Alysa Liu’s “Tree Ring” Hair: The Story Behind the Striped Look That Traveled to the 2026 Winter Olympics

Key Highlights
Introduction
From a DIY Experiment to Olympic Presentation
The Symbolism Behind the Stripes: Time, Growth, Ritual
How Stylists Create Horizontal Stripes: Techniques and Tradeoffs
Hair, Visibility, and the Athletic Persona
Social Media, Trends, and the Acceleration of Niche Aesthetics
Practical Considerations for Athletes: Performance, Care, and Resilience
The Broader Hair Trendscape: Where Tree Rings Fit
Case Studies: Athletes and Signature Visuals
The Intersection of Fashion, Identity, and Media Narratives
Practical How-To: If You Want the Look
What the Rings Mean for Liu’s Competitive Narrative
The Stylist’s Role: Collaborator, Technician, and Visual Strategist
Potential Futures: How the Look Might Evolve
Ethical and Cultural Observations
What Photographers and Broadcast Teams Consider
The Cost of Creativity: Financial and Time Investments
What the Rings Reveal About Modern Athlete Narratives
Conclusion (implicit)
FAQ

Key Highlights

U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu debuted horizontal “tree ring” stripes in her hair, a personal ritual she adds to annually to mark time and growth.
Liu worked with St. Louis colorist Kelsey Miller to refine the stripes into a “milk tea” blond that was visible during the team event where she won Olympic gold.
The look began as a DIY experiment in 2023 and has become both a personal symbol and a media moment, with implications for athlete identity, performance routines, and hairstyling technique.

Introduction

When Alysa Liu glided onto the ice at the 2026 Winter Olympics, cameras captured more than her triple jumps and clean edges. Horizontal bands of contrasting color wrapped her head like the rings of a tree—deep brunette alternating with bright platinum blond. The stripes drew immediate attention as a fashion statement, but the story behind them reaches beyond aesthetics. Liu describes the marks as a chronological record, a wearable archive she updates each year. What began as a homemade experiment in 2023 has matured into a deliberate visual language: a stripe added at the close of each year, a small public ritual that traces time, training, and transitions.

That ritual sharpens the intersection of personal symbolism, sports culture, and contemporary hair trends. The stripes required technical expertise to translate from the informal ginger tones Liu initially crafted to the lighter, television-ready hues she wore to Beijing’s opening ceremonies and the Olympic rink. They also raise questions about how athletes curate off-ice identity, how hairstyling techniques adapt to unusual patterns, and how social media accelerates the adoption of idiosyncratic looks. This piece reconstructs the path from Liu’s DIY streaks to the professional “milk tea” finish, explains the technical and cultural mechanics behind the style, and considers what the stripes mean for Liu and for visible expressions of athletic identity.

From a DIY Experiment to Olympic Presentation

Alysa Liu’s ring motif started small. She made the first band around her head in 2023. At first the color leaned toward ginger and was something she applied herself. The stripes were informal, a personal experiment rather than a polished look intended for national broadcast. Over time, the idea took on ritual significance. “I just wanted to be a tree,” she told Paralympian Haven Shepherd in a TikTok conversation, linking the stripes directly to tree rings that mark passing seasons and growth.

As the 2026 Winter Olympics approached, Liu decided the stripes needed professional refinement. She sought the help of Kelsey Miller, a colorist based in St. Louis who described her specialty as dimensional color, redheads, and extensions. Miller adjusted and defined the existing bands, translating the homemade ginger into a lighter, milk-tea blond that would stand out on television while maintaining harmony with Liu’s natural brunette. The transformation took five hours.

The shift from DIY to professional work illustrates a familiar arc for many personal style experiments. A concept born out of playfulness becomes a signature and then demands technical fidelity. For an athlete who competes under bright lights and intense scrutiny, professional color work ensures consistency across media appearances and live competition. It also preserves hair health better than repeated amateur bleaching attempts. Liu’s move to a colorist underscores a practical truth: creative concepts require technical skill to survive the scrutiny of global broadcast and the demands of elite sport.

The Symbolism Behind the Stripes: Time, Growth, Ritual

Tree rings constitute a simple, accessible metaphor for marking time. Each ring corresponds to a season, a year, a cycle of growth recorded in concentric bands. Athletes frequently use rituals and symbols to make sense of accumulative effort and to articulate identity publicly. Liu’s yearly stripe performs both functions: it records the passage of time and constructs an outwardly visible narrative about progression.

