Ariana Grande’s Beauty & Wellness: Hair, Skincare, Wicked & Vocal Care

Ariana Grande is an artist who has built one of the most instantly recognizable visual identities in modern pop culture: a waist-length high ponytail, sharply winged cat-eye, full-looking lips, oversized clothing and thigh-high boots.

But when her beauty history is viewed across nearly two decades, something more interesting emerges. Grande has maintained powerful signatures while repeatedly changing what those signatures mean as her life and creative work have evolved.

She was already performing in local theater at around eight years old and remembers enjoying the idea of using different makeup for different characters.

In her teens, she spent years frequently coloring her hair red for a television role. The damage that followed eventually played an important part in the birth of the ponytail that would later become one of the most recognizable celebrity hairstyles in the world.

Her cat-eye, high ponytail and defined lip shape eventually became global signatures, but in 2023, when she turned 30, Grande candidly reflected on a period when she had used large hair and heavy makeup almost as somewhere to hide.

Today, she has described beauty more as a form of self-expression that works with the person who is already there.

Perhaps the most dramatic expression of that change came through Wicked.

Grande temporarily stepped away from the deep brunette hair, strong brows, winged liner and high ponytail that had defined her image for years. She went blonde, lightened her brows and used beauty as part of the process of entering the world of Glinda.

For the films, her signature ponytail was deliberately avoided. From the younger Glinda to the more mature version of the character, details including hair length, blonde tone, cheek color and lash intensity were carefully adjusted to help communicate the passage of time.

Then, in autumn 2025, after roughly three years of blonde hair, Grande returned to brunette.

In March 2026, she gave fans another rare look at her natural brunette curls, now around shoulder length. From June through September, however, she returned to her signature high ponytail on stage and completed all 41 shows of the Eternal Sunshine Tour.

Her wellness habits reveal several equally interesting themes.

In 2017, Grande explained that she personally preferred keeping her body moving throughout the day rather than relying only on one intense workout. Even when a tour venue had no gym, she could incorporate movements such as walking lunges into the hallways backstage.

She first publicly moved toward a plant-based way of eating in 2013, and in 2024 she again confirmed that she was still following a plant-based diet.

At the same time, Grande has repeatedly emphasized that another person’s health cannot be accurately judged simply by looking at their body.

And for a singer, wellness also includes something that is easy to overlook: the voice.

Across hundreds of live performances, Grande has developed detailed vocal preparation with her coach, including warm-ups, short periods of complete vocal rest and adjustments based on how her voice feels on a particular day.

When changes in the pitch of her speaking voice became a topic of discussion in 2024, she explained that she sometimes consciously shifts her vocal placement depending on how much she is singing and that she has long paid close attention to the way she uses her voice.

Following the 2017 Manchester concert bombing, Grande also publicly discussed PTSD and intense anxiety. Therapy, family time, running, rest, music and meditation have all appeared at different points in the ways she has described caring for herself.

In 2024, reflecting on her own experience of entering entertainment at a young age, she went further and argued that young performers should have access to professional psychological support from the beginning of their careers.

In 2025, she again looked back on particularly difficult periods of her life and explained that she had been receiving professional care while music also became an important source of creative support.

Then in 2026, Grande brought members of the hair and makeup team who had spent years creating her visual world behind the scenes directly onto the stage during the Eternal Sunshine Tour.

She explained that hair and makeup are a major part of storytelling for her, both in music and in acting.

She also revealed plans to reduce some public-facing work and appearances after the tour and make more room for time that belongs to her personally.

Drawing on interviews and reporting from Vogue, British Vogue, Allure, SELF, The FADER, the Los Angeles Times, PEOPLE, conversations with Grande and her vocal coach, and other sources available through September 2026, this article explores Ariana Grande’s beauty routine, skincare, sun care, makeup, cat-eye, haircare, ponytail, natural curls, fitness, plant-based eating, body image, voice and vocal care, meditation, rest, therapy and self-care in depth.

1. From Red-Hair Damage to the High Ponytail: Ariana Grande’s Hair Story Across Nearly 20 Years

Today, the high ponytail is almost synonymous with Ariana Grande.

Its origins, however, go back to her teenage television years.

