Was Marilyn Monroe a natural blonde?

No matter if you’re old enough to remember her rise to fame or young enough to only know bits and pieces of who she was, everyone who’s anyone knows who Marilyn Monroe is — or at least knows a great deal of the versions of herself she chose to reveal.

Although the ins and outs of Monroe’s life were always in the spotlight, very few people truly knew all about the superstar, and even fewer knew all about the legend before her stardom.

However, as time went on, we became privy to the life she lived before she was known as Marilyn Monroe; the life she lived as Norma Jeane Mortenson. And one of the facts that was eventually revealed was the mystery behind Monroe’s natural hair color, along with the explanation for why she opted to make the transformation.

What was Marilyn Monroe’s natural hair color?

Surprisingly, Monroe is not a natural blonde. Rather, she was born with naturally curly brown hair, according to pictures of the late celebrity during her years as a young adult.

Why did Marilyn Monroe dye her hair blonde?

Before she became a global superstar that many aspired to be just like, she was a young girl who had her own role models she looked up to. One of these role models was the late American actress Jean Harlow, widely known as Hollywood’s “Blonde Bombshell.”

Desiring to replicate Harlow’s worldwide fame and her ethereal beauty, Monroe toyed with the idea of dyeing her hair color. But it was her modeling agency, Emmeline Snively, that gave her the affirmation she needed to make the change.

“Look, darling,” the head of Emmeline Snively reportedly said to Marilyn Monroe at the time. “If you really intend to go places in this business, you’ve just got to bleach and straighten your hair, because now your face is a little too round and a hair job will lengthen it.”

And so, Monroe took the advice and never went back. She even went so far as to permanently remove her widow’s peak to avoid exposing her brown hair.

Safe to say, Marilyn Monroe’s decision paid off, as she is now remembered in the same way her idol Jean Harlow was remembered, as a blonde bombshell.