, unless it is for a role. If not, I hope the divorce announcement is not about to hit the press.
She’s so beautiful it really doesn’t matter what color her hair is.
She’s so beautiful it really doesn’t matter what color her hair is.
I never watched Gossip Girl, so I “met” Leighton in Country Strong. I’m a fan now! She is super gorgeous and I like her singing, too. Her earlier song, regretfully with Robin Thicke, is fun, too.
Looks awful.
I remember her saying she dyed her hair darker for Gossip Girl, that she was a natural blonde, which is reflected in the shade she has had it for the past few years…I mean I think she is “naturally” blonde as much as anyone with mousy light brown hair who was blonde when they were a kid is. But weirdly she does look good in most colours, she has kind of a unique skin tone I think, it’s pale but also kind of olive toned? The platinum is a bit fried looking, no hairstylist worth
their salt would do that in a day, am surprised they are promoting this because it can end very badly She is a good age to experiment with the dramatic colours though, a few more years and it won’t be cute. I feel like I’m too old now to ever try to be blonde blonde without looking scary..
She’s a natural blonde. But I agree she looks better as a brunette and im sure she knows it.
Also, we all feel like changing hair sometimes. I think it’s cool. Ruffle a few feathers Blair.
SN: i recently started watching GG again. So bad but so good. 😃
Personal opinion, her makeup needs to change, looks like she is still using brunette colors, it does not match.
But what do I know I barely use any makeup lol
100% agree. The hair’s cute, but that makeup is too much.
I really like it, but I used to do that to my hair and it pretty much ruins it. I guess she’s rich so she can just put in extensions until her hair recovers.
i just feel like my afro hair would fall the f*ck out if i did that….lol
She looks beautiful and less generic. No more Minka Kelly comparisons. Good choice Leighton!
I thought she was Gwen Stefani!
I actually was watching House MD for the 10th time recently and she was in a couple of episodes (with the blonde hair). It was before GG, and her natural hair is kind of a dark/dirty blonde. She looked goooorgeous tbh, the darker tone really suits her and it made her face shine.
And even though this bleached new look is not my favourite on her, I respect her because I recently bleached my hair and it took 7 hours to get it done. It’s a pain to bleach it all at once.
I’m really surprised she did this because I heard she has medical condition that causes her hair to thin and fall out. It’s not as severe as alopecia but something similar. I would think going blonde like this could make the condition worse.
No no no no no, she is beautiful but this color is bad, it’s even aging her. She looks her absolute best as a brunette.
I just recently went blonde and while I don’t love the shade on me. I’m Asian so it definitely doesn’t look natural – lol, I love it because it’s so… WHOA. This is also coming from someone who’s recently pink/purple/blue hair colors as well though.