While playing Cat Valentine and maintaining the character’s vivid red hair, Grande has said that there was a period of roughly four years when her hair was bleached and dyed red almost every other week.

In 2014, after receiving frequent comments about her hairstyle, Grande explained that all of that coloring had left her own hair significantly damaged.

Although she had returned to brunette, the damaged sections still needed time to grow out.

During that period, she used extensions and settled into the ponytail because it was a style she felt comfortable wearing.

That practical choice would eventually become one of the most recognizable celebrity hairstyles in the world.

From around 2013 onward, the ponytail became increasingly central to her look, while Grande continued changing its height, length, parting, ends and color.

There have been tightly pulled brown ponies, ultra-long versions, platinum shades, lavender-toned hair, lower ponytails and styles finished with bows.

In a 2018 interview with The FADER, Grande said she was proud of the way the ponytail itself had evolved over the years.

It was never the entirety of who she was, but it became such a powerful visual symbol that putting it on could instantly create the familiar “Ariana” silhouette.

Behind the ponytail, she was also slowly growing out her own curls

Even after the ponytail became established, another hair story continued quietly in the background: Grande was growing and caring for her own natural hair.

In 2019, she began showing her shorter brown natural curls more often on social media.

Her hairstylist at the time, Josh Liu, discussed an approach to curls that included limiting heat where possible, choosing moisture according to the hair’s texture and condition, and using air-drying or a diffuser on a lower temperature.

Grande also showed fans glimpses of her own hair gradually growing out after years of intensive coloring.

In 2020, while spending more time at home, she shared images of herself wearing her natural brunette curls.

That same year, Grande spoke about the emotional meaning of her natural texture, describing it in a way that connected the curls with childhood and with the more private version of herself away from her public image.

Then, in March 2026, Grande once again revealed her natural brunette curls, now around shoulder length.

After returning to brunette in autumn 2025 following roughly three years of Glinda blonde, she was showing a very different side of her hair from the sleek, straight high ponytail audiences usually associate with her.

The timeline runs from frequent red coloring in her teens, to extension-filled ponytails, to years of growing her own curls, to blonde hair for Glinda, and eventually back to natural brunette curls.

Viewed across more than 15 years, there has always been another story behind the ponytail: the gradual return and growth of Ariana’s own hair.

In that sense, Grande’s hair history has developed between two parallel identities: the iconic ponytail and her natural hair.

She could enjoy an unmistakable performance hairstyle while continuing to grow and care for the hair underneath it.

Over time, those two sides of her hair identity learned to coexist.

Wicked deliberately put the signature ponytail aside

Around 2022, Grande’s hair entered another major transition.

To play Glinda in Wicked, she moved away from the brunette hair she had worn for years and became blonde.

The production team focused on carefully dismantling Grande’s existing visual signatures while building a beauty language that belonged specifically to Glinda.

From the audition stage, the filmmakers wanted to move away from familiar Ariana Grande beauty markers such as the high ponytail, heavily overlined lips and sharply winged liner.

The hair and makeup team also made a clear decision not to give Glinda Ariana’s tight high ponytail.

Instead of hair pulled closely against the head, Glinda’s look emphasized softer, more freely moving blonde hair.

Grande has explained that remaining blonde in her everyday life also helped her enter the character. Even when wigs were used in the film, lightening her own hair meant that looking in the mirror outside the set still connected her with Glinda’s world.

Her eyebrows were lightened as well, with the color reportedly refreshed approximately every 10 days during filming to keep them in harmony with Glinda’s hair.

In autumn 2025, Grande returned from roughly three years of Glinda blonde to a warm brunette shade.

At the 2026 Golden Globes, her tightly pulled signature high ponytail made a major return.

During the Eternal Sunshine Tour, she alternated between waist-length ponytails and more ballerina-inspired updos.

The ponytail that originally emerged during the period when her red-dyed hair was growing out had moved through years of natural-curl growth, stepped out of the spotlight for Glinda, and returned in 2026 as a hairstyle Grande was choosing again for the person and performer she is now.

2. From Beauty as a Place to Hide to Beauty as Self-Expression: Skincare and a Changing Beauty Philosophy

When people think of Ariana Grande’s makeup, one of the first details that comes to mind is her long, sharply winged eyeliner.

