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Marilyn Monroe/Norma/natural hair color

ohairas

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,000
Location
Missouri
Hi girls~
I remember a while back we were discussing Norma/Marilyn's natural haircolor. I've always thought she was a natural dark blonde, which some would call a light brown.
Anyhoo.. came across some great photos on this site, tho I think it's German and I can't read some of it, lol!
http://www.kindertent.nl/marilynmonroe_homepage

There are great photos of her as a child, which she was blonde. Most true blondes are extremely blonde as a child and their hair darkens over the years. (as does everyone's)

I think the pic of her in the navy/white striped shirt, then light pink sweater and hair bow with black and white checked bottom shows her natural color best, and the pic below that with the pinifore on.
Site may take a while to load and may say "page cannot be displayed" but it's there, try again...

Tho many of these could have been colorized as well, you can just tell she was never *that* dark from her childhood pics.

Still, as her hair got darker over the years they had to use a higher and higher peroxide and finally bleach to get her to be platinum. You can see how the texture of her hair changed over time. Various meds could have also caused her to have fried hair in the end, along with possible poor bleach application and/or product. She also had natural wave which made it frizz.

Still.. even fried bleached hair looks great after a wet set!

Here's what the site said about her beauty regimine, hmmm....

Her first husband, Jim Dougherty, recalls that she used to rinse her face fifteen times after every wash.

At times she would smear Vaseline, cold cream, or hormone cream over her face.

When not wearing makeup, she would apply lanolin or olive oil to her face as a protecting agent.

She would sometimes take ice baths, prepared by her masseur, Ralph Roberts, into which she would add Chanel No. 5.

She told photographer Bert Stern in 1962 that she always used Nivea Skin Moisturizing Lotion.

There's a great pic of her in pincurls too. Poor Marilyn.. sigh......

Nikki
 

pigeon toe

One Too Many
Messages
1,328
Location
los angeles, ca
Aww, I love Marilyn. What a bombshell!

My hair was white blonde as a child too, and stayed like that until I was about 5. I started dying my hair in 9th grade, but up until then it was a mousy brown. I would have looked weird as a blonde, but it would have been better than mousy brown!
 

goldwyn girl

One Too Many
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1,883
Location
Sydney Australia and Las Vegas NV
ohairas said:
I think the pic of her in the navy/white striped shirt, then light pink sweater and hair bow with black and white checked bottom shows her natural color best, and the pic below that with the pinifore on.
Site may take a while to load and may say "page cannot be displayed" but it's there, try again.
Nikki

I agree, those pics are the closest to her natural colour and the childhood ones( two the same) appear to be coloured.

I was told by Silvia Barnhart who first bleached Marilyns Hair, when she was still Norma Jeane, a mixture of Lux flakes, peroxide and washing blue was used............No I'm not that old but I was fortunate enough to meet her a few years back.

http://marilyn.superhost.pl/fotki/barnhart.jpg


Later she had it touched up every weekend by Jean Harlows colourist Pearl Porterfield
 

mysterygal

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2,667
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Washington
ice baths!!!brrrrrr.
Marilyn's beautiful! To me, she seemed to have a 'cute' sexiness. She wasn't a Rita Hayworth, but you couldn't help but like her!
Hair; I can only imagine how bad hair bleaching was back then (ok,it wasn't THAT long ago!) but yes, she definetely was the true blonde bombshell!
 

ohairas

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,000
Location
Missouri
ACK!! A touch up every week? :eek: No wonder it was fried. There's just NO WAY to avoid overlapping with only a tiny amount of regrowth.

Nikki
 

BettyValentine

A-List Customer
Messages
332
Location
NYC
CherryRed said:
I just love the early photos of her. I think that is when she was most beautiful.

I agree entirely. When I first saw some early pictures of her I was amazed by what a beautiful girl she was under that glossy-lipped, overtly sexy blonde bombshell. I had had no idea how attractive she really was. Now I get why everyone was in love with her.
 

goldwyn girl

One Too Many
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1,883
Location
Sydney Australia and Las Vegas NV
jitterbugdoll said:
I agree; her innocence and natural affinity with the camera really came through in her early years. At the very end of her career, you can see that stardom had sapped most of that charisma right out of her.

Too true. I always think of her as the first "super model" and truly believe if she had stayed a model she would still be with us.......sigh...........
 

RetroModelSari

Practically Family
Messages
863
Location
Duesseldorf/Germany
I think she looked good both brunette and blonde, but in different ways. As a brunete she has this inocent cuteness and as a blonde she was a sexbomb. I can´t tell which sight of her I like more cause it is like two totally different people for me in a way....

I can´t see anything on the dutch website though :(
 

jitterbugdoll

Call Me a Cab
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2,042
Location
Soon to be not-so-sunny Boston
RetroModelSari said:
I think she looked good both brunette and blonde, but in different ways. As a brunete she has this inocent cuteness and as a blonde she was a sexbomb. I can´t tell which sight of her I like more cause it is like two totally different people for me in a way....

I can´t see anything on the dutch website though :(

I agree with Sari. I actually think that she was quite striking when she first dyed her hair blonde (the photos Andres de Dienes took are spectacular), and really only found the color too harsh on her at the very end of her career, when she was looking so tired from what goes on in Hollywood. She had a very interesting personality that was both innocent and na?Øve and incredibly sexy at the same time, and I think that the combination of these elements is what made her so appealing.
 

Clara Noir

Familiar Face
Messages
92
Location
Old South Wales (UK)
Am I the only person who was devastated by reading it? Seeing someone so beautiful, clever and talented get destroyed. I've never seen such a collection of photos of Norma/Marilyn, and reading that page has upped my estimations of her and her image even more.
 

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