The ritual dimension deserves attention. Elite athletes often develop pre-competition routines, talismans, or small acts that provide psychological continuity. Those actions can be practical—pre-competition warm-ups, dietary rules—or symbolic—tattoos, jewelry, or hairstyle choices. Liu’s stripes function as a longitudinal talisman. Adding a ring each year establishes a private continuity that becomes public. It is a ritual with both autobiographical and performative value: autobiographical because each stripe marks a year in her life and career; performative because the stripes present a curated image to audiences and sponsors.

Consider how identity markers operate in sport more broadly. Signature hair choices have long signaled persona or cultural identity. The stripes align with that history while carrying an explicitly temporal message. The fact that Liu discusses the choice publicly—on TikTok and in interviews—makes the ritual legible to fans and turns a private practice into communal storytelling. The rings invite viewers to read Liu’s career as a measured sequence rather than a single highlight, reinforcing a narrative of progression that complements athletic achievement.

How Stylists Create Horizontal Stripes: Techniques and Tradeoffs

Translating the ring concept from idea to hair requires a deliberate approach. Horizontal bands that circle the head challenge standard color techniques more commonly used for vertical placement, face-framing highlights, or gradient effects. Achieving crisp stripes demands precise mapping, sectioning, careful application, and chemistry that preserves hair integrity.

Consultation and mapping: Colorists begin with a consultation. The stylist and client discuss desired width of stripes, level of contrast, and overall palette. For a concept like Liu’s, the stylist maps the bands on the head, visualizing how they will appear in motion and from different angles. Bands must be positioned so they register on-camera and complement the athlete’s skating costumes and makeup.

Bleaching and lightening: Transforming a dark brunette stripe into a platinum or “milk tea” blond usually requires lift—bleaching to remove melanin. Bleaching is inherently damaging; colorists mitigate harm by limiting the number of overlapping lightening passes and by using reconstructive treatments—bond-building systems such as proprietary equivalents to Olaplex—during the process.

Toning and finishing: After lift, toners neutralize unwanted brass and dial the shade toward a specific finish. “Milk tea” suggests a soft, warm but desaturated blond, different from stark platinum or golden blond. Toners and glazes deliver that nuanced color. For Liu, the colorist worked through the existing DIY stripes and redefined the bands, ensuring a consistent tone that would render well on television.

Application techniques: To preserve clean edges of the bands, stylists use foiling, precise hand-painting, or combination approaches. Horizontal placement requires work around ear contours and at the nape, areas where hair density and direction complicate consistent application. Colorists may bleach and tone in sections while monitoring lift to avoid banding that looks muddy rather than intentional.

Time and endurance: The five-hour session Miller reported is typical when significant lift and refinement are required. Staged approaches—multiple sessions spaced weeks apart—are sometimes recommended to protect hair. In Liu’s case, the stylist refined existing stripes rather than instituting a multi-session overhaul, making a single long session feasible.

Maintenance protocols: Platinum and lightened hues demand maintenance. Purple shampoos neutralize brass, color-depositing conditioners extend tone, and regular toning sessions prevent drift toward orange. A high-contrast look like Liu’s also requires touch-ups for new growth, which would be part of her annual stripe addition ritual.

Styling for performance: Beyond color, the stylist considers hair styling for competition. The bands must remain visible during skating, where hair winds, sweat accumulates, and helmets are not present. Sectioning and secure styling ensure the hair reads on camera and endures the physicality of competition. Hairdressers collaborate with athletes’ coaches and costume teams to test looks under stage lighting and broadcast conditions.

Hair, Visibility, and the Athletic Persona

Athletes arrive at major events as polished products. Their choices off the field or ice—clothing, tattoos, hairstyles—help shape narratives that spouses sponsors and media outlets exploit. A distinctive hair motif can serve as a visual shorthand for recognition, helping an athlete stand out in a crowded field.

Figure skating blends athleticism and artistry, making visual presentation particularly salient. Costume designers, makeup artists, and hairdressers co-design looks that complement choreography and thematic content. While judges score technical elements and program components based on set criteria, the audience and media frequently remember the aesthetic package. That visibility can amplify the effect of a unique hair choice.

