I loved Mary's hair the best the first couple of seasons. That's when it was past her shoulders, little flip at the end, and very dark. I don't think the shorter, lighter-colored hair suited her, but that's just me.

Short Hair

Shorter hair

The short hair made her look more professional.

I like Mary's hair and her style best in the first two seasons. She had a hippy ingenue look with that long mane of brunette hair. :eyes: In the third season, she had shorter hair dyed blond and looked more like a TV executive's wife than the iconic hat-tossing babe. I think it was also the clothes and less body curves and less of a baby face due to weight loss. I think she looked better in later seasons though, with better hair and wardrobe, so season 3 was a low point in that regard, for me.

This is my first post, so "Hi" all. :wave:

The shorter hair gave her a more "grown up" and "mature" look.

Not that there was anything wrong with her long black hair in the early years, but the change to shorter hair wasn't bad.

When a woman matures, her hair should get shorter.

As much as I often think women look better with long hair, it is weird seeing a woman over 60 with long hair.

At some point a woman needs to make the transition from long hair to short.

We as men just hope a woman doesn't make the transition too soon. :D

I don't think Mary did, though. It was the right time.

As much as I often think women look better with long hair, it is weird seeing a woman over 60 with long hair.

At some point a woman needs to make the transition from long hair to short.

We as men just hope a woman doesn't make the transition too soon. :D

I don't think Mary did, though. It was the right time.

We'll just agree to disagree then. :) I liked her ingenue hat-tossing look in the early seasons and think she was young enough to pull it off for a few more years at least, but she apparently wanted to look more professional. Like I said, season 3 was a low point for me, and she did improve upon the mature look in later seasons, for me at least.

Hello, TV 123!!:wave:

I LOVED her with longer hair. She just looked so sexy like that.

Long hair! They should have let her keep it long, but straighter without the flip. The longer hair with the flip was cute , but out of style going into the 70's! She started to look too old with her hair shorter. Plus I liked the darker color when it was long too!

I liked her with her season 1 hair the best. I think it was a 'fall,' a sort of wig attached underneath her real hair. Her hair looked amazing in the episode "Support Your Local Mother." Of course, the fashions of that time were very hip and youth orientated, as well.

These two pictures show her hair the best that she ever had it.

I liked her with her season 1 hair the best. I think it was a 'fall,' a sort of wig attached underneath her real hair. Her hair looked amazing in the episode "Support Your Local Mother." Of course, the fashions of that time were very hip and youth orientated, as well.
yea, I liked her hair the best in the first season too. And you're right it was a "fall" which like you said is a kind of wig. (I remember my mother used to have one) She wore it to disassociate herself from Laura Petrie.

These two pictures show her hair the best that she ever had it.
I won't argue with the fans of her long hair. She looks great there. She looked good with shorter hair too though.

I would have to say the shorter hair because: 1) the long hair wasn't even real! 2) I think Mary Tyler Moore herself preferred the shorter hair; the only reason for the long hair in the first two seasons was so she wouldn't look like Laura Petrie; 3) well, I have no third reason. I think she looked greater whether her hair was long or short. But knowing the real Mary always wanted her hair short, that's the best reason for me to prefer it.

So that is a fact, that all that wasn't her real hair? Wow. Like now days the girls get extensions to make their hair longer and lusher ! But Mary's wasn't even that long, but maybe to get it to look fuller?

I much preferred her with short hair. She looked so chic with short hair. I read that the long hair she wore in season one and two was a wig anyway. Her natural hair was so pretty. Mary was one of the cutting edge women who went to shorter hair in the early 1970s. Remember back then the style was long stringy straight hair with no curl or style to it. Mary was a beauty.

She has such beautiful hair and I think that is why I prefer it in the long style. The more the better.

Didnt realize how hot she was with longer hair. The shorter hair makes her look old.

Didnt realize how hot she was with longer hair. The shorter hair makes her look old.


I agree! ;) The shorter hair aged her!

Long hair!

Long hair.

She looked about 5-8 years older with the season 3 switch to short hair. Mary was a very sultry, attractive cougar though! Check out her green dress :crazy: in a season 5 episode "You Try To Be A Nice Guy". She was age 40 or so at the time.

