The Nicole Kidman who wrote her name in showbiz history as a Hollywood powerhouse may sport straight blond hair. But the young actor who climbed through the ranks in her native Australia before bursting onto the international scene in the early '90s had curly red hair. Kidman actually rocked her fiery curls for quite a while before going blond. Older readers might remember how different her hair looked in "Days of Thunder" in 1990 or even in "Eyes Wide Shut" at the turn of that decade.
It wasn't until the early '00s that Kidman swapped red for blond. Her curls, on the other hand, started becoming smoother much earlier. Kidman's transformation was slow, with transitional periods that led from tight coils to bigger ringlets that eventually became straight by the late '90s. At the premiere of "The Others" in 2001, she wore her hair in a shade of strawberry blond, while her curls were pretty much entirely in the past. By 2002, when she earned an Oscar nomination for "Moulin Rouge!," Kidman was straight-up blond.
She changed her mane masterfully, to the point the public now associates Kidman with her signature long, blond hair. However, she still occasionally wears her hair in waves and has done so for years. But it looks purposeful, as if done with a curling iron and not as an embrace of her natural hair. At this point, the straight hair is her natural look. After so many years of chemicals and straightening procedures, Kidman's curls are damaged beyond repair.