Her personal relationship with beauty, however, has changed significantly with age.

In Vogue’s 2023 Beauty Secrets, Grande reflected on growing up in the public eye and receiving an enormous amount of commentary about her appearance from a very young age.

She said that at around 17, it could be difficult to understand which opinions she should absorb and which ones she should keep at a distance.

During one period, she responded by making her hair bigger and her eyeliner thicker, describing beauty as something that could almost become a place to hide.

Grande still has affection for those more dramatic expressions of beauty, but in her 30s she has described enjoying makeup from a different perspective.

Rather than covering the person who is already there, beauty can work with that person and express the mood, character or project of the day.

That idea sits at the center of her current beauty philosophy.

In 2022, she was fascinated by chilled skincare

A 2022 British Vogue interview revealed a more everyday side of Grande’s beauty routine.

Her mornings typically moved from brushing her teeth into skincare.

She was particularly enthusiastic about cooling eye products and facial rollers.

Grande enjoyed storing them in the refrigerator and using them cold.

She has also spoken about enjoying the process of learning about formulation and the science behind beauty products through the development of her own beauty brand, not only color and texture, and has described herself in a way that suggests genuine beauty-geek enthusiasm.

Growing up in Florida helped make SPF part of her current skincare routine

In her 2023 Vogue appearance, Grande demonstrated an actual skincare and makeup-preparation routine.

She began with serum, followed with moisturizer and incorporated SPF before moving on to makeup.

Around the eyes, she used cooling moisturizing products and eye patches before beginning her makeup.

Grande grew up in Florida and has reflected on spending a great deal of time in the sun when she was younger. She has personally connected some of her freckles and uneven pigmentation with that earlier sun exposure.

Because filming can involve heavy makeup for long stretches of time, preparing her skin beforehand has also become an important part of the process.

Despite being one of the world’s most recognizable beauty figures, Grande has openly said that she can still experience breakouts during periods when repeated makeup application is part of her work.

That openness is a notable part of her current approach to beauty: alongside the finished photographs and highly polished looks is ordinary skin that can change from one day to the next.

Once she moves into makeup, the details associated with Ariana become much more recognizable.

Her brows are often straighter with a subtly lifted shape.

Around the eyes, pinks and browns can lead into a cat-eye influenced by 1960s beauty.

Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe are among the classic figures Grande has named as long-standing beauty references.

She has spoken about being fascinated by the careful way actors from that era shaped brows, lips and eyes.

Grande’s winged liner may look like a modern pop-star signature, but part of its visual history reaches back to Old Hollywood and 1960s beauty.

She has also spoken openly about filler, Botox and wanting to see her smile lines deepen

One of the most widely discussed moments from Grande’s 2023 Vogue appearance came when she spoke candidly about cosmetic procedures.

Grande publicly shared that there had been a period when she used a significant amount of lip filler and Botox.

According to her, she stepped away from those treatments around 2018.

Part of the context she gave was that beauty at that point in her life had become connected with the feeling of hiding.

She said that she now wanted to see the expression lines created by crying and smiling, and that she hoped her smile lines would deepen because she had spent so much time laughing.

At the same time, she remained open-minded about the possibility that she might make different choices about cosmetic procedures later in life.

The central idea was personal choice: deciding what relationship with beauty feels right for her at a particular moment in her life.

Fragrance is another important part of Grande’s beauty world.

She has described perfume as one of the beauty categories she especially enjoys creating and has approached scent in much the same way as hair and makeup: as another way to build a complete atmosphere or visual world.

Eyes, hair, fragrance, lips.

For Grande, beauty extends beyond the face. It can become part of the staging that creates the mood of a person, song or era.

3. How Wicked Dismantled “Ariana Grande” to Build Glinda Through Hair, Brows and Makeup

One of the most fascinating chapters in Ariana Grande’s beauty history is Wicked.

Grande had wanted to play Glinda since she was young.

That made it especially important to her that, after winning the role, audiences would see more than “Ariana Grande dressed as Glinda.” She wanted the character to feel like a separate person.

Grande has explained that beauty became one of the tools that helped loosen the familiar image of herself as a pop star and allowed her to find Glinda.

