The Lizzie McGuire reboot is underway, and the iconic character is coming back as a 30-year-old Brooklynite. With a new Lizzie era comes a new hairstyle — and Hilary Duff debuted Lizzie McGuire's new blonde hair on Instagram. There are no butterfly clips in sight, but the hair is far from dull.
The look was revealed on Sept. 26, and Nikki Lee was the stylist behind the new color. According to Allure, Lee focused on making the blonde different from what McGuire had as a teen, and the hue Duff normally wears. The end result was a sunny color that focused on bright highlights by the face and at the ends.
"Never in a million years did I think I would be doing Lizzie’s color," Lee announced on Instagram. "Well, dreams do come true! Thank you Hilary Duff for trusting me to create the perfect blonde for the next chapter of Lizzie McGuire!"
Since Lee figured that people would want to copy McGuire's shade as soon as the show debuted, the stylist helpfully left a breakdown of how she created the blonde color. The step-by-step instructions could easily be followed by any colorist. Specifically, Lee used the brand Joico for the lived-in color.
The new blonde look is a massive change from McGuire's teenage style. In 2001, when the original Lizzie McGuire series premiered, the iconic character had an all-over gold blonde color. It ran towards a warm brassy hue that was popular in the early noughties, and didn't have highlights.
In comparison, 30-year-old McGuire's hairstyle is a lot brighter and cool-toned. It also has an inch of natural brown root, as well as subtle brown highlights that are threaded throughout the blonde to give the color depth.
McGuire's new look also varies from Duff's usual go-to blonde shade. While the actress slightly changes her color each appointment, Duff tends to go for an even cooler-toned blonde shade.
Duff already has a vision of what 30-year-old McGuire is going to be like in the reboot, which is beginning filming now but has no official premiere date. In an interview with Allure, the actress shared that McGuire moved to Brooklyn and packed away her tie-dye T-shirts and metal studded belts.
"She's going to be a flea market shopper and a Brooklyn cool girl," Duff said.
According to Duff, at first McGuire will seem like she's living her best life. She has a boyfriend that owns a SoHo restaurant, and she even landed her dream job as an apprentice to an interior designer. But McGuire is not going to stay on the east coast for long. In an interview with New York Magazine's Vulture, Duff revealed that Lizzie will experience burnout.
"She’s not going to stay in Brooklyn too long, actually. That’s where she’s been, but she’ll be coming back to Los Angeles. She’s forced out of New York. She’s like, 'I can’t be here anymore,'" Duff said.
McGuire isn't worrying about being the popular girl or chasing after crushes anymore. With grownup problems comes a grownup hairstyle, and McGuire's new blonde look captures how the character is in a whole new stage in life.