Alysa Liu’s rings operated on multiple visibility levels. At the opening ceremony, the bands read as a fashion-forward choice. During the team event, televised close-ups and slow-motion replays made the stripes part of her public image as she contributed to the U.S. gold. The stripes are also portable brand identifiers: fans and fashion editors discuss them, social feeds amplify them, and followers who mimic the look turn it into a trend.

Athletes who cultivate signature looks can sometimes translate visual distinctiveness into commercial value. Brands that pair with athletes value recognizability and narrative. A hairstyle that signals personal ritual can bolster authenticity, which sponsors prize. Liu’s rings—publicly explained and ritualized—make for a concrete story that extends beyond podium results.

Social Media, Trends, and the Acceleration of Niche Aesthetics

The route from private styling choice to viral trend is shorter than ever. A short clip—an athlete explaining a look on TikTok, a behind-the-scenes salon reveal, or a broadcast highlight—can circulate globally in hours. Liu described the inspiration and ritual in a TikTok conversation with Paralympian Haven Shepherd, and that format made the story easy to repost and remix.

TikTok, Instagram, and short-form video platforms have shaped hair culture. Trends proliferate through quick tutorials, salon reveals, and user-generated imitations. Concepts that once required extensive salon expertise—like “money piece” face-framing highlights or peekaboo undercolors—now spread as DIY short-cuts, with creators offering step-by-step guides. Athletes who adopt unusual looks become trend accelerants because they combine fame with visual novelty.

The tree ring stripe diverges from many fast-moving trends by being explicitly longitudinal. Rather than a one-off color refresh, Liu’s annual stripe invites followers to watch a story unfold over years. That slow-burn approach fits platforms that celebrate both immediate novelty and ongoing narrative arcs. Fans can track the evolution, compare yearly photos, and speculate about future bands. The format encourages engagement that persists beyond a single viral moment.

Practical Considerations for Athletes: Performance, Care, and Resilience

Elite athletes confront unique haircare challenges. Training involves frequent sweating, sometimes daily hair washes, exposure to chlorinated pools for cross-training, and a schedule that can include rapid travel, late-night recovery, and repeated styling sessions. Those conditions accelerate color fade and elevate the risk of damage. Designing a durable look requires strategies that adapt salon technique for athletic life.

Water exposure: Chlorine and saltwater strip color and create greenish or brassy shifts. Athletes who train in pools or oceanwater use pre-swim conditioners, wear swim caps when possible, and rinse thoroughly after exposure.

Sweat and frequent washing: Sweat and daily physical activity increase the frequency of hair washing, which strips pigment. Color-safe dry shampoos and co-wash alternatives can bridge the gap between washes. For blond tones, purple-toning shampoos maintain coolness and counter brass.

Heat styling and equipment: Training and performance rarely require heavy heat styling for athletes, but media appearances do. Heat-protective products reduce damage from blow dryers and flat irons. For competition-day styling, athletes often prefer low-heat, high-hold approaches that minimize exposure.

Reconstruction and bond repair: Lightening procedures employ bond-building treatments during service to maintain hair integrity. Athletes who undergo repeated lightening rely on regular bond-repairing treatments and protein-moisture balancing protocols.

Scheduling and downtime: Complex color requires strategic timing. For Liu, adding a stripe at the end of the year fits a seasonal schedule—an interval when competitive demands may be lower and when colorists can create a look without compromising training cycles. Multiple sessions might be necessary if large lifts are required; scheduling those sessions around off-seasons limits performance interference.

Cost and accessibility: Maintaining a high-contrast, high-maintenance color is expensive. Athletes typically have access to teams of stylists and budgets supported by sponsorship or federation resources. For less-resourced athletes, similar looks might be achieved less frequently or through lower-impact alternatives that mimic stripes—temporary colors, clip-in extensions, or semi-permanent color deposits.

The Broader Hair Trendscape: Where Tree Rings Fit

The ring motif joins a catalog of contemporary hair expressions that play with geometry and color contrast. Recent years have seen the rise of “money piece” highlights (face-framing light streaks), half-and-half colorations (split-dye), and underlayer “peekaboo” shades. Those looks emphasize contrast and framing, often focusing attention where the face and expression are most visible.