For Wicked, the beauty team changed Ariana’s familiar signatures one by one to create a visual language that belonged to Glinda.

Remove the high ponytail.

Soften the winged eyeliner.

Lighten the brows.

Turn the hair blonde.

Build the lips and cheeks through soft pink tones and light.

By adjusting the visual codes that had become synonymous with Ariana Grande, the character of Glinda was allowed to move forward.

Grace Kelly was among the classic beauty references used by the hair and makeup design team for Glinda.

The goal included a softness and elegance that felt glamorous without being too firmly locked to one contemporary beauty trend.

From young Glinda to “Glinda the Good”: showing character growth through beauty

One of the most interesting details in Wicked is that Glinda’s beauty evolves along with her character.

The younger Glinda at school has rosier cheeks and slightly shorter, warmer blonde hair.

As the story progresses, her hair becomes longer and moves toward a paler blonde.

The makeup introduces opalescent light and fine shimmer, gradually shifting toward the visual presence associated with the “Good Witch.”

In 2025’s Wicked: For Good, the more mature Glinda was developed further. Her hair became longer and lighter, while the eyes gained stronger lashes and slightly greater depth.

The palette remained soft, but small adjustments to lashes and eye definition helped communicate maturity.

These are the kinds of beauty choices viewers may not consciously register one by one, yet together they help communicate the passage of time.

Grande herself became deeply immersed in the character, and pink began appearing more frequently not only on set but in her everyday clothing.

She has explained that pink had not always been a central color in her personal life, but through the audition process and her work on Glinda she gradually began collecting more of it until the color became personally meaningful as well.

By changing her hair, brows and color palette, she moved toward the character not only while filming but in everyday life.

After filming and an extended promotional period, Grande returned to warm brunette hair in 2025.

At that point, beauty began shifting again—from something used to express Glinda toward something that expressed Ariana herself, now as the actor who had played Glinda.

4. Movement in Everyday Life: Fitness, Plant-Based Eating, Body Image and Vocal Care

There is no shortage of online content claiming that Ariana Grande “eats this every day” or “maintains her body with this workout.”

This section focuses instead on dated information that Grande herself or people directly involved in her work have actually shared publicly.

In 2017, she focused on moving throughout the day

During the Dangerous Woman Tour in 2017, Grande spoke to SELF about a relatively simple approach to movement.

She explained that, for her personally, continuing to move throughout the day felt better than doing one extremely intense workout and spending the rest of the day sitting down.

Her trainer at the time also emphasized movements that could be done almost anywhere, because touring did not guarantee access to a fully equipped gym every day.

When a concert venue did not have a gym, Grande could use its hallways for walking lunges.

One short routine that was shared involved roughly two minutes of walking lunges, about two minutes of glute bridges and repeating the sequence three times.

That was a workout approach connected specifically with her touring lifestyle in 2017.

In her 2018 British Vogue interview, Grande also said that during a period spent at home she had several days when she ran around six miles.

Treating this as a description of her life in 2018, rather than as a permanent exercise rule, helps preserve the way her habits have changed over time.

Across the longer timeline, Grande’s movement habits appear to have adapted to her work schedule, travel and what she needed physically and emotionally at a particular moment.

A plant-based diet that began in 2013—and was still part of her life in 2024

One of the clearest eating habits Grande has personally discussed is her plant-based diet.

In 2013, after previously eating relatively little meat, she publicly announced a move toward plant-based eating.

At the time, her feelings toward animals were one of the reasons she gave for that choice.

The clearest long-term eating pattern Grande has continued to identify publicly is her plant-based way of eating.

During her 2024 appearance on Hot Ones, she again confirmed that she was still plant-based.

That conversation also produced a small but memorable family story.

Grande said her grandmother still offers her meatballs, leaving her to remind her that she is still plant-based.

Focusing on the broad plant-based pattern Grande has actually discussed herself provides a more accurate picture than relying on detailed online meal plans attributed to her without clear sourcing.

Grande herself has also warned against making simple assumptions about another person’s health based on diet, size or appearance.

In 2023: “You never know what someone is going through by looking at them”

In 2023, Grande directly addressed the growing amount of commentary surrounding her body.

