‘The Big Bang Theory’ Season 8 Spoilers: How Did Episode 1 Address Kaley Cuoco’s Short Hair?

“The Big Bang Theory” star Kaley Cuoco got a drastic haircut in June, and it made its debut on-screen in the Season 8 premiere of the hit CBS sitcom. Cuoco’s character, Penny, is known for her long blonde locks. So needless to say, the actress shocked her fans when she debuted the new short hair ‘do – a pixie cut!

How did the show address the big change for Penny? The hour-long Season 8 premiere kicked off with Sheldon (Jim Parsons) pants-less at a train station and a pixie cut rocking Penny doing yoga in Leonard’s (Johnny Galecki) apartment. Since the episode started with a mini time jump 45 days after the finale, the show set it up so that it seemed as if Penny had the haircut for some time. However, they did make a little joke about it.

Sheldon called Leonard from an Arizona jail asking him to pick him up after all of his belongings were stolen from his sleeper car. Leonard agreed and asked Penny if she wanted to take the six-hour drive to grab him. Penny declined, stating that she had a job interview to go on and didn’t want to deal with a six-hour car ride of Sheldon harassing her about her hair.

“Your hairs different. Why is your hair different?” Penny said to Leonard, impersonating Sheldon. “I’m holding my breath until your hair grows back.”

Penny was right not to go on the road trip to pick up Sheldon. Leonard and Amy (Mayim Balik) finally got him back to the apartment and convinced him that even though his trip didn’t go his way, it was still something to be proud of.

“I’m ready to deal with any changes that come my way,” Sheldon said before walking into the apartment. But he stopped in his tracks when he saw Penny.

“Your hair is different,” he exclaimed. “You changed your hair. I can’t take this. I’m out.”

Watch the clip of Sheldon’s freak out in the promo for Season 8 of “The Big Bang Theory”:

As we previously reported, Kaley Cuoco warned “The Big Bang Theory” writers before she chopped her locks. She initially asked to cut off a few inches, but as fans know went a little shorter than that.

“There was a lot of talk about doing extensions and something else,” she explained in a video before the Season 8 premiere. “I had a talk with the writers who loved it and they were great about it.”

Do you like how the show addressed Kaley Cuoco’s new short hair? Tweet your thoughts to @AmandaTVScoop.