I liked her with the longer hair in the first two seasons. I don't really like the longer hair

Are we 100 percent confirmed that that longer hair was a wig? I never heard that before. Anybody have a source?

I liked her longer hair, and I don't agree that at some point all women have to 'transition' to shorter hair. But I will agree that since most people have a prejudice against gray hair, the shorter hair as you age makes sense because it's less noticeable in shorter hair. Sad that we're still so rigid about beauty standards.

I still have to marvel at how young Mary looked in that first season. She certainly didn't look her real age of 33!

Long Hair

I didn't like the long hair,I remember watching the show on cable and seeing a bit of tape on Mary's hair,so thats when I wondered wether it was a wig,I liked Mary with shorter hair,that was an awful wig Mary wore in season 6,just stood out as a wig,worn in the "Chuckles" episode.

Valerie Harper wore a wig in the first season of "Rhoda".

She looked about 5-8 years older with the season 3 switch to short hair. Mary was a very sultry, attractive cougar though! Check out her green dress :crazy: in a season 5 episode "You Try To Be A Nice Guy". She was age 40 or so at the time.


I think her looks fluctuated not so much with the length of her hair but her health. The diabetes flared up over time. But yes, that green dress was legendary. :eek:

In the larger picture, this was taken around 1970-1 when the what I call "Jackie-O" look was in, where women with straight hair would curl the ends up. My mother did her hair like that with me when I was a baby in 1967.

Personally I liked her with short hair.

Ed.

Mary really aged between the last episode of season 2 and the first episode of season 3 when she first had short hair.
It was the biggest change in looks between seasons.

Mary looked good in seasons 4 & 5, but looked old again in season 6 with that awful perm. Season 7 she was okay.

I don't have a preference, but hated seeing her look old.
But as already mentioned, it was more than her hair that aged her.

Something else - When Mary had longer hair, you saw more scenes with her in her skimpy night gown. By the time she moved to her 2nd place, no more scenes with skimpy night gowns.

Mary really aged between the last episode of season 2 and the first episode of season 3 when she first had short hair.
It was the biggest change in looks between seasons.

Mary looked good in seasons 4 & 5, but looked old again in season 6 with that awful perm. Season 7 she was okay.

I don't have a preference, but hated seeing her look old.
But as already mentioned, it was more than her hair that aged her.

Something else - When Mary had longer hair, you saw more scenes with her in her skimpy night gown. By the time she moved to her 2nd place, no more scenes with skimpy night gowns.

Not only this, but I notice Mary is in pants almost all the time in season 5. In earlier seasons she never work pants to work at all. Her whole look was much less sophisticated, much more dainty and feminine.
I also noticed a hardness to Mary in season 4 that was not there previously. At times she seemed downright mean.

I've just recently gotten into the show and I miss the longer haired/dress wearing Mary of the early seasons. I really adore the opening of the first 3 seasons. It's so inspiring seeing a young Mary running around wearing dainty, girly clothes and looking pretty but still being independent and very much her own woman.
In contrast I was sort of appalled by the the season 4 opening. I hated the the masculine pants suits and hated the hair and the awful tan. Her whole demeanor was different. She seemed cynical in that newer opening and was no longer "sweet". Was this to please the growing feminist climate at that time?
I really don't understand what happened between season 3 and 4 and even between season 2 and 3. It disappoints me.
I'm on season 5 now but tempted to go back and start over from season 1 which was some of the best tv ever.

Are we 100 percent confirmed that that longer hair was a wig? I never heard that before. Anybody have a source?

I liked her longer hair, and I don't agree that at some point all women have to 'transition' to shorter hair. But I will agree that since most people have a prejudice against gray hair, the shorter hair as you age makes sense because it's less noticeable in shorter hair. Sad that we're still so rigid about beauty standards.

I still have to marvel at how young Mary looked in that first season. She certainly didn't look her real age of 33!

She wore wigs often, and it’s noticeable when episodes are binged. Her hair in the Chuckles the Clown episode is an obvious wig.

In one later episode when Mary goes to a convention in DC, MTM eschews the wig and you can see that her real hair is thin and stringy.

Bump:

I've transcribed part of a 1999 Larry King interview with Mary, side-by-side with Dick Van Dyke, in which Mary's longer hair is addressed (from very early on in her series). No mention of wigs, but of a cut.

