Dannielynn Birkhead Debuts New Look With 19-Year-Old Goth Rock Hair
Dannielynn Birkhead showed off a new look at the 2026 Kentucky Derby on May 1, debuting icy platinum hair with black tips at Churchill Downs. The 19-year-old’s chin-length feathered bob marked a sharp shift from the pastel mint green gown and Smith jewelry she wore last year.
Churchill Downs Style Shift
Her hair was cut into a chin-length feathered bob and paired with a strapless Punk Rave black dress, an embroidered corset, a sheer skirt with subtle draping, a rhinestone-encrusted black bangle and smoky eyeshadow. The result read as a deliberate break from the family-reference looks that have followed her at past Derby appearances.
That break mattered because Dannielynn appeared with her father, Larry Birkhead, at a major public event that has become one of her most visible annual outings. Last year, she wore a pastel mint green gown and Anna Nicole Smith’s gold jewelry, and she previously rewore the black gown with bedazzled straps Smith wore at the Barnstable Brown Gala in 2004.
Larry Birkhead on the Look
Larry Birkhead said Dannielynn achieved her goth rock look with the help of one of Anna Nicole Smith’s hairstylist friends and added that she wanted something edgy and cool. He called the Derby red carpet a moment of her “coming into her own,” and said, “This year is a different style for Dannielynn.”
“People [are] always looking for her to wear something of her mom,” he said, but added, “And she’s done that a couple times, but this is kind of Dannielynn showing off her own sense of style, and she said it’s a goth rock theme.” His comments frame the change as a style choice, not a costume revival.
Dannielynn at 19
“So we’ve got this total style change up for her,” Larry Birkhead said, adding, “And this is kind of, I think, her coming into her own, doing her own thing and kind of exuding her own style and her choices that she made.” He also said, “I was kind of bracing myself at the hair salon,” and, “I guess she’s at the age to do what she wants to do.”
For readers tracking the Derby tradition, the practical takeaway is simple: Dannielynn is no longer dressing as a direct extension of her mother’s archive. The 2026 appearance put her own taste at the center, and the next time she steps onto that red carpet, the expectation will be for another choice that looks like hers first.
