Marilyn Monroe Hair Styles

Marilyn Monroe Hairstyles - Click for Larger Pictures

Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe	Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe hair styles.

Hers weren't the first medium curly hair cuts, and she wasn't the first platinum blonde. But Marilyn Monroe's impact on hair style was immense, and it continues to this day.

Women still try to absorb and embody some of the legend by wearing hair styles that recall Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe had fine, wavy hair which she bleached to a white or platinum blonde. This colour had been immortalised by 1930's screen actress Jean Harlow, whose hair eventually fell out because of it.

But in Marilyn's grim, unhappy childhood and adolescence Jean Harlow was her idol, and she is the unmistakable inspiration for the iconic Monroe hair style.

Marilyn Monroe Hair Styles
were inspired by Jean Harlow

It's rumoured that part of Marilyn's style, the sideward sweep of hair across her forehead, was engineered to conceal her widows peak - which wouldn't go platinum blonde however hard she tried.

Whether that's true or not, the hair styles of Marilyn Monroe highlighted her face shape beautifully, revealing here, softening there.

To achieve her look she used pin curls - twisting strands over and holding them in place with hair pins until they had set.

There's no doubting the importance of hair style in Marilyn's mind. In 1956 she insisted that Bus Stop co-star Hope Lange have her hair darkened so that it wouldn't compete with her own.

The hairstyles of Marilyn Monroe have never really gone away.

Many celebrities have tried on Marilyn Monroe hairstyles to see how they fit. Christina Aguilera once adopted the Marilyn Monroe hair style, without the colour. Madonna, of course, once made it a pastime to look like Marilyn.

Marilyn Monroe's Hair Styles
Mimicked by Madonna

From time to time, strands of Marilyn Monroe's actual hair come onto the market.

One was offered as a prize by author Jack Webb.

The strands, those that are authentic, originate with a hair stylist who removed them from Marilyn's body after her death in 1962.

Marilyn's stylist could do nothing with the ruined, matted hair left after her autopsy. Her final hair style was a wig provided by Sydney Guillaroff, a celebrity hairdresser who fainted the moment he saw Marilyn's body.

But he recovered and did the job.

Guillaroff had to cut off sections of Marilyn's hair so that the wig would fit. He kept some for himself and friends, and these are the strands that appear for sale, now and then, on the internet and privately.

Marilyn Monroe and her hair styles appeared in countless photographs and 29 movies. You can view larger versions of the pictures in this gallery by clicking on each thumbnail.