UConn Player Paige Bueckers’s New Hair Color Is Sending a Message

If you don’t know Paige Bueckers yet, you’re about to: The UConn Husky is one of the top prospects for next year’s WNBA draft. But no matter what happens next, she’s already made basketball history: In 2021, Bueckers was the first freshman to win the Naismith Trophy (widely considered the top individual honor in women’s college basketball); that same year, she also took home the title of Best Female College Athlete at the ESPY Awards.

This year, Bueckers returned to the ESPYs (she was nominated for Best Comeback Athlete, having bounced back after tearing her ACL) wearing white Jimmy Choo loafers, a lilac KidSuper suit, and a braided updo. The look cemented her status as a leader in both athleticism and style. “I think it’s important to know that you don’t have to put yourself in a box,” she tells Allure. “You don’t have to look a certain way—you can express yourself through beauty and what you wear.”

Lately, Bueckers has been leaning into the former through a collaboration with hair color brand Madison Reed. She’s been dyeing her hair blonde since she was a teen, she tells Allure, but as her schedule gets increasingly more hectic, there’s little time to get her roots touched up. Enter Color Wonder, the brand’s new range of at-home demipermanent shades, which last for about 25 washes. And since the color isn’t permanent, Bueckers was inspired to switch it up: Last week, she teased her new shade—which we know now is Madison Reed Color Wonder in Sparkling Rosé—to her nearly five million followers on Instagram and TikTok. Her comment sections were immediately flooded with compliments and pink-heart emojis.

To celebrate this crossover of beauty and sport—and Bueckers’s new pink look—she sat down to answer a few of our burning beauty questions.

Allure: Your signature game day hairstyle has gotten so much attention. How do you get the look?

Bueckers: Well, you have to know how to braid. I personally don’t, so I have my friend Kayla do it. I start by making a middle part using a comb and then she does a braid on either side. And then I usually just use a hair gel wax stick to get all the flyaways. To make sure that my ponytail is very slick, I usually straighten it. That’s basically it. It takes about 15, 20 minutes.

Allure: How do you take care of your hair off the court?

Bueckers: I’m honestly not very good with doing everything by myself. The only thing I really know how to do is a slicked-back bun and a ponytail. Sometimes I’ll have my teammates braid my hair; [they’ll do] two French braids so when I take it out, it’s curly. I have been feeling the half-up, half-down as well. I’ve been doing that a lot. And then I like having two little pieces out on the front and the rest back. When I was in high school, the only thing I did was straighten it, and that’s not the healthiest thing for my hair. So I’m trying to do different things and take care of it better.

Allure: So what made you decide to go pink?

Bueckers: I’ve been blonde for the longest… well, fake blonde, really, for the longest time. My natural hair is dirty blonde, like a light brown, so I’ve been coloring it for a while. Ever since I was probably in eighth grade, I’ve been doing the blonde. But to be able to switch it up, to express yourself, your voice, your personality… to not look the same all the time is amazing. I really love the pink. On the court you see my personality and the vibrance and the energy and to have my hair go with that makes me feel super confident. And I think when you feel confident, you look confident.

Allure: What would you consider your biggest beauty pet peeve?

Bueckers: Honestly, I would say flyaways—hairs that don’t want to agree with the style that you’re doing. I have a widow’s peak, so I have to get my part in order so that the hairs don’t try to do their own thing, which is why I think the gel is very important.

Allure: Is there a beauty trend that you wish would go away?

Bueckers: That’s so hard because everybody has their own things that they love to do. And personally I might not do it, but it’s their thing. Just like some people would not dye their hair pink, but I do. That’s how I express myself. I feel like everybody expresses themselves in their own way, and who am I to judge?

Allure: You seem to also love expressing yourself through fashion. Would you rather match your glam to your fit or match your fit to your glam?

Bueckers: I usually have my outfit picked first and then based on that—how my shirt is looking or how if I have a collar or not—then I do my hair. Should I put it up or should I put it down? Makeup-wise, I’ve always gone with the natural look. I haven’t really gone too much outside of that. But the fit first and then the glam is how I do it.

Allure: Is there anyone who has influenced your relationship with fashion and beauty on or off the court?

Bueckers: For me it’s [incredible] to see how much the WNBA has really embraced the fashion aspect. The walk that you do before the game—the tunnel fits—the WNBA has not shied away from it. They really embraced [players] expressing themselves in the way that they walk, and in what they wear. Diamond DeShields [who plays for Chicago Sky] is a huge fashion inspo—and Arike Ogunbowale [of the Dallas Wings] and Natasha Cloud [of the Phoenix Mercury].

On the men’s side it’s Kyle Kuzma [who plays for the Washington Wizards] and Russell Westbrook [of the Denver Nuggets] because they wear things that people on Twitter are going to clown them for… but they’re comfortable with being uncomfortable, trying different things and not necessarily going with the trends and what everybody [else is doing]. They feel confident enough to put it out there and they don’t care about other people’s opinions. They don’t care about getting judged. That’s something that I want to embody.

So [in general] I would say I’m inspired by the people who are carefree and do and wear what they want and don’t care about anybody judging them or anybody else’s opinions.

Allure: Are there certain beauty trends you’ve started to notice among athletes?

Bueckers: In the WNBA, more people are showing their feminine side while they’re playing. Before it was all, “They have to be basketball players.” They couldn’t have their hair done, their nails done. But now people are embracing [those things]. You can be a killer on the court and also have your hair and nails done. You can do a lot of different things and still be a basketball player.

Allure: What’s your advice to the next generation when it comes to staying true to yourself?

Bueckers: Be confident. Don’t let anybody put you in a box. Don’t let anybody put a label on you. Do what you want to do and have fun with it. If you’re masculine, feminine—doesn’t matter. Just embrace it and don’t care about the opinions of others. Beauty is subjective, so whatever that looks like to you, just own it and embrace it.

Read more interviews with athletes:

• Ilona Maher’s $10 Lipstick Doesn’t Budge, Even In Head-On Rugby Collisions
• Chloe Kim Told Us Her Favorite Sunscreen—and It’s Just $17
• Meet the Olympic B-Girls Using Beauty to Make Their Mark

Watch Sydney Sweeney’s 10-minute beauty routine:

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