Her message was that judgments such as whether someone is larger, smaller, looks healthier or looked better in the past should not be casually directed at another person, even when the speaker believes they are expressing concern.

One especially important part of her message concerned comparisons with an earlier version of herself that some fans had described as looking “healthier.”

Grande explained that this period had actually been extremely difficult for her. She spoke about medication, alcohol, eating habits and being at a very low emotional point at that time.

Those comments were Grande’s own description of a past period. They are not a basis for judging her present health from her appearance.

The central idea she repeatedly emphasized was that health and beauty can take many forms, and there is often a great deal about another person that cannot be understood from the outside.

Even in her 2017 SELF interview, before discussing workouts, Grande had expressed the broader idea that a person’s beauty is not determined by one day of exercise or eating; the person themselves matters more.

That perspective connects directly with the body-image message she shared publicly in 2023.

Caring for the “singing body”: the vocal routine behind years of touring

To understand Grande’s wellness habits fully, it is important to look beyond body shape and exercise to the instrument at the center of her work: her voice.

In Vogue in 2019, Grande spoke about studying singers from a young age through imitation and said she had learned a great deal from the way Céline Dion used her voice.

She came to understand that a powerful vocal sound does not have to come only from pushing harder or singing louder. Placement and the way different parts of the range are connected can create strength without relying on unnecessary force.

Grande has spoken about the voice almost like a valuable resource that requires thought and technique if it is going to be used over a long career.

In 2021, a conversation with her long-time vocal coach Eric Vetro offered a particularly detailed look at the preparation behind touring.

On days when her voice did not feel ready, Grande might avoid using it heavily in the morning and allow it to wake up gradually.

During a fuller warm-up, she sometimes combined singing with deliberate silence: around 15 minutes of vocalizing, roughly five minutes of silence, another 15 minutes of singing, then another short period of rest.

During international touring and major time-zone changes, Vetro sometimes worked with her remotely at extremely late or early hours to complete the warm-up.

In 2024, a video in which the pitch of Grande’s speaking voice changed during an interview attracted widespread attention online.

Grande explained that this was something she had done for years and that, depending on how much she was singing, she might intentionally adjust vocal placement—the physical sensation of where the voice is being produced or resonating.

For Wicked, she also trained extensively to reshape aspects of her singing so that the voice itself would belong more fully to Glinda.

The ponytail and cat-eye may be the most visible parts of “Ariana Grande,” but the voice has been cared for just as deliberately behind the scenes.

5. Therapy, Rest, Meditation and Music: How Ariana Grande Has Created Time to Return to Herself

Any discussion of Ariana Grande’s wellness habits also needs to include mental and emotional care.

For many years, Grande has spoken publicly in her own words about anxiety and therapy.

A major turning point came after the Manchester concert bombing in 2017.

In British Vogue in 2018, Grande described experiencing intense anxiety, dizziness and difficulty breathing after returning home and spoke publicly about PTSD.

At the same time, she explained that discussing her own experience felt complicated when she thought about the people who had been killed or injured and the families whose lives had changed.

Her comments are best understood as Grande’s own account of what she experienced and how her approach to self-care developed afterward.

Learning that some days could simply be rest days

Grande described herself at the time as an intense workaholic.

She had been working in theater and television since her early teens and had become accustomed to the state of constantly having something to do.

Even after Manchester, her instinct was initially to return to work quickly.

By around 2018, however, she had begun making room for a different kind of day.

Going to therapy.

Watching television at home.

Cooking with family.

Running around six miles.

And on especially difficult days, getting into bed and allowing the entire day to be a day of rest.

British Vogue described this period as one of the first major pauses in a life that had been dominated by work from a young age.

Music was also important.

The periods surrounding Sweetener and thank u, next overlapped with years when Grande has said she was dealing with PTSD, grief, depression and anxiety.

Reflecting on that time again in 2025, Grande explained that she was taking professional mental-health care seriously while making music also became a major source of support in her life.

Her own account places professional care and creative work alongside one another rather than treating one as a replacement for the other.

Therapy and music both mattered to her during that period.

Meditation, long baths and lavender: quieter forms of self-care

In a 2022 British Vogue interview, Grande named meditation, long baths and skincare among the ways she liked to wind down after stressful days.

