Mandy Moore just dyed her chocolate brunette hair to bright-honey blonde, the lightest it’s been since the early 2000s. The This Is Us actress recently wrapped filming the show’s sixth season and says she was “ready for a big change.”

“I just got done with work, so I have a hiatus for the next four months, which always makes me super hungry to do something different,” Moore explains during a recent Zoom interview with Garnier (she’s a spokesperson for the brand) where she debuted her brand-new blonde. “It’s summer, the world is opening back up again, I’m a new mum — so I was hungry for change and wanted to do something that indicates how I feel and where I am in this chapter of my life.”

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The blonde is also a total throwback: Moore was platinum for most of the ’90s and early 2000s, circa “Candy” and The Princess Diaries. “I haven’t been blonde like this since like 2005,” she laughs. “It’s been a very, very long time, so I was just ready to try it again.”

As for the hair-dye process, Moore says she used Garnier color, in the shade Almond Créme. Plus, she’s leaning into the upkeep. “It’s going to be a tiny bit more maintenance than I’m used to,” she says. “But I’m also open and embracing that idea, too. It’s fun to dedicate a little bit of time to that sort of stuff. During quarantine, I haven’t done anything to my hair, and then through pregnancy, I didn’t touch it, so it’s fun to have a little ‘me’ moment.”

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