Why Kaley Cuoco Called Her Big Bang Theory Haircut 'The Worst Decision': 'What Was I Thinking?'

One star of "The Big Bang Theory" looked a lot different in Season 8... and she still has regrets about it to this day.

When the hit CBS sitcom returned for its eighth season in 2014, Kaley Cuoco — who starred as neighbor and love interest Penny — was sporting a drastically shorter haircut. The new 'do was worked into the show (Penny was wary of alarming Sheldon with such a big change), but the real reason for the haircut came off-screen: Cuoco cut her hair short for a lead role in the independent film "Burning Bodhi." 

She also saw the haircut as a fresh start, she recounted in the 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series": "I don't know if I was being rebellious... At that point, we were heading into our eighth season, and something needed to shake up. I was bored and sick of the hair." Plus, Cuoco figured that "by cutting my hair, I would spend less time in the hair and makeup chair, even though I loved the hair and makeup team."

That theory, though, was definitively disproven — bazinga! — when Cuoco realized that her new short haircut actually took longer to style on the "Big Bang" set than her longer hair did. "I was like, 'This is the worst decision! What was I thinking?!' I thought I was cutting off all this time, because I hated going in and getting ready... So then I cut it and it ended up being more work because it wasn't easy to style."

Kaley Cuoco didn't tell anyone she worked with on "The Big Theory" about her haircut, either, before unveiling it at the Season 7 wrap party. Co-creator Chuck Lorre later admitted he was taken aback by the change: "We didn't have a heads-up on the haircut! When you think back on it, it was startling. I wish we had been in the loop."

Fans were surprised, too, but Cuoco liked the cut and didn't let any critics change her opinion, she recalled: "I'm sure it was being negatively talked about all over the place, but I didn't pay as much attention to what people were saying on social media then."

By the end of the following season, Penny's blonde hair was back to being long and wavy again, and Cuoco remained a part of the main cast until "Big Bang" signed off in 2019 after a 12-season run on CBS. The "Big Bang" universe continued to expand, too, with spin-offs "Young Sheldon," "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage," and the upcoming HBO Max comedy "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe." It hasn't been confirmed yet if Cuoco will reprise her role as Penny on "Stuart Fails" — so we'll just have to wait and see what kind of haircut she's sporting these days.