Bleach Babes
In the seventy-five-plus years that platinum blond hair has been around, not much has changed except for the coloring process. It s still the dramatic, sexy, go-to look for celebs and models who want to score attention. Here, we take a look at white-hot hair color from Marilyn Monroe to Debbie Harry to Saskia de Brauw.
Photo: John Kobal Foundation / Getty Images1/17THE PIONEER
Jean Harlow wasn t kidding herself about why she was a star—the actress reportedly admitted that it had everything to do with her ’do. During Harlow s 1930 s heyday, there was no such thing as a proper platinum dye-job. So her hairstylist relied on a frightening concoction of ammonia, laundry detergent, and Clorox Bleach to create his client s signature color. Nobody else could duplicate the shade. The PR for movie producer Howard Hughes decided to call the color "platinum blond," and the term became a permanent part of the English lexicon. Harlow died at 26, without knowing that her groundbreaking hair color would live on (and on and on).
Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt / Time Life Pictures / Getty Images2/17THE BOMBSHELL
2.0 Jean Harlow may have been the first screen siren with bleached hair, but it s Marilyn Monroe, the towheaded vixen who came after her, who is remembered best for her pale hair, sex appeal, and untimely death. The ditzy characters she often played in her films (and the breathy way she delivered her lines) earned her a rep as an airhead. Monroe was nothing of the sort. She once said, "It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde."
Photo: Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images3/17THE HITCHOCK BLOND
Half a century after its release, Alfred Hitchcock s Vertigo is a bit of a snooze—James Stewart and Kim Novak s performances are positively wooden. But Novak s so-white-it-was-almost-silver hair? Perfection.
Photos: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images4/17Beloved gospel, soul, and blues singer Etta James broke all the rules when she dyed her hair in the 1950s. "I feel like Etta was the first black woman I saw with platinum blond hair," said Beyoncé, who played James in the biopic Cadillac Records. "She wore her leopard and she wore her sexy silhouette and she didn t care. She was strong and confident and always Etta James."
Photo: Richard Young / RexUSA5/17THE ROCK STAR
Debbie Harry s status as one of the most influential beauties of all time was cemented when Andy Warhol made her his muse for a 1980 silk-screen portrait. The piece sold for 3.7 million pounds (approximately $6 million) at a Sotheby s auction in 2011. Not only is Harry s signature look still going strong, so is her band. Blondie is kicking off a forty-year anniversary tour in March.
