‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 12 News: Why Did Meredith’s Hairstyle Change From Dark & Long To Short & Blonde? [VIDEO]
Grey's Anatomy kicked off its 12th season with a lot of changes. For one it had a happier vibe, some new faces and even a different hairstyle for star Ellen Pompeo (Dr. Meredith Grey on screen).
In Season 11, Pompeo's hair was longer and darker, which appropriately fit in with the somber tone especially as her character's husband, Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), passed away and all the drama amounted throughout its run.
This current season is all about turning over a new leaf, and Meredith's new hairstyle was representative of that. But the real reason behind the change has a bit more to it, which Pompeo discussed with Into The Gloss.
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"[My short hair] kind of happened the same way it always happens—we fried it and needed to cut it off," Pompeo dished, adding, "I went with really dark hair last season because the story was so dark, so I wanted my hair to represent what Meredith was going through. And then we got the pickup for Season 12, and we had to go to New York to do press and we did that big ShondaLand shoot, so I wanted a different feel."
"Shonda said, 'We're going to make the show lighter and brighter, and we want to change the tone now—we were all in such a bad place last year and we all need a little lightness and fun,' so I was like, 'I'm going to lighten up my hair,'" Pompeo explained of the drastic change between her character's hairstyle between last season and now.
Harry Josh took the ABC show's star back to having blonde locks, "but he had to really bleach it to get all that dark out."
"And then I went on vacation and I was in the sun a lot, so it got burnt. So when I came back to New York, I said, 'Harry, we have to just cut this off!' For someone who did so little before, I do even less now. I just have to be careful that it doesn't look like a mom bob. I have to make sure it looks sexy and like 'JBF' hair...not like jumping into my minivan, taking my kids to soccer," Pompeo explained.
So that is the whole story behind the change in her hair, which translates on screen as she portrays Meredith.
Grey's Anatomy returns Feb. 11 on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
