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Lauryn Hill's hair evolved from tucked locs to towering afro, braided crowns with beads, and recent pixie-curled styles.
Lauryn Hill's beauty shifted from signature berry lipstick to red and burgundy, with vibrant eyeshadows, bouffant lashes, and bold blush.
Lauryn Hill moved from casual knit caps and oversized layers to dramatic gowns, eclectic prints, tailored suits, and a layered Denim Tears campaign.

Stephanie Augello/WWD via Getty Images

Ms. Lauryn Hill is a legendary architect. And not just as one of the greatest MCs of all time or as a defining figure in Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul since The Fugees and her first solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Beyond this, she’s inspired generations as a class act in the style and beauty categories.

At a performance in 1990, for example, she bared her soul with her locs tucked into a knit cap and a dual-toned denim jacket. Her style was casual, grounded, and full of heart, often translating as oversized sweatshirts and twisted updos, like at a 1996 performance at Brixton Academy in London. Other times she dressed up in long gowns, purple eyeshadow and her signature berry lipstick.

Then, in the 2000s, she cut off her locs. In 2004, she was spotted recording her “The Passion” music video in New York’s Meatpacking District in a ‘70s style look—purple trousers, a big belt buckle, and a trench layered over a printed button up—and an incredibly vibrant makeup look to pair with her Afro. Think: pink and orange eyeshadow, blue eyeliner, bouffant lashes, and red blush. It was the crux of her beauty and style identity, which only got bigger from there. Her ‘fro doubled in size (and was replaced with the occasional bowl cut), and by the 2010s, spanned blow outs and quirky cuts to match her style, which was brimming with prints, textures, and hats like at the Greenwich Film Festival in 2018.

At the 2022 Essence Festival, she performed in a floral dress with balloon sleeves and earrings to match. Meanwhile, her classic berry lipstick was exchanged for red. The following year, her hair took on new heights. At the Global Citizen Festival, for one, she wore her hair braided into a Nefertiti-like crown. Then, at Crypto.com Arena, she performed with The Fugees in a circular braided headpiece with big beads at her sides. From then on, beads turned into her signature, from silver beads at Coachella to white beads with cowrie shells down her middle part at Wireless Festival in 2025.

Lately, however, her looks have been less about beads and more about resurging a style we saw her coin in the past: her natural Afro and braids curled into a pixie. At her first-ever Met Gala in 2025, for example, she wore her Afro with burgundy lipstick to match her tie and butter yellow suit. Then, at the 68th Grammy Awards, for she performed in a billowing black gown, big blush, and her hair braided into curls. In one of her latest beauty and style moments, she starred in a Denim Tears campaign along her six children stacked in layers of denim with the brand’s signature motif and her locs curled into a pixie cut.

In honor of Lauryn Hill’s 51st birthday, see how her beauty and style has evolved over the years.