Liu’s horizontal bands repurpose contrast into a circular logic. Instead of drawing attention to the face alone, the rings emphasize motion and seasonality. They make a statement at the crown, the nape, and throughout the hair’s silhouette. In doing so, they resist the face-centric orientation of many current trends and insist that the whole head operate as a canvas.

Other public figures have used hair as a narrative device. Musicians and actors routinely reimagine hair color to mark creative eras. Athletes do the same, although less frequently. When they do, the effect is memorable because sports present repeated, high-stakes visual stages—televised competitions, medal ceremonies, and podium interviews—where a distinctive look can become inseparable from a moment or a career phase.

Case Studies: Athletes and Signature Visuals

While no two cases are identical, several athletes illustrate how visual distinctiveness can become part of a career identity.

Visual branding through apparel: Tennis players have long used signature looks—Roger Federer’s classic sweaters and headbands, Serena Williams’ bold fashion statements on-court—to create a recognizable persona that complements athletic achievement.
Hair as performance identity: Some gymnasts and figure skaters wear hair ornaments and specific styles tied to routines. These choices are often coordinated with costume themes to create a holistic performance.
Tattoos and symbolism: Athletes who share the significance of tattoos or hair choices build narrative continuity that engages fans. The tattoo or hairstyle becomes a mnemonic for resilience or for a defining experience.

The common thread across these examples is the intentional alignment of personal expression with public performance. Liu’s stripes occupy that same space. They are a consistent, visible element that fans can latch on to while watching the arc of her career.

The Intersection of Fashion, Identity, and Media Narratives

When athletes become visible beyond their sport, their aesthetic choices acquire cultural resonance. Media narratives latch onto visible markers because they make intangible qualities—longevity, ritual, playfulness—tangible. Liu’s tree rings offered media outlets an accessible metaphor for storytelling: the rings stand for time, maturity, and continuity.

This interplay between personal ritual and media narrative can be mutually reinforcing. The media simplification of nuance into a single image amplifies recognition. Liu’s stripes, therefore, are both a personal statement and a communicative device: they convey a story that the media can tell repeatedly, and that sponsors can integrate into marketing pitches.

That communicative power can be protective and risky. It strengthens a public persona and creates cohesion across appearances. At the same time, it makes a private ritual open to interpretation and critique. Athletes who present themselves as emblematic of a certain story may find that story negotiated in public forums, with multiple readers assigning different meanings. Liu’s rings, however, have been framed largely as a benign, creative ritual—an accessible narrative that fans and commentators have embraced.

Practical How-To: If You Want the Look

For readers who admire the aesthetic and consider trying a similar stripe pattern, professional guidance is crucial. A simplified, responsible outline:

Consult a professional colorist: Bring photos that illustrate band width, placement, and tone. Discuss hair history—previous color, heat damage, and chemical treatments—so the colorist can gauge lift potential and risk.
Expect staged work: Dark hair may require multiple sessions to achieve a soft blond without undue damage. Your stylist should propose a staged plan that balances aesthetics with hair health.
Prioritize bond repair: Request bond-building treatments during lightening and follow-up reconstructive masks at home.
Consider temporary alternatives: Clip-in colored extensions or semi-permanent dyes allow you to test the look before committing to bleach.
Understand maintenance demands: Lightened bands need toning, purple shampoo, and occasional salon refreshes. Factor those costs and time commitments into your decision.
Protect from environmental stressors: Use UV protection sprays, rinse after chlorinated water exposure, and minimize heat styling.
Coordinate with wardrobe and makeup: The horizontal bands read differently depending on color palettes. Coordinate tones with frequently worn outfits to create cohesion.

These steps reduce risk and increase the likelihood that the look will retain its intended character across daily life and special events.

What the Rings Mean for Liu’s Competitive Narrative

Alysa Liu’s decision to make the stripes an annual ritual transforms a private act into a public chronicle. As she competes—she contributed to a team Olympic gold and will skate in the women’s singles short program on February 17 and the free skate on February 19—the rings add a subtle visual dimension to her competitive identity. They suggest continuity: the athlete who adds a stripe at the end of each year is an athlete thinking longitudinally about career and life.

That framing can have psychological benefits. Rituals mark control in an environment where many variables are outside an athlete’s direct influence. A small, annual act that anchors identity can be comforting amid the turbulence of competition schedules, travel, injuries, and public attention.

