11 Model Hair Transformations That Made Their Careers

You've seen Factory Girl, so you know the story: troubled but magnetic American heiress leaves New England for New York City, meets Andy Warhol, chops her hair off, dyes it blonde (and sometimes silver), promptly becomes a LIFE magazine fixture, inspires the term "superstar," takes too many drugs, and dies. If you want to copy the hair, great, but leave the heroin at home, please.

The American art muse was a working actress in the 50's, but she became a fashion icon after sporting Vidal Sassoon's famous 5 Point Cut in two cult films, Who Are You Polly Magoo? and Blow-Up. (Naturally, she played a model in both.)

The cut that launched Twiggy's career took 7 1/2 hours, with famed coiffeur Leonard of Mayfair snipping as colorist Daniel Galvin turned her blonde. The resulting look made the teen Brit a mod icon. 50 years later, women still request this haircut when going short.

Photographer Peter Lindbergh documented Evangelista's famous chop, where the Canadian model wept as stylist Julian d'Ys did the honors. Fortunately, the tears faded―while Evangelista's career skyrocketed to fashion icon status. As it should be.

When Steven Meisel shot the pale blonde model in 1998, he gave her a choice: black hair or red hair. She chose red (maybe because of Christina Hendricks?) and became a certified fashion star.

The Canadian farmer's daughter was a manic pixie dream girl with her narrow brows and wispy red hair. But when she turned blonde, something magical was unleashed, and Stam became one of the most in-demand models of the last decade, working with everyone from Chanel to Victoria's Secret and even inspiring a handbag by Marc Jacobs.

After walking runways for Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs, Okamodo cut her hair into a bold bowl cut, inspiring Phillip Lim to put matching wigs on all his other models for a show. A campaign star for Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, and Gap, the Chiba, Japan native is now an actress. She debuted onscreen in Wolverine, and will next be seen in Batman vs. Superman.

She's always been The Girl Next Door, but when a 20-year-old Kloss chopped her long brown hair in 2012, she suddenly became a cool young woman instead. The fashion world took notice—and so did Taylor Swift, who still sports a similar 'do today.

This champion horse jumper began modeling in her teens, booking campaigns for Burberry and Marc by Marc Jacobs. But it was after she went for a choppy (and surprisingly chic) mullet that she became an official face for Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, YSL Beauté, and even Target. On Monday, she opened the Chanel show.

She's been black, blonde, red, and even blue. But when Fernanda Ly started dying her own hair with Manic Panic's Cotton Candy Pink shade, the Aussie native promptly landed on Louis Vuitton's Fall 2015 catwalk, and opened their Spring 2016 show on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old had her hair shorn for a McQueen campaign this year―then promptly caught the attention of Hedi Slimane, landed a Saint Laurent campaign, and became one of this season's breakout models. "My agent cried when they cut my hair," she told us backstage at Isabel Marant last week, "But I was laughing."