Melania Trump Is Nearly Unrecognizable In Throwback Photo With Bangs And Dark Hair

First Lady Melania Trump has had a stunning hair transformation over the years. From dark-brown locks to blond balayage, the Slovenian-born former model experimented with her hairstyle quite a bit throughout the 1990s and 2000s. However, as her husband Donald Trump turned to politics, Melania took a more predictable approach to her hair, as she stuck to essentially the same look — long dark-blond hair with face-framing highlights.

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And while Melania Trump has also given us some hair fails over the years, one throwback photo of the FLOTUS makes us wonder whether she is actually rocking the hairstyle that suits her the most today. In the early aughts, Melania — who was Donald Trump's girlfriend at the time — was rocking very different hair. Standing next to her man, Melania looks almost unrecognizable with a dark-brown color and soft, bottle-neck bangs. Yes, the blond face-framing highlights soften her features, but the curtain-like fringe and darker hair color make the first lady look a tad more mysterious and chic — and we're definitely here for that!

In 2002, Melania Trump attended a celebration for the U.S. Open Golf Championship in Cold Spring Hills, New York, and photos from the event show just how different the first lady's hair was at the time. The Slovenian-born former model showed up at the event with brown hair, and many might be surprised to see her like this, as Melania Trump's natural hair color is so different from her usual look. Apart from the color, Melania also rocked long bangs, styled to the sides in a slightly messy way, reminding us of why curtain bangs are a great choice for every face shape.

"Curtain bangs are my personal favorite type of bang," hairstylist Dan Williams explained to Glamour in 2024. "They create softness and style to any look, and they're also much easier to maintain due to the length of the style, and they're perfect for any season and any face shape." Perhaps because the bangs add some softness to Melania's angular features, the hairstyle the first lady rocked in the early 2000s definitely made her look a lot more approachable than she often looks now.

The early 2000s weren't Melania Trump's last exploration of bangs. The first lady rocked a slightly blunter and messier fringe in the early 2010s as well, showcasing once again how well the haircut suits her. This time around, however, Melania's hair color was a tad lighter, slowly shifting toward the shade she most commonly rocks today. In a 2018 conversation with Refinery29, her hairstylist Mordechai Alvow explained that the FLOTUS loves sticking to a look that she is comfortable with, which certainly explains why Melania hasn't changed her go-to hair in so long. 

"When someone is going to be in the eyes of the public and will constantly be on the news, there is a look that people want to understand and be comfortable with and associate with," the hairstylist shared. "She's not like a performer. There is a look about her where it's almost like she's the mother of the public. You want your mother to have one steady look." Now, while we completely understand the sentiment of sticking to a look you like and you know works for you, we can't help but hope that Melania starts missing her bangs again, as we'd love to see her rock them in her 50s. Who knows, maybe once she's out of the White House, the former model will be ready for a new chapter: one that calls for a dark-brown color and face-framing bangs.