Sarah Pidgeon Reveals the Future of Her CBK Hair After Her ‘23-Hour’ Transformation from Dark Brown to Blonde

Skyler CarusoMon, August 24, 2026 at 6:13 PM UTC

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Sarah Pidgeon in 2024 (left); and as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy on ‘Love Story’Credit: Harold Feng/Getty; Eric Liebowitz/FX -

Sarah Pidgeon revealed the future of her blonde hair when speaking about the transformation for her role as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy on Love Story

The actress spent 23 hours changing her brunette hair to a light blonde for the Ryan Murphy-produced series

Fans embraced the show’s ‘90s “quiet luxury” fashion, inspired by Bessette-Kennedy’s timeless style and influence on modern trends highlighted in the show

Sarah Pidgeon may have wrappedFX’s Love Story, but she might not be ready to let go of the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy character she embodied.

The 30-year-old actress opened up about the future of her signature “child-of-the-beach” blonde locks that she rocked to portray the late fashion publicist on executive producer Ryan Murphy’s nine-episode FX drama, and revealed whether she plans to keep the color or revert back to her natural brunette.

“I think it’s here to say for a while,” Pidgeon said of her blonde hair in a clip shared by Today on Sunday, Aug. 23. “It took so long to get there. I had a bob when I did the transformation, but even that took about 23 hours to go from my dark brown to this light, buttery blonde.”

Sarah Pidgeon attends ‘The Friend’ premiere at iPic Theater in New York City on March 24, 2025Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty

The time it took for her to dye her hair might seem lengthy, but the actress emphasized the importance of doing it “slowly” for the sake of keeping her hair healthy.

“Or else your hair will just break off,” she said on the show. “There was a whole transformation that was involved to play her... She’s such an enigmatic figure. There’s a lot of mystery around Carolyn. She never sat for an interview, and really the only footage of her are paparazzi videos.”

Dyeing her hair the color that matched Bessette-Kennedy’s was one of the most intimate ways Pidgeon could encapsulate the wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., especially since there wasn’t much archival footage of her to reference while getting into character.

“So wanting to figure out as many ways that I could try to investigate all the different ways that really felt real and true so that I could become this incredible woman that I feel very, very grateful to have been able to embody,” she said.

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Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette on ‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’Credit: FX

After Love Story was released, the show took social media by storm, with fashion fans recreating her iconic “quiet luxury” looks and effortlessly chic ‘90s style — a timeless aesthetic that dominated the decade and continues to influence fashion decades after her death in 1999.

Bessette-Kennedy’s longtime colorist, Brad Johns, spoke with PEOPLE in February about curating her iconic blonde shade from his original “chunking” technique. He even revealed why she randomly wanted to dye her hair black on her wedding day.

“She came in frantic. I said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ ” he recalled of Bessette-Kennedy ahead of her intimate wedding at the First African Baptist Church on Cumberland Island, Ga.

Sarah Pidgeon at the TV Academy’s Televerse Festival in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2026Credit: Katie Flores/Variety via Getty

Having worked with Bessette-Kennedy so intimately since the start of that year, Johns — who considered her a “gorgeous, beautiful young, very stylish, very funny friend” — knew her inside and out, so to see her in this way was out of the ordinary.

“She said, ‘There’s just a big thing going on,’ ” Johns remembered Bessette-Kennedy telling him at the time, keeping the wedding a secret even from him. “She was always going to big events, so every day was a big event.”

Johns ultimately talked her down to the point where she let him do what he wanted with her hair, which wound up being a bit blonder, given the time of year being fresh off the summer.

“I’ve never seen her that nervous,” he recalled, still unaware of the event she was preparing for, though he said he had a good idea. “Then I thought to myself, something big is going on with her... but she never told me, I never knew. I never knew.”

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”