Eva Longoria – No Desperate Housewife!

Eva Longoria, full name Eva Jacqueline Longoria, is an American actress born in 1975 and best known for her role as Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series ‘Desperate Housewives’.

Eva has graced the cover of a number of high-profile magazines including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire and FHM, as well as appearing in advertising campaigns around the world. A fun and feisty actress with her feet firmly on the ground, Eva has won a place in our hearts and her character Gabrielle remains a firm favorite of ours here at HairColorCode.

The Hair Color Ages of Eva

Young and Restless?

To channel early Eva try L’Oreal’s Excell 10 5.5: Chocolate Brown

Honey honey, how you thrill me

Get the look with L’Oreal Excellence Creme 5.3 Golden Brown

Because you’re worth it

Eva uses L’Oreal Recital Preference 5.35 Madras Golden Mahogany Brown

From ugly duckling to desperate housewife

Eva was born in Nueces County, Texas to Tejano parents, Enrique Longoria Jnr. and Ella Eva Mireles, which is where she got her name. She was raised a staunch Roman Catholic and is the youngest of four girls – something that was not all that easy for her growing up. In an interview Eva said, ‘I grew up as the ugly duckling. They used to call me ‘la prieta fea,’ which means ‘the ugly dark one’’.

Eva originally wanted to be a fashion model and submitted photos of herself to modelling agencies. Unfortunately she was deemed her too short to be a model but during her time at Texas A&M University-Kingsville she won the title of Miss Corpus Christi which gave her a huge confidence boost. After college, she entered a talent competition which took her to Los Angeles, California, and soon after that she caught the attention of a theatrical agent and was signed.

Eva’s first television role was in the year 2000, where she guest-starred in ‘Beverly Hills 90210’. Another guest appearance in ‘General Hospital’ in the same year lead to her big break in the soap ‘The Young and The Restless’, where she played a psychotic woman named Isabella Williams from 2001 to 2003. After leaving the soap, Eva was seen in a few unsuccessful television films but her luck changed when she was cast as Gabrielle Solis in ‘Desperate Housewives’ in 2004, a series which soon became a success all over the world.

So that’s the resume out of the way, now let’s get to the hair!

When Eva first arrived on our screens she was sporting her natural hair color, a deep, dark brown, her luscious locks styled long and bouncy with a centre parting. She kept this color for a few years, remaining a raven-haired beauty throughout ‘The Young and The Restless’. In her subsequent television movies, her hair color remained the same but was styled a little differently; in ‘Dragnet’, she sported slicked back locks and a similar look in ‘The Dead Will Tell’.

The first series of ‘Desperate Housewives’ saw Eva rocking a different style, her hair parted to the side, long bangs and a bouncy ‘do, but with the same dark brown hair color. In the second series, Eva went for a slightly different hue and opted for dark brown hair with mahogany undertones, keeping the style classic and long. Season 4 saw another new look for Eva and this was when we first started to see her blonde and honey highlights. Again, the styling was kept classy and voluminous, and in 2006, was altered slightly to give Eva a Hollywood movie-star feel, centre-parted with large loose waves. Eva had more honey and blonde tones put through her hair and began to really carve out a distinctive look for herself.

In 2009, Eva was signed by L’Oreal Paris as a hair model, showcasing her new ‘signature’ hair color which was a dark brown with reddish undertones. That color deepened into a more pronounced red in 2010 during filming for her new film ‘Without Men’. Now, in 2011, Eva has settled into a deep red hue, occasionally going back to her original brunette looks – although we don’t need to tell you, she looks fabulous whatever her hair color! With the eighth and last season of ‘Desperate Housewives’ set to premiere later this month, we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled here at Hair Color Code to see which luscious shade she’ll be rocking.