Janine Turner(a must read)

I don't know if any of you caught the weekend issue of USA Today magazine, I think it runs in most Sunday newspapers. In this past Sunday's there was an article on and photographs of Janine Turner. In fact she was the cover girl for the newspaper insert. The article itself was rather uninteresting, but the photos represented a great visual history of Janine's hairstyles.

Chronologically, the photos started during her days on General Hospital in the early 80s. The picture of her isn't great but she is sporting a blonde shoulder length plus a couple of inches style which is mainly straight with some big wavy curls at the bottom.

There are a couple of photos from her Maggie O'Connell years on Northern Exposure when she became the poster girl for short hair. I'm sure most hair enthusiasts of any sort remember her dark super short cut that generated so much meida focus in the early 90s. It was short everywhere but especially so in the back where it was cut very close at the neck. They have a group picture of NE with her original 'Maggie' style and another from Cliffhanger, her movie with Sly Stallone that came out in 1993. In that photo her dark hair is still very short, but perhaps not quite as short in the back and the sides--which now just cover her ears. They didn't show any pics of the last year or so of NE (circa 95) when she began growing out her hair into a still short, but not as severe style where her hair fully covered her ears on the sides and there was an additional amount of depth and curl in the back.

Janine fell out of the entertainment spotlight after NE's run ended in 1995. I believe she appeared in some tv ads and a couple of movies but I can't recall with any certainty. I can only say I was vaguely aware that Janine's hair was considerably longer, somewhere around shoulder length or a bit abover the shoulders and that it was straight and still dark. However, my vague recollection of seeing her on Regis and Kathy Lee was that the style was somewhat unremarkable but a pleasant change.

The most interesting series of pictures are the 3 most recent ones. These are not dated well but all are implied to be reasonably current. Apparently the oldest one is a snapshot picture of Janine with her 'near 3 year old' daughter on a porch outside a house. Janine's hair style is different from any other I've seen her wear and I found it to be very remarkable. Her dark hair reaches almost to the middle of her back. Her hair is basically straight although there is a touch of curl in it and for the first time I can recall she has no bangs. The hair is essentially one length.

The next most recent picture is of Janine in her new tv show on Lifetime called Strong Medicine. The caption by the photo states this series begins in July 2000. I could find no listing for it in this weeks tv guide or any mention of it on Lifetime's web site. In this studio shot, Janine has cut approximately 3-4 inches off her hair. It now falls just past her shoulders. It is styled straight and the sides are slightly angled. The big change, other than the change in length, is the re-emergence of bangs which now cover her forehead completely. The style is very reminiscent of Jaclyn Smith. In fact, if I had been shown the photo without a context I might have guessed it was a slightly younger Jaclyn. I almost forsuredly would not have guessed it was Janine.

The final two photos are apparently (I might argue sadly as well) the most recent. While the article makes no mention of her hair, it does describe interviewing Janine at her home and the outfit described in the article seems to match the outfit on the front cover. This a much more traditional Janine Turner hairstyle. Her hair has been cut short again, although certainly not to the extreme Maggie O'Connell look of the early 90s. Instead, it is a return to the later NE years, although perhaps a tad longer in the back. Her hair is cut just above chin length although it is a sort of choppy cut (certainly not all the same length). Her hair does comfortably cover her ears. The bangs remain and are similar to the Strong Medicine shot, however they don't seem to dominate the look quite as much. All I can say for sure is that this hairstyle dramatically changes her image in the most recent pictures. It really looks like a different person from the other two 'recent photos'.

Certainly I found this hair style evolution to be quite interesting. In my mind the name Janine Turner will always bring an image of the strong-minded Maggie O'Connell from NE. The photo from her years on General Hospital I found to be almost totally unreconizable. The style was typical mid 80's and I found it to be okay if rather unspectacular. Blonde hair didn't do anything big for her in my view. In the NE years, you get what you expect. If nothing else the super short look was bold and made people pay attention. To me the look was too severe but I do think the style fit her character. The later NE style was better for Janine and probably her character too. I think Maggie had softened on the show a little and the hair style changed magnified that. Compared with her earlier style it made her look much more feminine.

