The Definitive History of Lisa Rinna's Hair From Her Bob to Her Wigs
The RHOBH alum has an iconic signature haircut, but she's not afraid to try out new looks.
Few stars have a signature hairstyle as deeply attached to their image as Lisa Rinna; it’s hard to even think about The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum without also thinking of her signature spiky bob haircut. Yet, Lisa has managed to shock us on a number of occasions by dramatically changing up her hair look.
In fact, when Lisa made her first appearance on RHOBH in Season 4 — which aired in 2014 — she and her trademark haircut were already well-known from her days as a soap opera actress on Days of Our Lives and Melrose Place.
She had first gotten the chop in the early '90s. "I was taking an acting class and I had just broken up with a boyfriend," she told ES Magazine in May. "Someone sitting next to me had just cut their hair off and I thought: 'Oh my god, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.' I asked who cut her hair and he came to my apartment. It was just one of those moments after a breakup where you change your look, and I guess I never really went back. It just worked."
It worked so well that she still had in March 2015, when RHOBH Season 5 premiered with Rinna as a rookie cast member. And her cast mates took notice.
Lisa Rinna defended her signature hairstyle when Brandi Glanville insulted it at the reunion
During her first reunion in Season 5, Lisa was on the receiving end of this insult by cast mate Brandi Glanville: "You've had the same hairdo for 20 years.”
Lisa laughed it off at the time. "I actually like my hair. I think it's fine!" she later said while co-hosting Access Hollywood in 2015. "I've had it for a long time, yes. I did grow it out when [my oldest daughter] Delilah Belle was born, which was 16 years ago, so it hasn't exactly been the same. I've had different versions of it."
"Harry [Hamlin] likes it," she added. "He always says, 'Keep it short.' So I like to keep my husband happy."
Years later, however, she revealed that Brandi’s comments did have an impact on how she viewed her hairstyle. Lisa told People in 2022 that Brandi’s statement inspired her to start changing up her look by playing with wigs.
“It really was that," Lisa said. "I've 'had the same hair for 20 years' or whatever Brandi said. Now it's 25, 30 at this point! But yeah... it was Brandi. I don't even need to give credit to her, she'll take it forever!”
Lisa Rinna's long wig from Watch What Happens Live in 2018
In the last few years, Lisa’s love of wigs has practically become iconic itself. She regularly enjoys shocking fans and her cast mates with completely unexpected styles — and she even likes to name her wigs based on the persona they inspire in her.
In January 2018, she appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen wearing a totally new look: long straight tresses with bangs.
Her hairstylist, Julius Michael, shared his work with an Instagram picture, dubbing Lisa’s look as "femme fatale." He then added a video of the process, revealing he'd used Hidden Crown clip-in extensions rather than a full wig.
Lisa Rinna's long ponytail from the red carpet in 2018
Then, in September 2018, she appeared at a fashion show in Los Angeles rocking an ultra-long and straight ponytail.
Lisa Rinna's platinum pixie wig from 2018
In November 2018, we got a taste of Lisa as a blonde when she took to her Instagram Stories to show off a platinum pixie style.
Lisa Rinna's ombre wavy lob wig from 2019
Months later in January 2019, she played with a shoulder-grazing wavy lob look, which was installed and cut by stylist Scott King.
Lisa Rinna's wig named Chrissy
For a red carpet moment in August of 2019, Lisa introduced us to a long, wavy ponytail look with curtain bangs. "We call her Chrissy. With a pony," Lisa explained of the wig on Instagram.
Lisa Rinna's wig named Heidi
She revamped her long, straight tresses with bangs with a fresh, lighter color in November 2019, and she named the layered style “Heidi.”
Lisa Rinna's page-boy wig from the Vivienne Westwood Fashion Week show
Paris Fashion Week in 2023 called for a very unexpected style: a page-boy cut. She debuted the bold look at the Vivienne Westwood runway show, and people had a field day.
“The pageboy wig that flipped everybody out! They didn’t know what to do with that,” Lisa later said on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast. “I would’ve never guessed that little pageboy wig would’ve created such a stir.”
Lisa Rinna's changing hairstyles for RHOBH reunions
The annual reunion shows also provide fodder for Lisa’s creative spirit. In recent seasons, she’s strayed from her spiky bob in favor of hairstyles inspired by her reunion outfits.
Lisa Rinna's Season 12 reunion wig
For the Season 12 gathering, she styled her locks into long, wavy strands with a sunkissed blonde color.
Lisa Rinna's ponytail for the Season 11 reunion
The Season 11 sit-down called for a straight, slicked-back ponytail to match her purple leopard print velvet dress.
Lisa Rinna's Season 10 reunion lob
In Season 10, she appeared at the virtual meeting with a chocolate-brown loosely curled angled lob.
When did Lisa Rinna start to grow out her natural hair?
In April 2019, Lisa announced a more permanent change to her spiky bob was on the horizon, when she shared on WWHL that she was making plans to grow out her hair. “But don’t tell anybody,” she quipped on the show.
By summer of that year, the bottom of Lisa’s hair was already starting to graze her shoulders. She shared a look at the progress in a June 2019 Instagram Story.
Lisa Rinna's natural lob looked lovely
Two months later in August 2019, Lisa had a full-on shaggy lob that reached her shoulders.
Lisa's Rinna's short haircut in honor of her mom, Lois
A few years later, Lisa went in the opposite direction and decided to cut her hair even shorter in honor of her late mother, Lois. In December 2022, she stepped out on the red carpet at the People’s Choice Awards sporting a windswept pixie, which she paired with a plunging black Givenchy dress.
“OK what you guys don’t know about this look is as [my makeup artist] Adam was doing my makeup at the house all of a sudden he had this bizarre look on his face and he said OMG your mom just came through me,” the Rinna Beauty founder captioned a December 10 Instagram post of herself at the awards show. “I have chills all over my body."
"So many of you have said that I look like Lois at the People’s Choice Awards and I had to share the story because I think that was Lois at the People’s Choice Awards with me," she added. "What a treat.”
Lisa Rinna's 2023 Fashion Week faux-hawk
To this day, Lisa continues to reimagine her hair and play with wigs to show her versatility or have a truly show-stopping look. In January 2023, she was spotted at Paris Fashion Week debuting yet another unexpected style: Her iconic spiky bob was pushed up into a faux hawk.
She posed on Instagram showing off the (literal) hair-raising ‘do, and added the most Rinna caption of all: “Owning it.”
