We're all familiar with the post-wedding hair chop, where a bride—after months (and many vitamins) of growing out her hair for that perfect wedding style—will return from her honeymoon and jet straight to her hairdresser for a drastic, fresh, and often much shorter new-wife do. So, when I saw Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting opted for the same post-wedding treatment of her trademark long blond locks—first with a bob cut in April, then with an even shorter pixie in June—I can't say I was too surprised at first.
But then, reality hit me: What would this mean for Penny on The Big Bang Theory?!?!
On the one hand, a drastic cut could make sense for Penny in season eight, given that she's embarking on an entirely new career as a pharmaceutical rep. When she says goodbye to acting, she also bids adieu to her surfer-girl hair and replaces it with a professional-but-cute pixie cut. Makes total sense. But on the flip side, Penny just got engaged to Leonard. And while producers hinted that we wouldn't see a wedding for them this season, it still throws a major curveball into the hair arena. Few brides make such a serious hair change pre-wedding. So would we see Penny hiding her real-life pixie with extensions or a wig?
Thanks to some of the first season-eight photos and Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) telling us the cut would be addressed in the first episode, we know Penny will be rocking short hair on the show. But we finally got an explanation on the extreme makeover's inspiration from Ms. Cuoco-Sweeting herself. See the video below from EW.
Cuoco-Sweeting reveals that the cut wasn't inspired by her new wife-life or her new career on TBBT. Rather, she chopped her locks (which have been relatively the same since she burst on the scene in the '90s) for a movie she was filming this summer in New Mexico (indie drama Burning Bodhi). After making the change, she offered to wear extensions on TBBT, but the producers were "on her side" and wrote it in.
Well there you have it! I know I can sleep better at night now that the mystery behind Penny's ultra-chic pixie is solved. Now, I just have to wait until next week to see how it works its way into the season-eight story line. The Big Bang Theory returns on Monday, September 22, at 8 P.M. on CBS.
What do you think of Cuoco-Sweeting's decision to cut her hair?