After NE ended Janine no longer was forced to wear a hair style that matched her character. The 2 shots in the magazine are about the only thing I have to go on and all I can say is wow!! I found her longest hair style (w/o bangs) to be highly attractive. The style reminded me of a dark haired Kim Basinger. Although Janine's hair was not as long as Kim's has been at times . . it was a style similar to one Kim has worn in the past--again about mid-back in length. It was truly like a metamorphisis had occured. You would be hard pressed to associate that picture with Maggie O'Connell. I personally think the 'no bangs' look was a great decision as it emphasized a forehead that I thought looked good shown off.

The Strong Medicine picture was okay. I compared it to Jaclyn Smith and I think that is fair. The return to bangs really emphasized how much hair Janine had, even though it was actually a net loss from the previous picture. Her head was surrounded by hair and diminished the size of her face. Her hair clearly dominated the picture and I don't mean that altogether bad. I found the style to be pretty and very feminine. It was a much more professional look than the bang-less style and I'm assuming that went along with her role as, presumably, a doctor in 'Strong Medicine'.

The last style was most definitely a return to a 'Maggie' kind of cut. It had a much looser, care-free feel to it. The amazing thing to me was that it was as if the metamorphisis that had taken 5 years to occur had been reversed in an instant. Suddenly, Janine looked like what you would expect her too. Gone was both the somehow sexy, electric look without bangs and also the soft yet still controlled doctor-look. Instead we were back to regular old Janine--essentially the same looking person as Maggie just a few years older. I don't think it's necessarily an awful style, but I must say it was sad to see her old style return. To me it lacked the excitement of the longer styles. In general I like long hair and the process by which women change styles (from long to short or vice versa) over the years is to me very interesting. I will always associate Janine Turner with very short hair. I think it is rare for someone who becomes famous for short hairstyles (particularly after she had cut her long hair short to begin with) to then go back to long hair--in this case quite long--mid back long. So it is with some degree of sadness that I see she has cut it all off again--or at least enough that it is too short to find interesting. I fear at 37, Janine will not revert back for a third time to long hair, but rather will retain her somewhat chic short (but not too short) style for the long run. My hunch is that the hair cut is somehow tied to her role in Strong Medicine and I will probably try to follow the show in its early stages (if I can find it) to see if/when the haircut takes place and if it is mentioned on the show. I guess it's possible that the cut didn't occur until after filming had stopped for the year (if it has even stopped yet at all), but I would not bet on it. I think if the 2 longer styles had not been included in the article I would not have thought anything about Janine and her hair, but since there was such an incredible array of styles it seemed worthy of comment. Especially since the last 3 all were within the past year or less. I also think I would be reasonably pleased with her current style if I had not seen the other two, in my opinion, better styles.

I spent a great deal of energy on this and I'm very interested in comments and feedback from others. What did you think? What was your favorite style? Are you aware of other styles in the growing out process when Janine was at least somewhat out of the limelight between 95 and 00. I'm interested to hear what you think. Since many of you also would have access the insert magazine perhaps you have other, better comments on the her hair styles that I tried to describe, if so please mention. Clearly I would like to discuss this and am hoping for some responses.

Thanks,
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Hoping my passion for long hair doesn't disqualify my opinion, I, too, was disappointed when Janine cut her hair short again. I mean, what was the point? I would think she would want to distance herself from the "Maggie" role that most people know her from. That's what her current hairdo reminds me of. I think her best (read: sexiest) look is long, straight and parted on the side. It was longer in her General Hospital days, but something about that look is a bit too fake. Here's a vote hoping Janine will go back to the long, straight look.

Don't worry Gord, your passion does disqualify you ;)!