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Jane Fonda’s Transformative Year: A Look Back at 1970

The year 1970 marked a pivotal chapter in Jane Fonda’s life and career. Fresh off her role in the crime thriller Klute, Fonda was on her way home from an anti-Vietnam War speaking event in Canada, part of her inaugural North American tour. A stop in Cleveland led to an unexpected turn when police seized her luggage at the airport and detained her on suspicions of drug smuggling. Fonda later recounted this experience in an essay titled “Mug Shot,” where she reflected on the powerful image of her with a fierce expression and raised fist, captured over five decades ago.

1970 proved to be significant not just for her career but also for her personal evolution, including a transformation in her appearance. As she detailed in her 2006 memoir, My Life So Far, it was during this period that she experienced what she termed her “first hair epiphany.” During the recent Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus honored Fonda with the Life Achievement Award, recalling this iconic haircut that inadvertently sparked its own beauty movement.

Louis-Dreyfus described Fonda’s distinctive hairstyle, characterized by choppy bangs across her forehead and striking face-framing sideburns, which evolved into a look that was part mullet, part shag. At the time, Fonda was breaking away from the traditional beauty standards that defined her earlier image as a bombshell blonde model. This haircut symbolized her readiness for change.

In her memoir, Fonda reflects on the constraints her long, blonde hair imposed on her identity. “Hair had ruled me for many years,” she admits, noting that the men in her life preferred her traditional hairstyle. But with her new look—edgy, brunette, and wildly unmanageable—she embraced a newfound freedom. Her haircut was emblematic of her rebellion against societal norms and commitment to civil rights activism, particularly in opposition to the Vietnam War’s atrocities. “Perhaps I used to hide behind [my hair],” she observed, recognizing that she was now confronting fears much larger than simply her appearance.

Meeting hairstylist Paul McGregor was a transformative experience, as she boldly instructed him to “Do something.” This moment encapsulated Fonda’s shift toward authenticity, rejecting the expectations placed upon her by others and asserting her individuality. Through this hairstyle and her activism, Fonda made a powerful statement about self-identity during a turbulent era in American history.

Source
www.vogue.com