Photos from Marilyn Monroe's early career as a model showcase her natural hair color, a light brown color distinctly different from the platinum color she's associated with. In a 1962 interview, Emmeline Snively, the owner of the Blue Book Modeling Agency where Monroe spent her early career, shared that it was her own urging that led to Monroe's iconic blonde appearance.
"She had what I call 'California blonde' hair which is darker in the winter and lighter in the summer because it's bleached on top," Snively explained. "I had to talk her into anything that was not just natural and not Norma Jeane Doherty, which was her name then. She had to be talked into lightening it so that she was a blonde in the winter as well as in the summer and we had it straightened and I noticed that she kept it that way all the rest of her life."
According to an excerpt from "Before Marilyn: The Blue Book Modeling Years" by Astrid Franse and Michelle Morgan featured by TheCinemaholic, Snively reasoned that a blonde and straightened look would get Monroe further in her career, especially because she believed it would balance her features. While we can't know if Monroe would have seen success as a brunette, it's undeniable that her blonde hair became an iconic feature of her look.
