Kaley Cuoco opens up about her pixie cut on The Big Bang Theory: ‘That decision bit me in the ass’

And even though Cuoco had to spend longer in the hair and makeup room on show nights, she still loved the cut, even if others didn’t.

Kaley Cuoco: I had fun with it, and I did like it. I’m sure it was being negatively talked about all over the place, but I didn’t pay as much attention to what people were saying on social media then. But I do remember we had wrapped an episode, and as I was walking up to my dressing room, an executive said to me, “I just want you to know, who cares what everybody else says? I love your hair!” And I said, “Who said what about my hair?” Her eyes got so big, and I was like, “No, seriously, did someone say something about my hair?” And she was like, “Oh, no, no, I think it looks great.” She totally got her foot in her mouth, because obviously it was a topic of conversation! I guarantee that woman probably thinks about that moment a lot. It was not a good night for her!

And yes, while it was jarring to see Penny with an entirely new haircut and wardrobe, it also played into her desire to be taken more seriously, especially as she embarked on a new career in the pharmaceutical sales field.

Mary T. Quigley (costume designer, coproducer): When she cut her hair, I wanted her style to be higher end, more mature, with more linear-looking clothes that had an edge. It just signalled a new direction with her new career, and letting go of the Nebraska-farm-girl look. Not that it was that, but it was much more LA-looking now. I put her in a couple of leather jackets. Penny knew to go to Nordstrom Rack instead of Nordstrom. We also put her in a lot of Theory suits. In fact, her pink suit she wore when the elevator opened in the series finale was from Theory.

Kaley Cuoco: Penny’s look was very specific early on, and it did change a lot, which I loved. It got a little more business-y, and then in the later years, I must have worn 400 shirts from the line Equipment. To this day I cannot wear another Equipment shirt. I wore every print. I see them, and I am like, “That was Penny!” I cannot wear them anymore. [Laughs.] But what we love about Penny is her sweats and her T-shirts, and all the comfy scenes. And I would love that too. I’d read a scene and go, “Oooh! A comfy scene!” But I really liked when she started to get super professional and wasn’t a server anymore.

Excerpted from The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series. Copyright © 2022 by Jessica Radloff. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.

A version of this article originally appeared on GLAMOUR’s US site.