Rhode Island-born Mena Suvari (b. 02/13/79) has been noted for her beauty and has been working
since she was 12 (as a model). Her career options expanded to include acting roles in TV series such as “Boy Meets World”, “ER” and
“Chicago Hope” and in 1997 she started getting film roles, starting with “Kiss the Girls”.
However, the startlingly beautiful young actress seemed to light a fire under her career when she
took a role in the teen sex-quest flick “American Pie” and followed it up as the cheerleader who fuels Kevin Spacey’s mid-life crises
fantasies in “American Beauty” (both in 1999). After this, it seems that she is destined to be “America’s Beauty” for at least the
foreseeable future. (She was on the Maxim “Hot 100” list for both 2005 and 2007.)
Suvari has a beautiful mane of naturally blonde hair, the look of which has made her a most
recognizable face among young Hollywood celebs. While Mena has beautiful hair, she doesn’t always make the best choices, so let’s
have a look at some of her hairstyles and how they have turned out.
November 19, 2002
We start in 2002, a few years after her explosion into media attention with her performance in
American Beauty. Her hairstyle here is simple: A long, straight razor-cut style with a side parting. The forward locks of hair on the
parted side are tucked behind the ear to open up her face, and her hair is the classic golden blonde for which most of us know her
best.
While there isn’t anything glaringly ‘wrong’ about the haircut and style, it does very little to
address Mena’s primary physical “flaw”: a high, prominent forehead.
March 17, 2003
Here, four months later, we see Mena’s silky locks styled into a wavy, up-style that appears
wildly disheveled. She still has the golden blonde locks that she has become so famous for and the style helps to counter the
prominence of her forehead.
However, as a style I must admit that I find this to be not a very attractive look. It looks as
though it was performed by “a best friend who has just started cosmetology school”. The concept is good, but the execution looks
rather haphazard. I would much prefer to see her in a hair style that looks actually groomed.
October 23, 2004
Fast-forward a year and a half and we see a Mena Suvari with medium brown hair, instead of her
signature blonde look. The effect is significant and changes her appearance almost completely. The hair color is appropriate to her skin
tone and sticks with the golden base tone in her natural pigments.
It is also notable that she has now for the last two years kept basically the same length of
hair. It is a few inches longer than in November of 2002, but not significantly so. The hairstyle is also similar, in spite of the
difference between the sleek and straight and now wavy locks. The hair is side-parted and the bangs are swept to cover half of the
forehead area.
This style is better than some, but still doesn’t fully compensate for the prominence of the
forehead. All in all, it’s a nice look, even if it’s not exactly what I would call glamorous. In fact, my only real complaint in
Mena’s choice of hairstyles overall is that even when she is attending very high-profile functions, she never seems to look as
though much effort has been placed on styling her hair. There are of course, exceptions, but from the photos we see here, they
are few and far between.
