NEED TO KNOW
Julie Chrisley is grateful to be blonde again.
The Chrisley Knows Best personality, 52, spoke with PEOPLE exclusively to promote The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, months after she and her husband, Todd Chrisley, were released from prison. Both Todd and Julie were serving multiple years after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion when President Donald Trump pardoned them in May.
Now, Julie is opening up about embracing her natural brunette hair in prison and her post-release shift back to blonde.
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Julie tells PEOPLE her stylist, Tyler Bishop, had been prepped and ready to bleach her hair blonde as soon as her sentence was up.
“Tyler knew the moment that I was released — whether that was when it happened, thank goodness, or in ’26 when it would’ve happened — he was waiting and ready for me,” Julie shares. “So I kind of always knew that I was going back.”
Todd, 57, adds that the transition wasn’t easy, though. Bishop “literally took up shop in our kitchen” for multiple days, he says.
On the July 23 episode of the Chrisley Confessions 2.0 podcast, Todd said he “started thinking about going back” to prison when he first saw his wife’s brunette locks after their time in prison. It took a moment to adjust, he said, but then he decided to “embrace this.”
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“I mean, it was a rough moment. It was a rough moment because I’d never seen you dark in my life,” he said. “Julie, 30 years, I’ve never seen you with dark hair.”
He also commented that Julie had “set the bar low” and “had to go nowhere but up.” Todd faced criticism for his comments, even from Julie, who said at the time he “wasn’t very nice.”
Still, they were both on the same page for Julie’s hair transformation, and just weeks after her release, she was spotted in a Target store with her usual blonde hair.
Julie and Todd were found guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax fraud in June 2022, while Julie was also found guilty of wire fraud.