LK = Larry King
MTM = Mary Tyler Moore
DVD = Dick Van Dyke

LK: "Why were you wearing long hair, in that scene we just saw?"

MTM: "Because, we [DVD & MTM] had made such a strong impression, everybody thought we were married, and they thought if I go on as having left a boyfriend as a new character they will think she left Dick Van Dyke, and that was unacceptable, nobody would ever... [difficult to decipher, as LK talks over]"

LK: "So how long did you have that hair, long like that?"

MTM: "Just a year, and then I felt everyone had forgotten you [DVD] and I could cut my hair..."
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So gorgeous with her longer dark hair - :eyes: - extremely hot in this image:
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everybody thought we were married

I've never met anyone who thought Mary Tyler Moore and Dick van Dyke were married. It's like the Gilligan's Island thing, where they keep saying that people thought they were really trapped on the island. I have no doubt such people existed, but in a country of 200 million people at the time you had any number of psychotics who could sign up to believe anything. They weren't the norm in the country.

Bump:

I've transcribed part of a 1999 Larry King interview with Mary, side-by-side with Dick Van Dyke, in which Mary's longer hair is addressed (from very early on in her series). No mention of wigs, but of a cut.

LK = Larry King
MTM = Mary Tyler Moore
DVD = Dick Van Dyke

LK: "Why were you wearing long hair, in that scene we just saw?"

MTM: "Because, we [DVD & MTM] had made such a strong impression, everybody thought we were married, and they thought if I go on as having left a boyfriend as a new character they will think she left Dick Van Dyke, and that was unacceptable, nobody would ever... [difficult to decipher, as LK talks over]"

LK: "So how long did you have that hair, long like that?"

MTM: "Just a year, and then I felt everyone had forgotten you [DVD] and I could cut my hair..."
__________________________



She really didn't answer the question. Her hair was never that long on DVD.

I wish she had kept it that long.

I prefer the way she looked on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Didn't care all that much for her looks when she had her own show.

I prefer the way she looked on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Didn't care all that much for her looks when she had her own show.

For one thing, she was nearly a decade older.

When I watch those old DVD episodes, I am overwhelmed by how skinny both DVD and MTM appear. They look like concentration camp survivors to me, their arms are so thin.

For one thing, she was nearly a decade older.

Agreed.

MTM was a very attractive woman. I liked her look in all of her TV shows. Remember, she was a main character on DVD and the lead in MTMS, so she had to reflect the styles of the day of the period in which the shows were filmed. In her own show, I liked her hair shorter better. Shoulder length looked really good on her. She had a good sense of style.

MTM was a very attractive woman. I liked her look in all of her TV shows. Remember, she was a main character on DVD and the lead in MTMS, so she had to reflect the styles of the day of the period in which the shows were filmed. In her own show, I liked her hair shorter better. Shoulder length looked really good on her. She had a good sense of style.

I agree that in The Dick Van Dyke Show she resembled a 1960's woman, and in her own series she resembled a 1970's woman.

Mary had such a pretty face, it's interesting to see how she looked wearing different hairstyles. I did like her later style with bangs on The Dick Van Dyke Show,
I thought she looked so cute tucking her tresses behind her ears. Beautiful dark hair for sure. She was insanely hot on that series...!

Let's have a look at Mary's longer hair on TMTMS, at times partially pulled back which allowed for tasteful earrings on display. A very lovely woman!

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Mary wearing boots, nice! Likely her hair is at its longest,
approaching bra-strap length. From the pilot ep, I believe:
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Here we have the type of outfit we needed to see on
TMTMS. Mary is looking so hot in shorts! :eyes: One
of the finest bodies of all TV women ever:
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I have to say I love Mary's expression in this image:
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290505

What a pleasure it is to study this lovely lady. Even playing a reserved and
somewhat chaste character on her series, she brings a very appealing
sexuality and serves as a model for '70s fashions of the highest order.

Yes, Mary was a beauty. I think I read that the long hair she wore in Season 1 and part of two was a wig. She seemed to prefer shorter hair for herself. I think they put the wig on her to differentiate the Mary character more from her Laura Petrie character. I believe I read that.