For fans, the rings provide a narrative hook. Photographs from the Olympics become time-stamped markers of a ritual in motion. Future photos will show whether she indeed adds a stripe each year and how the pattern evolves as her career does. That slow dramaturgy builds engagement beyond any single competition result.

The Stylist’s Role: Collaborator, Technician, and Visual Strategist

Kelsey Miller’s involvement highlights the collaborative role of the stylist in shaping an athlete’s public image. Colorists do more than alter pigment; they interpret concepts, weigh technical constraints, and execute plans that work in broadcast contexts. A stylist’s expertise spans chemistry, color theory, and an understanding of visual storytelling.

The stylist also acts as a steward of hair health. Lightening demands that a colorist protect keratin integrity and design aftercare regimens that an athlete can realistically follow. For an elite competitor, the stylist must reconcile aesthetic ambition with the physical realities of a training schedule. That balance—the aesthetic and the practical—is central to successful athlete styling.

In Liu’s case, Miller’s five-hour session redefined the rings without erasing their original intent. She worked with the existing bands and translated a homemade curiosity into a polished image that would perform under Olympic lights. The result demonstrates how stylist and client collaboration transforms personal ritual into public iconography.

Potential Futures: How the Look Might Evolve

The ring ritual, by design, invites speculation about future iterations. Adding stripes annually will create a visually cumulative effect: a crown that records time in layers. Over time, the look may evolve in tone—more or less contrast, different placements—or it may morph into new forms that retain the idea of temporal marking while altering the aesthetic.

The look’s evolution may also correlate with career milestones. Athletes sometimes adjust their image after major successes, setbacks, or life events. The annual cadence of Liu’s stripes suggests that any visual evolution will be deliberate and tied to temporal markers rather than reactive fashion cycles.

From a cultural standpoint, the rings might inspire imitation among fans and fellow athletes, potentially spawning a microtrend that favors slow-change hair rituals over the faster churn of seasonal trends. The idea of a visible, cumulative chronicle of years—rendered in hair rather than social posts—has resonance that extends beyond fashion.

Ethical and Cultural Observations

Symbolic rituals carry different valences in different cultural contexts. Liu’s tree-ring inspiration draws from a natural metaphor with broad cross-cultural recognition. It is not rooted in cultural appropriation concerns or contested iconography; rather, it appeals to universal ideas of growth and time. That universality helps the ritual feel personal rather than performative.

Nevertheless, public figures must navigate interpretation. When personal symbols become public, communities may repurpose them. Liu’s transparency about the meaning of the rings reduces the likelihood of misreading. She controls the narrative by tying the look explicitly to personal growth and timekeeping.

The rings also prompt a reflection on how athletes’ bodies serve as canvases for identity, negotiation, and storytelling. Athletes increasingly manage their public personas with the same intent as entertainers or designers. Styling decisions reflect those dynamics and deepen conversations about the roles athletes play beyond competition.

What Photographers and Broadcast Teams Consider

The effectiveness of a hair concept on the Olympic stage depends on how it reads in broadcast and photographic contexts. Colorists and stylists coordinate with photographers and broadcast teams to test how shades render under tungsten, LED, and outdoor lighting. Light interacts with colorants in complex ways; a tone that looks warm and soft in daylight may read flat under stadium lighting.

For live performance, camera proximity matters. Wide shots emphasize silhouette and motion; close-ups reveal texture and line. Horizontal bands must be visible in both contexts. Stylists test looks with video cameras during mock run-throughs to ensure that the bands hold up in movement and that the tones avoid unwanted reflections or moiré patterns under camera sensors.

The collaborative front between stylists, production teams, and athletes is an often-unseen part of staging a visual identity for broadcast sports. Liu’s refined bands show the payoff of careful coordination: they read cleanly on television and in print, becoming a recognizable element across media.

The Cost of Creativity: Financial and Time Investments

Creating and maintaining high-contrast hair is expensive in both time and money. Bleach, toner, and multiple salon visits accumulate costs. Specialized products—tone-preserving shampoos, bond-repair treatments, and professional toners—represent ongoing expenditure. For elite athletes, those costs are often offset by sponsorships or federation support. For the general public, similar looks may be less frequent or achieved with lower-cost, temporary methods.

