While Lucille Ball is one of Hollywood's most famous redheads, the vibrant hue wasn't her natural hair color. The I Love Lucy actress was actually born as a brunette, but hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff first transformed Ball into a redhead. Prior to Guilaroff's stroke of genius, Ball starred in films as a blonde or with her natural dark brown hue.
If you have the image of that red color burned into your head while Lucy Ricardo shoves chocolates in her mouth on a moving conveyor belt on I Love Lucy, you're not alone. However, achieving the right shade of red was not easy and required a lot of maintenance. Ball's on-set hairstylist Irma Kusely described in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation how she achieved the particular shade of red, which she confirmed wasn't a wig.
"A lot of people think of the color as red, but [her hair was] a golden-apricot color," Kusely explained. "I used regular hair dye [to color it], and then a henna rinse, which she was famous for. She had a safe of [the henna] in my garage."
Kusely also mentioned that Ball got the solution to her red hair woes while in Las Vegas. "She met a wealthy [man] and he heard about her problem with the henna and said he would send her the henna. He sent her a huge box of henna which was in my garage."
Ahead, check out what Ball looked like with her natural brown hair, blond hair, and her iconic red look.
