White is the new Brown for comedienne Jaquie Brown.
The Jaquie Brown Diaries star has spent decades concealing her natural prematurely-aged hair colour, but the 39-year-old has decided to show the world her authentic self.
"It's pure white and I've covered it up for years," said Brown. "I just got to the point in my life when I said, 'You know, what? It's time to be real with who I am'."
Brown told the Herald on Sunday her hair started to turn silvery white when she was just 16.
From that point she dyed her hair and in recent years visited her hairdresser every three weeks to hide the regrowth. She had always wished she had the confidence to shave her head and start over.
The opportunity arose a few months ago when as an ambassador for the Breast Cancer Cure Research Trust she lost her famous dark locks and raised $5000 for the Cancer Society.
She has since had a purple-blue toner put through her regrown hair to achieve a platinum blonde look.
"It's so easy," said Brown of her new pixie cut. "It's just a wonderful feeling to see the white coming through.
"I'm rocking the plantinum blonde. It's going to be the new me."
Following the birth of her second child, Ivy, Brown said she had enjoyed a relaxing time out of the media spotlight while concentrating on motherhood.
Jaquie Brown with a shaved head.
But after landing the host role for TVNZ's new comedy quiz show Word Up Brown said she was ready to return to screens with her radically transformed look.
"If I wanted to come back I wanted to make sure I wasn't hiding anything," she said.
"I just want to be honest. It's so freeing."
Many women had told her they loved the new look but that they lacked the self-assurance to follow in her footsteps.
"So many wish that they could do the same thing but feel, given they have been keeping up a facade of having it dark for so long, they couldn't possibly stop colouring."