Kate Gosselin Is Getting the Renée Zellweger Treatment

Kate Gosselin has Gwyneth Paltrow hair.

At her most famous, the mom of eight was known for a cheekbone-short crop that was spiked in the back and highlighted various blonde shades. Hairstylist Ted Gibson once said, “it reminds me of Salt-N-Pepa’s ’80s asymmetrical bob.”

BuzzFeed even put together a tribute to what the site called “Kate Gosselin’s Iconic Spiky Reverse Mullet Bob.”

It’s gone now. Over the weekend, she debuted pin-straight, chest-grazing, uniformly golden locks. Gosselin, 39, and her new hair looked so happy and youthful that her glow immediately prompted “what has she had done” rumors, much like what happened when Renee Zellweger was photographed last week looking not much like herself.

Glamour.com headlined a blog post about Gosselin’s new look “And the Latest Celebrity We Don’t Even Recognize Is…”

“I think it’s so interesting,” Wes Sharpton, a stylist at Hairstory salon in New York, says. “She’s really an attractive women in general, but the first haircut actually distracted you from looking at her, which brings up the question of how a haircut can serve you. The first haircut is kind of burned on our minds. It wasn’t the right haircut for her so it took away from how pretty she is. Now you’re no longer distracted by the haircut. She definitely looks better. She looks a lot healthier.”

Gosselin debuted the hair at her family’s yard sale, where she was casual in an oversized jacket, jeans, and very little makeup — a look far from the tight dresses, big lashes, and glossy lips we’re used to seeing on the reality star. According to local radio station Y102 Reading, the yard sale was being filmed for an upcoming Kate Plus 8 special that will air this December on TLC.

As for if women in their late 30s can get away with hair so long that Lindsay Lohan would approve, Sharpton says that the actual length matters a lot less than if you look comfortable with it.

“Everyone has this misconception that you get older and you cut your hair off,” he says. “I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. What it comes down to is, ‘Is this haircut serving you at this moment in your life?’ It’s really about being stylish and being modern, not trying to look younger. The spirit of what I think of as being young is a sense of effortlessness. There’s a sense of freedom and possibility. It’s not trying to look 24. It’s the idea that you’re going to look great and you’re not going to try to be something you’re not. You’re going to have a sense of ease.”

And while Sharpton says he likes the length on Gosselin, he would shape the cut more so it highlights her eyes and cheekbones. “How great would she look with this modern Jane Birkin,” he says, “if she had this long hair and these full bangs?”