Image Source: Getty/Cindy Ord / Staff [1]

There are two things we know about Mary J. Blige: she loves a good boot and she practically invented the hair color honey blond [2]. OK, that last part may be a bit of a stretch, but Blige's hair color [3] has been a key part of her four-plus decade-long career.

Though there have been a few times when she's deviated from the script and opted for a more copper tone [4] (see her 1997 meet-and-greet look at George's Music Room in Chicago), her signature warm, buttery hue has never been far away, which is why many people want to know: "What is Mary J. Blige's natural hair color?" Even though we can't imagine her without her signature color, the answer to that question is actually a deep, brown-black [5]. Still, whether it was through her immaculately styled pixie cuts [6] or classic waves, Blige has managed to teach us all that a good hairstyle and color can go a long way in helping you define who you are on your own terms. "I was already blonde. I was already red. I was already doing those colors," Blige told Elle [7] in 2022, recounting how people tried to get her to follow certain aesthetics when she first started her career. "I wasn't searching for an image. I was my own image."

Today, Blige is still known for her gorgeous hairstyles that are undoubtedly on mood boards everywhere. High ponytails [8], bob haircuts [9], and sleek updos [10] are a regular occurrence for the beauty icon and her go-to stylist Tym Wallace [11], but she notes that she's the secret sauce to her incredible looks, not a particular hairdo or color. "I won't say hair gave me strength. I'd say I give my hair strength," she said in the same interview. "Whatever I'm wearing, I'm able to have the strength to carry it now, which I was not able to have in the last layer of my life. Hair is beautiful, but I can't carry it with confidence if I'm not confident. Because then it'd just be a weave, or it'd just be blond hair, or my [natural] hair."

Another celebrity with hair this revered is Queen Latifah [12], and neither she nor Blige has ever had a bad hair day on record. For that, they'll continue to provide endless inspiration, just as they have been for decades.