Time investment matters as well. A five-hour salon turnaround is manageable when planned during an off period. Multiple sessions across months require scheduling discipline. Athletes balancing training and competition must coordinate closely with stylists to ensure that salon time does not interfere with preparation or recovery.

Those practicalities shape decisions. A polished, high-contrast look may be most feasible for those with teams and budgets behind them. That reality affects how trends propagate and who can sustain them over time.

What the Rings Reveal About Modern Athlete Narratives

Alysa Liu’s stripes reveal how athletes today craft narratives that blend performance, personal meaning, and visual identity. Sport remains the central measure of success, but athletes increasingly curate aesthetics that communicate beyond wins and losses. The rings are an example of a small, repeatable ritual that strengthens continuity in a career defined by discrete competitions and media cycles.

The ritual invites spectators to follow along. Each added stripe becomes a new chapter in a visual autobiography. That slow accumulation creates a different kind of fan relationship—one oriented to duration rather than to a single dramatic moment.

This approach aligns with broader cultural shifts that favor narrative longevity. Fans no longer engage only with isolated events; they invest in careers and stories told across seasons, social media posts, and stylistic choices. Athletes who craft legible narratives can deepen fan loyalty and expand their cultural footprint beyond sport.

Conclusion (implicit)

Alysa Liu’s tree-ring hair functions on multiple levels. It is an aesthetic choice with technical demands, a ritual with autobiographical meaning, and a visible symbol that amplifies an athlete’s public narrative. The ritualized addition of a stripe each year ties image to time and offers a slow-evolving story that fans can follow. The collaboration with a professional colorist ensured the stripes would survive the rigors of broadcast and competition while preserving hair health. More broadly, the rings demonstrate how contemporary athletes use style to make personal ritual legible and portable.

As Liu skates in the women’s singles events and continues to add bands each year, photographers and fans will have a running visual record of her career. The rings are likely to remain a distinctive feature of her public persona—a modest, deliberate act that turns hair into a chronology.

FAQ

Q: What inspired Alysa Liu’s striped hair? A: Liu explained that the rings were inspired by tree trunks and their rings, which signify the passage of time. She described the look as a personal way to mark years and growth, even telling Paralympian Haven Shepherd, “I just wanted to be a tree.”

Q: How many stripes does she currently have? A: As of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Liu has three horizontal stripes.

Q: Did she create the stripes herself? A: The initial stripes were DIY, beginning around 2023 and appearing more ginger in tone. Ahead of the Olympics she enlisted professional help to refine the bands and achieve a lighter, milk-tea blond finish.

Q: Who styled her hair for the Olympics? A: St. Louis-based colorist Kelsey Miller worked with Liu to define and tone the bands, completing the Olympic-ready transformation in about five hours.

Q: How are horizontal stripes created technically? A: Stylists map the bands across the head, section hair precisely, and use bleaching to lift color where necessary. Toning follows to achieve the desired shade. Techniques include foiling or hand-painting, bond-building treatments during processing, and careful monitoring to maintain hair health.

Q: Will the stripes affect her skating or judging? A: Hairstyle itself does not affect technical scoring. Presentation factors into program component scores, but judges evaluate performance components like choreography and interpretation, not specific hair choices. The stripes are primarily a personal and visual statement rather than a competitive variable.

Q: How often does she plan to add stripes? A: Liu has said she adds a stripe annually—typically at the end of the year—making the look a yearly ritual.

Q: How do you maintain such a color while training intensively? A: Athletes use strategies like purple toning shampoos to manage brassiness, dry shampoo to reduce washing frequency, bond-repair treatments to counteract bleaching damage, and careful scheduling to avoid intensive salon work during competitive peaks. Protection from chlorine and UV is also important.

Q: Can anyone get this look? A: Yes, but achieving and maintaining high-contrast, banded color requires professional input, time, and maintenance. Alternatives like temporary colors or clip-in extensions can mimic the look for those who want a trial run without long-term commitment.

Q: Could the rings become a broader trend? A: The rings have potential to inspire followers due to the visible narrative they create. Their annual cadence is distinctive; while fast fashion trends move quickly, a slow-change ritual like Liu’s may appeal to those seeking a deliberate, symbolic approach to style.