Kelly Ripa Hilariously Shows ‘Real’ Progression of Her Grey Roots in Quarantine

Kelly Ripa just got real about her ‘Roots.’ On Saturday, The Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host posted an eye-opening look at the monthly progression of her graying roots. Which have naturally grown out over the course of the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What Inspired Kelly

Taking on the 2020 Calendar meme, Kelly poked fun at herself by putting her own spin on the popular meme. The viral meme is quite popular with celebrities who use extreme images of themselves to track their mood throughout the pandemic.

In a grid of closeups of her scalp, the 49 year old star gave her 2.8 Million Instagram followers a glimpse of her untamed roots. Which show a significant change as the graying area grows in size as the months pass by. The change was both obvious and hilarious as things began on the blonder side in the colder months. Before shifting to something much grayer during the summertime.

Kelly’s version of the 2020 Calendar Meme

“Perhaps this meme is a week old at this point… but does that really compare to these roots? ???? My version of the #2020Calendar is just…real…. ????????‍♀️????????.” She captioned the post that takes viewers through her hair transformation from January to September.

In the grid, January starts off with a sumptuous glamour shot of Kelly, with perfectly styled hair. But by March, the closeups are starting to show some grey roots. For May, she added a funny animoji showing her as an old woman, with all grey hair. And July through September featured the same shot. Ripa is seen staring wide-eyed into the mirror as her face is surrounded by a crown of lightening silver roots. 

Ripa’s humorous post also shows the star’s commitment to sheltering in place, during the lockdown, instead of making hair salon visits.

“It’s all part of my sinister plan to fool you”

Ripa has previously been open and honest about embracing her natural hair during the early pandemic on the show. She explained to co-host, Ryan Seacrest that the texture of her hair has also changed.  “Grey hair has a different texture. Anyone with grey hair can tell you, it’s very wired. It tends to stand up,” she said.

“These little clips, and you can see I’ve sprayed them brown too, these little clips really, like, hold the grey.” A confused Seacrest replied, “It looks blonde to me.” Ripa joked in response, “That’s good. That’s excellent. It’s all part of my sinister plan to fool you.”

In March, the star even poked fun at the little sacrifices she and others have had to give up while self isolating. “Root watch week one,” she jokingly wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. Sharing a snapshot that showed some of her root growth after having to go without a color treatment on her hair. Later in May also, Ripa showcased her progressed roots in a close-up selfie, labeled “#rootwatch week 8.”

“I’m looking forward to when it’s just completely grey”

By the looks of it, the mother-of-three has nothing to worry about when it comes to her grey hairs as her husband, Mark Conseulos happens to love them. “Since I met you, you told me that you’re grey,” he said on an episode of her show in April 2020. “And I gotta tell you, I see you in the morning and I think it looks beautiful. I like it. I’m looking forward to when it’s just completely grey.”

Kelly has been quarantining in the Caribbean with her family instead of at their extravagant Upper East Side penthouse home in New York City. The couple and their three adult children, Lola, Michael and Joaquin, have reportedly been stuck in the Caribbean since March due to the coronavirus lockdown.

“We had planned a trip for our family, and it was supposed to be our entire family of course,” Ripa said during an ABC virtual town hall in May. “And we arrive and three days later, the entire world changed, really. I mean, everything shut down; the government shut down; our country shut down. I hate to use the word stuck, but we were. We decided to stay where we were.”