She also said she sometimes enjoyed the scent of lavender essential oil while meditating.

These were described as personal rituals that she herself found comforting.

During the Wicked filming period in 2023, she shared an even more specific example.

On days when filming began extremely early, Grande said she could be in the car at around 4 a.m., wearing headphones and meditating on the way to the set.

Immediately before entering the machinery of a major film production, she created a quiet space inside the car to bring her attention back to herself.

Therapy and rest in 2018. Baths and meditation in 2022. Early-morning meditation in 2023. Reflections on music and professional care in 2025.

The specific practices change over time, but one theme appears repeatedly in Grande’s approach to self-care: intentionally creating moments when she can reconnect with her own internal state.

Looking back on her child-star years: young performers should have psychological support from the beginning

In 2024, Grande revisited her experience of entering television at a young age.

She has said that she personally had strong family support and that many of her memories of working when she was young are positive.

At the same time, she argued that when children enter careers involving intense media exposure, professional psychological support should be available from the beginning.

As one idea, Grande suggested that therapy could even be built into contracts, with young performers able to access it two or three times a week.

She also discussed the importance of parents being able to access the set when needed and of young performers having a professional space where they can process the sudden transformation of their lives.

Grande had been appearing on local stages from around age eight, became widely known in her teens and has recalled receiving an overwhelming amount of commentary about her appearance by around 17.

Now in her 30s, she has used those experiences to speak more broadly about creating an entertainment environment in which young performers can access mental-health support from the beginning.

2026: after the tour, making space for a little more distance from public life

In 2026, another milestone was added to Grande’s evolving definition of self-care.

The Eternal Sunshine Tour, which began in June, concluded in London on September 1 after 41 performances.

Before the tour ended, Grande’s representative said in August that she planned to reduce some public-facing work and appearances afterward and make more time for herself.

At the following Chicago show, Grande addressed fans directly and explained that the decision was not something she had suddenly made. It was something she had been quietly considering for some time.

During the same speech, she described the tour as an especially meaningful experience for her.

In another August interview, Grande reflected on being able to experience time with her fans more deeply than during some earlier tours and described the Eternal Sunshine Tour as a “corrective experience” for her.

In 2018, self-care might have meant allowing herself one full day to stop working. In 2022, it included meditation and long baths. In 2023, it could mean meditating in the car before an early call time.

By 2026, her idea of self-care had expanded to include adjusting the amount of public-facing work in her life and choosing a more substantial period of rest after a long tour.

Reports have indicated that this does not mean stopping every professional activity. Selected film-related projects and brand work may continue while Grande changes the distance she keeps from more constant public appearances.

6. From Stage Makeup at Eight to the 2026 Tour: Beauty as Storytelling

Looking across Ariana Grande’s beauty and wellness history, it becomes clear that hair and makeup have played a role far beyond simple grooming.

For Grande, beauty has been connected with characters and music since childhood.

In Vogue in 2023, she remembered that when she began appearing in local theater in Florida at around eight years old, she already enjoyed using different makeup products for different characters.

When she played Annie, there was a blush associated with that role.

Another character could have another color.

Even when the makeup itself was minimal, the idea that “this character has this beauty look” was something she enjoyed from childhood.

When she later moved into Broadway, Grande has said she also found significant inspiration in seeing drag performers after the show.

She has repeatedly acknowledged the beauty and creative influence of drag culture on her work.

As her music career developed, makeup, hair, clothing and fragrance increasingly became parts of complete visual worlds built around individual songs, videos and eras.

Wicked expanded that philosophy onto an entirely different scale.

Grande changed hair and makeup details that had symbolized her own public identity for years in order to build another person: Glinda.

And after completing the role, she chose her own brunette hair and ponytail again.

The 2026 Eternal Sunshine Tour took that relationship between beauty and performance in another fascinating direction.

During the roughly two-hour show, members of the hair and makeup team who had long helped create Grande’s visual identity actually appeared on stage.

Before “7 Rings,” her lips were touched up and her waist-length ponytail was brushed in front of the audience.

Elsewhere in the show, footage of the preparation process backstage was incorporated into the performance itself.

