Oscar Winner, 67, Remembers Major Hair Mishap in Throwback Clip
The actress’s pixie cut may be her signature, but its story is not very glamorous.
Mario Anzuoni/REUTERS
Jamie Lee Curtis is reflecting on the hair mishap that led to her iconic pixie cut.
The Oscar-winning actress, 67, shared an Instagram video from her Oct. 28 appearance on the Today show, during which she reacted to footage of her very first appearance on the morning program in 1981.
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis poses at the 94th Annual Academy Awards on March 27, 2022.
ANGELA WEISS/Getty
This week, she returned to the morning show to promote her new NBC sitcom Newlyweds.
The show is partially inspired by her 1984 marriage to her husband, Christopher Guest. The couple shares two adopted daughters, Annie Guest, 39, and Ruby Guest, 30.
In the nearly 45-year-old interview, the scream queen, who starred in the 1978 film Halloween, appeared in a short blond hairstyle cropped closely to her head alongside former Today anchor Tom Brokaw.
“You were saying just a few moments ago that NBC this weekend stands for ‘Nothing But Curtis,’” Brokaw asked her.
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The actress replied that someone told her this on the radio, and she found it “so sweet.”
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis starred as teenage babysitter Laurie Strode in the 1978 film Halloween.
Compass International Pictures
In her Instagram post caption, she wrote that her “hair had been burned off [her] head after getting it bleached for a movie and then a perm.”
“Weird to see the past in the present. Thrilled to be back,” she added.
The Freaky Friday actress did not reveal which movie she dyed her hair for.
Jamie Lee Curtis appears next to her co-star Lindsay Lohan in the 2003 film “Freaky Friday.”
IMDB/ Freaky Friday
Several fans quickly commented to show their support.
“And this is why we love you,” one person commented.
“Omg!!!! And guess what, your light still shines... beautiful,” added another person.
Fans quickly commented their support on Jamie Lee Curtis's post, where she reflected on first cutting her hair short after a bleaching mishap.
Another follower said that she was “still gorgeous” and “even more beautiful” with her short hair.
Curtis has previously explained that the mishap is why she cut her hair for the first time—and why she’s kept it short for so many years.
“The first time I cut my hair short, I went, ‘Oh, oh, my God. Oh wow, I look like me,’” she said in a 2021 interview on the British talk show Lorraine.
Jamie Lee Curtis at the Sixth Annual Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, on October 17, 2026.
Mario Anzuoni/Mario Anzuoni/REUTERS
“I tried to do everything you can do to your hair,” she continued. “I would go into a hair salon, the smell of the chemicals, the feeling of that color on my hair, the wearing the things—sitting under the hair dryer, I was like, ‘For what?’”
Curtis said she’s also stopped dyeing her hair since then.
“I’ve also been an advocate for not f-----g with your face,” she said. “And the term ‘anti-aging.’ What? What are you talking about? We’re all going to f-----g age.”
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