MadameNoire Featured Video

Grace Byers, formerly Grace Gealey but often referred to as “Boo Boo Kitty” by Empire fans, has a new look.

Boo Boo kitty hair

Getty

The 33-year-old beauty attended an event on Saturday in NYC celebrating Empire and Star taking over Wednesday nights on Fox, and showed up looking completely different thanks to a head full of curls.

She’s sported a cropped ‘do since stepping into the spotlight, and it’s a great look for the star. But we’re feeling the switchup. This new look was put together with help from celebrity stylist Ursula Stephen, known for doing the hair of stars like Rihanna, Beyoncé, SZA and more.  Byers can definitely get away with whatever look she tries (she just has a really great face shape to play around with different styles), and it’s the perfect hairdo for fall.

But long hair isn’t new for the actress. As she told ESSENCE in 2015, she had long hair, “really long hair” that is, for a long time until she realized she was hiding behind her curls and wanted to finally stand out. Her signature pixie cut helped her do just that.

“I used to have really long hair. It was a big fro with mad curls,” she said. “When I moved to California for school my skin wasn’t used to the lack of humidity. And even though I’m light skinned, I scar like someone of a darker complexion. I was a light skinned girl with all these dark scars on her face; I was embarrassed. I would hide behind my hair and it got to the point where I was so insecure, that I said, ‘you know what Grace, you have to deal with this. You have to understand that you’re still beautiful no matter what.’ In 2008 I chopped my hair off and started using new skin products that actually worked! It was a healing process… I’ve been short ever since.”

Comment Disclaimer: Comments that contain profane or derogatory language, video links or exceed 200 words will require approval by a moderator before appearing in the comment section. XOXO-MN