The people who normally remain invisible while creating the beauty look were brought into the artwork in front of the audience.

Speaking to Vogue in 2026, Grande explained that hair and makeup are an enormous part of storytelling for her in both music and acting.

She also expressed deep appreciation for the beauty collaborators she has worked with over the years, emphasizing that their work is part of what makes her own creative work complete.

When Ariana Grande’s beauty and wellness history is viewed across this longer timeline, several themes begin to stand out.

• Finding a ponytail she felt comfortable wearing while damaged hair was growing out
• Turning the ponytail, cat-eye and defined lips into unmistakable signatures
• Continuing to grow her natural curls behind the scenes while wearing iconic performance hair
• Building skincare around steps such as hydration and SPF while acknowledging the way skin can change during makeup-heavy work
• Moving from beauty as a place to hide toward beauty as a way to express and work with the person already there
• Changing her own beauty signatures when a role required the creation of another character
• Adapting movement to the work, travel and life circumstances of each period
• Resisting simple assumptions about food, appearance and another person’s health
• Treating both vocalizing and vocal rest as part of preparing for a long singing career
• Choosing therapy, rest, music, meditation and other forms of self-care according to what she needed at the time
• Using her own experiences to advocate for stronger psychological support for young performers
• Treating beauty as collaborative creative work made with a team rather than something created by one person alone

There was Ariana at around eight years old, enjoying different makeup products for different characters in local theater.

Then came the television years, when the repeated coloring needed to maintain red hair left her hair damaged and the ponytail became the style she settled into around her early 20s.

Through her 20s, she grew her own curls behind the scenes while building the larger pop-star image of “Ariana Grande” around the high ponytail, cat-eye and thigh-high boots.

After major personal trauma, she searched for ways to return to herself through therapy, family, movement, rest and music.

While touring the world, she repeated warm-ups and periods of vocal rest in order to prepare for hours of singing and treated her voice as one of the most important tools of her work.

At 30, she reflected on the fact that beauty had once served as a place to hide and began speaking more positively about watching her own expressions change as she grew older.

Then Wicked asked her to transform the signatures she had spent years building, changing her hair, brows and color palette to create an entirely different person in Glinda.

In 2025, Grande returned to brunette. In 2026, she showed her natural curls again while also choosing the high ponytail once more on stage.

One of the most interesting things about Ariana Grande’s beauty history is that she has created unmistakable signatures without allowing those signatures to remain frozen. She has repeatedly changed their meaning, adapting and choosing them again according to her life and creative work.

The ponytail moved from a comfortable style worn while damaged hair was growing out to a global icon.

Her natural curls moved from a hairstyle associated with childhood and her private self to something she was once again comfortable showing publicly in 2026.

The cat-eye evolved from part of the strong beauty identity she once used as a form of protection into a playful expression of her love for 1960s beauty.

Beauty itself moved from somewhere to hide toward a visual language for telling stories about characters and music.

Movement and eating habits have appeared not as one simple formula for appearance, but as parts of a lifestyle that changed according to work, values and circumstance.

Her vocal routine has involved not only singing but warm-ups, deliberate rest and close attention to placement and how the voice is used.

And after experiencing therapy and rest herself, Grande has increasingly spoken about the need for young performers to have access to professional psychological support from the beginning.

On September 1, 2026, Ariana Grande completed all 41 performances of the Eternal Sunshine Tour with her brunette ponytail back on stage.

Now, after completing that major tour, she is entering another phase in which she plans to adjust the amount of public-facing work in her life and create more time for herself.

It is the latest choice in a long period of change that has included Glinda, a changing relationship with beauty, a more compassionate view of the body, years of vocal discipline, therapy, rest and repeated reflection on what self-care means at different stages of life.

Grande has enjoyed beauty as a tool for storytelling since childhood, and for her, beauty and wellness have continued to grow alongside her life and creative work.

Hair, makeup, body, voice and mental well-being are all areas she has continued to adjust according to the life and project in front of her.

Seen across nearly 20 years, Ariana Grande’s beauty and wellness story becomes much more than a collection of “beauty secrets.” It is a long story of using beauty to protect herself, express herself, transform into new characters and, again and again, choose her own version of herself.