Sylvia Barnhart with Marilyn Monroe, 1946
Sylvia Barnhart, the woman who first dyed Marilyn Monroe’s hair blonde, has died. In recent years she was a favourite at meetings of the Marilyn Remembered fan club in Los Angeles, California.
In 1945, Norma Jeane Dougherty was a 19 year-old model in Los Angeles, working for the Blue Book Agency. Her hair was then naturally mid-brown. That winter, she was offered a series of shampoo print advertisements with photographer, Raphael Wolff, on condition that she bleach her hair first. Norma Jeane’s boss, Emmeline Sniveley, explained that blonde models were currently in vogue because they photographed well in any colour or light.
Norma Jeane was sent to Frank & Joseph Hair Stylists, just across the street from The Ambassador Hotel, on Wilshire Boulevard, where the Blue Book Agency was based. Over an eight-month period, Sylvia Barnhart straightened and bleached Norma Jeane’s hair to a golden blonde. During this time, Norma Jeane also changed her name to the more glamorous ‘Marilyn Monroe’, and signed her first film contract with Twentieth Century Fox. Marilyn later confided to friends that she had initially disliked her new name, and was unsure about going blonde.
Shampoo advertisment, 1945
The transformation begins
Advertisment, circa 1951
But when Sylvia moved to Frank & Joseph’s other salon on Hollywood Boulevard, Marilyn followed her. Eventually Marilyn had her hair lightened to a dazzling platinum blonde, or in her own words, ‘pillow-case white’. For several years afterward, Marilyn kept a weekly appointment with Sylvia on Saturdays at 1:30 pm. ‘She’d come in like two or three hours late and still expect to be taken care of,’ Sylvia recalled. ‘But she was just magnificent, breathtaking to look at.’
1953 advertisment
In his illustrated guide to Marilyn’s Los Angeles addresses and haunts, Hometown Girl (2004), Eric Woodard wrote that ‘nearsighted Sylvia was inspiration for Pola, MM’s character in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953.) One day Monroe saw her bumping into furniture while without her glasses and even borrowed a spare pair to rehearse with.’
Woodard also stated that the Wilshire Boulevard salon where Sylvia met Marilyn is now part of the Wilshire Plaza, while the Hollywood location is now a toy store.
Tara Hanks 
Great blog post! I mean just imagine if one the most iconic blondes in the world never became a blonde? Marilyn and her nerves always caused her to be late. I know people people found her to be a diva for that, but she was just so nervous. A very enlightening read on her first hairdresser.
Thanks for your comment, Jackey – I like to remember the lesser-known people in Marilyn’s life, and Sylvia definitely deserves a mention. I agree that Marilyn’s tardiness was probably caused by lack of confidence, rather than just selfishness. I can understand that it could be very annoying and some people may have got the wrong impression of Marilyn because of it, but I don’t think she could help being insecure about herself at times.
Look how fresh faced and, to put it blandly, “typical” Marilyn looks in that shampoo advert. I’ve never seen a picture of her so young. It is humbling; makes one realize she may have never become so iconic. And in some ways I wonder if it would not have been better for her if she had remained Norma Jeane.
I’ve never known a star as different from the image she created as Marilyn was, and that duality makes her all the more interesting to me. It probably made her inner life even harder, but as she said herself, ‘I always had too much fantasy to be just a housewife.’
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