Today, Cher turns 73 years old, and for fans of the beloved pop star and 2019 Met Gala performer, whose charismatic personality and mold-breaking beauty is as iconic as her chart-topping singles, it’s reason to celebrate. Because beyond the Billboard hits, there’s the creamy voice; the won’t-quit body—which, defying all notions of age, continues to be jaw-dropping in her 70s; and, above all things, the curtains of raven black hair.
Cher burst onto the scene in 1965 with then-partner Sonny Bono, a teenager from El Centro, California, swaying back and forth to “I Got You Babe” and ditching her multisyllabic given name, Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere, in favor of becoming a four-letter word. Her image is seared into the collective consciousness as an unforgettable profile of thigh-length hair, eye-widening bangs, and cheekbone enhancing, face-framing layers—not that she needed help in that department. The song reached number one. Her star power skyrocketed accordingly.
By the 1970s, Cher added a feather to her metaphorical cap and occasionally her actual hair, becoming a household television star with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which would earn her the first of three Golden Globes. Her increasing comfort in the spotlight could be seen in her ability to shape-shift musical genres and hairstyles, keeping the beat going on with clouds of disco curls anchored by bold blue eyeshadow and a wardrobe seemingly, exclusively, composed of sequins. Years before Kylie Jenner was even born, Cher made an everyday option out of wigs, ditching her signature great lengths for a swingy flapper bob as a visual marker of independence, and going solo in 1975.
Once her own brand, there was seemingly no hairstyle too outlandish or simple. See the folksinger braids of her Gregg Allman days, the more-is-more curls she paired with less-is-more sheer bodysuits (some scandalous enough to be banned on television) and the up-to-there headpieces for the red carpet. “I’ve always taken risks and never worried what the world might really think of me,” explained the singer, who allowed her hair to be bleached and shagged with an enviably fearless attitude. Or, as she put it with characteristically good humor: “Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.”
