How Etta James Became a Blonde

The blues singer's famous bleached hair was partially inspired by another Black woman in music.

In addition to being the day we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the date the the presidential inauguration, today is also the anniversary of the death of Etta James.

In 2012, the blues singer, who was famous for her rendition of “At Last,” died at 73 of leukemia complications.

James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles on January 25, 1938. Her mother, Dorothy Hawkins, was 14 years old at the time. James believed she was of mixed race, claiming her father was billiards player Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone. Upon James’ death, Wanderone’s widow went to the press to say that the man denied being the singer’s biological father.

James got her start in her mid teens. She wrote and recorded a thumpin’ answer record called “Roll with Me, Henry.” Though it was about dancing, the song registered as too racy for some people’s taste, so it was re-titled “The Wallflower.” As it took off, James did the same, traveling and singing with her doo wop girl group, The Peaches; initially called The Creolettes. The young ladies opened for Little Richard, making their mark on rhythm & blues as it was swapping spit with rock-n-roll. In 1960, she signed with Chess Records, shedding her former musical home, Modern Records.

It was with Chess that she recorded classics like “Trust in Me,” “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and “A Sunday Kind of Love,” the latter being one of the only songs on At Last written specifically for her.

On the cover of At Last, her 1960 debut album, her hair is as just as yellow as the background. Being Black and blonde, in those days, was rebellious. A one-way ticket to hell, depending on who you asked. Regardless of the era, blondness has social implications. Since roughly 2 percent of people on the planet can naturally call the yellow-ish hue their own, it’s highly desired—and sure to grasp a gaze.

“A blonde head attracts attention,” Jena Pincott, the science writer and author of the book called Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? , said to The Cut in 2017. “Light colors catch the eye.”

In her biography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, James explains how she came to be a blonde.

Etta James’ debut album, At Last, photographed by Brooklyn White-Grier, 2022.

She says first, her mother had dyed her hair red-orange and gave her curls that resembled finger waves. But that wasn’t her destined ‘do.

“[I]n Detroit, a gay guy bleached it until it was practically white and took out the curls,” she said in her book. The style didn’t stick—she was going for a more fabulous, ready-made rock-n-roll look.

She talks about taking beauty cues from by Joyce Bryant, the Bronze Bombshell who inspired Zendaya’s 2025 Golden Globes ensemble. (I wrote Bryant’s Essence obituary. Read it here.) Bryant had short, platinum hair. She slipped herself into formfitting evening gowns and made her public swoon, something James wanted to do, in her own way.

Jayne Mansfield, the eye-popping movie star and Playmate, was also on her mood board. Of the two women, James said, “So I think what I did, it was kind of combine [them],” in a 1994 interview.

Jayne Mansfield, 1954.

James credits the construction of her overall look to gay men. “They were setting my style and I was happy to go along,” her book also reads.

In all of the changes to her style, the jet black eyebrows stayed. “Oh no, honey,” ‘they’d say,” you leave the eyebrows dark. That’s how all the bad girls look.”

The back cover art of The Very Best of Etta James.

Young millennials and Gen Z were likely introduced to the singer’s story through Cadillac Records, the 2008 musical drama uncovering the story of Chess Records. Beyoncé was the talented and tormented James—cropped hair, hips and all. The story’s grounding performance was her “At Last,” a rendition so strong that the fellow famous Black blonde was chosen to sing it during former president Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball on this day in 2009.

Here James is in 1993, hair like honey, during the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

When you’re a girl helping set the groundwork for an entire genre, sometimes you glow up in more ways than one.