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Dubai: Ariana Grande is one of the most recognisable faces in music, but there is one thing most fans have rarely seen: her actual hair.
On March 4, the 32-year-old posted an Instagram video with her r.e.m. beauty brand, and while the clip was technically about lip products, it was her natural brunette curls that completely stole the show.
The video nobody expected
Grande appeared in the clip wearing a sheet face mask, a puffy headband pulling her curls back, and a sweatshirt reading “Focker-In-Law,” a nod to her upcoming role in the fourth instalment of the Fockers film series alongside Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller.
The premise was simple. She was going through her handbag before work and wanted to show fans just how many lip products she carries on a daily basis.
“Guys, I’m going through my purse and I think it’s actually crucial that you see,” she told viewers. “I want you to know how many things in my bag are lip products.”
What followed was a genuinely surprising haul. Grande pulled out at least five glossy bombs, five plumping glosses, three lip stains, and two lip and blush sticks, one from her Glinda-inspired collection. That is 21 products in total, all from r.e.m. beauty, all apparently just living in her everyday bag.
“I promise this isn’t a bit,” she laughed as the pile grew. “This is for real.”
She was also active in the comments after posting, joking: “And this was before my order from Ulta Beauty arrived.”
She captioned the post: “How many lip glosses are too many? The limit does not exist.”
The curls took over the comments
With over 4,000 comments and counting, fans were paying far less attention to the lip products than Grande might have expected. The real talking point was her hair.
“Her natural hair is gorgeous,” wrote one fan. “Omg yessss!!!! Your beautiful curls,” added another.
Grande has been almost exclusively associated with her sleek, sky-high ponytail for much of her career, whether on red carpets, in music videos, or on stage. Seeing her with her natural ringlets loose and undone felt, for many fans, like a genuinely rare and personal moment.
She has spoken about her natural hair before. Back in 2020, she described it as something she keeps close to herself. “It’s cute, and it reminds me of me as a kid. It’s who I am, privately,” she said at the time. “The curls are definitely something that I don’t bring around much.”
In October 2025, Grande returned to her natural brunette colour after three years of bleached blonde hair, which she had taken on for her role as Glinda in the two Wicked films. The curls in this video are a continuation of that return to her natural self.
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Her r.e.m. beauty favourites
For anyone curious about the products that made the cut for Grande’s famously overstocked handbag, here are the r.e.m. beauty staples she highlighted in the video:
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On Your Collar Plumping Lip Gloss
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Practically Permanent Lip Stain Marker
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Essential Drip Glossy Balm
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Glinda-inspired lip and blush stick from the Wicked collection
The brand, which Grande launched in 2021, has built a loyal following and the video served as an unscripted, genuinely charming reminder of why it resonates. There was nothing polished or staged about the clip, and that was entirely the point.
For fans who have spent years watching Grande perform in full glam, seeing her with a sheet mask, a headband, and a pile of lip glosses on her lap felt like a proper glimpse behind the curtain. Curls and all.
Areeba Hashmi is a trainee at Gulf News.
