Hayden Panettiere is debuting a colorful new look.
“Pink hair don’t care! #photoshoot #pinkhair #glamteam,” Panettiere, 34, captioned a Sunday, September 3, Instagram photo showing off her light pink locks. The actress accentuated her new hair color with matching shimmery eye shadow and lip gloss. She also donned a white robe and a nose ring for the shot.
Panettiere, whose tresses currently fall past her shoulders, has previously rocked short haircuts. In December 2019, she shared a selfie via X, formerly known as Twitter, showing off a crop cut with shaved sides.
“Channeling my inner #Kirby #Scream4,” she captioned the photo, referencing her character from the 2011 horror film. Her hairstylist Leonard Zagami explained the motivation for the style at the time.
“Hayden was looking for a radical change, so last night we just went for it,” he told E! News at the time. “It’s a modern version of a classic pixie style with a little more of an edge.”
When Panettiere returned to the Scream franchise for Scream VI, which hit theaters in March, Kirby had a new look — a long, voluminous bob. The film’s producer, William Sherak, talked about what led to the character’s hairstyle change during a March interview with Variety.
“There was a whole conversation about what the right thing was,” he told the outlet. “And [what] she felt comfortable with coming back 10, 11 years later.”
Sherak continued: “I think we settled on something that she looks great in, was comfortable with and it was the right thing for Kirby today. 90 percent of it is she has to be comfortable in her skin on set with what character she’s playing.”
The Scream VI premiere marked Panettiere’s first red carpet appearance since the death of her brother, Jansen Panettiere, in February. Jansen died at age 28 of an enlarged heart. Hayden addressed her loss for the first time during a March appearance on Good Morning America. “He’s right here with me,” she said at the time.
In addition to her brother’s death, Hayden has also faced struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. (She shares daughter Kaya, 8, with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.) During a March interview with Women’s Health, the Nashville alum, who got sober in 2021, opened up about how drinking became her “coping mechanism” as she dealt with the stress of fame in her early 20s.
“I was being told how to be and how to live by so many people,” she told the outlet. “I wanted certain decisions to be my own, and nobody could stop me. What I put in my body was like an act of defiance.”
After giving birth to Kaya in 2014, an old neck injury began causing Hayden “a lot of pain” and she started using opioids in addition to drinking, all while battling postpartum depression.
“I should have gone on antidepressants [to cope with the postpartum depression], but you have to find the right one that works for you,” Hayden — who split from Klitschko, 47, in 2018 after nine years together — explained. “They don’t mix well with alcohol, and I wasn’t ready to stop drinking.”
Hayden added that “living in forgiveness” has helped with her sobriety journey. “A step in the 12-step program is making amends. If somebody wants to be a good person and to be the best version of themselves, they can choose to do that,” she said.
