Chappell Roan debuts dark brown hair on Forest Hills stage, ditching trademark red locks

Chappell Roan debuted a dark brown hairdo during a performance this week at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, marking a break from her trademark red locks. The Red Wine Supernova rose to fame last year with Good Luck, Babe!, and her high-camp style has long featured voluminous red curls that framed her 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. On this Visions of Damsels and Other Dangerous Things tour, she appeared with her natural brunette roots cascading down her back.

Fan footage from TikTok shows Roan strutting the stage with the new darker tresses as she performs across venues in support of the tour. The look follows a broader push to refresh her image on a stage known for bold, theatrical outfits. Last weekend, while performing in a structured corset and a tiny thong, she wheeled around and briefly flashed her backside on a live screen, then recovered with a lighthearted moment on stage.

Roan’s onstage self-reinvention has coincided with a flurry of social-media debate over armpit hair that observers noticed during recent shows. Some posts decried the look as unhygienic or unprofessional, while others defended it as a natural expression of body autonomy and a rejection of backstage norms.

Roan has frequently confronted controversy and scrutiny tied to stage behavior. A fashion-related moment at the Fashion Los Angeles Awards earlier this year drew widespread attention after a clip appeared to show her pushing an assistant away on the red carpet. Social-media commentators labeled her actions rude or mean, while others argued the moment was taken out of context. Separately, a September exchange with a photographer at the MTV Video Music Awards drew similar scrutiny, with Roan defending her boundaries amid a chaotic scene. In August, she addressed intrusive behavior in a TikTok post, saying that harassment and stalking are not acceptable even if some fans equate them with fame.

Taken together, the hair change and the accompanying onstage moments underscore Roan’s ongoing willingness to push boundaries of image and performance. The change to a brunette look nods to her natural roots, including childhood pictures she has shared in the past, while the high-energy, camp-forward aesthetic remains a signature element of her live shows.