HE’S the hairdresser to the stars, styling the locks of Hollywood’s best-known blondes from Gwyneth Paltrow to Britney Spears.
And in new TV series Blowing LA, Los Angeles salon owner Kim Vo reveals that sometimes his A-list clients can be more than a little snippy.
8
8
Master colourist Kim, known as “best blender in the business”, said: “The ones you think that are the sweetest and low-maintenance, woo — they’re almost like bridezilla or promzilla.
“It’s the ones you never expect to be like that . . . wow!”
The cheekily named Paramount+ series — dubbed “Selling Sunset for hairdressing” — dives into the world of celebrity salons where haircuts can cost more than £2,000 before a tip.
And when you pay big for Hollywood tresses you can afford to unleash some diva behaviour.
Kim says one of his most challenging clients was Britney, who he would secretly smuggle into hotel rooms to do her highlights.
He said: “I’ve been doing her hair since she was 18.
“We could go to suites and do their hair. So we didn’t necessarily have to go to their homes.
“They could come to us and we can have a private entrance, a private elevator that goes right up to the room.”
But after Britney got together with ex-husband Kevin Federline, she would constantly insist on wrecking his hours of bleaching.
Kim said: “I’ll get a call from the assistant, probably at 3am, saying she decided to go and get black hair colour and dye her hair.
8
8
‘The hair with the red swimsuit is my work’
“The paps would get her with her new look and the magazines would call me and say, ‘Did you do her dark?’
“And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I thought that was a dream’.
“So, yes, there were times where I think she wanted some fun. She wanted some freedom and we would have to correct it.”
Kim — who also claims to be a pet psychic — once caused one of Britney’s break-ups.
He noticed Britney’s dog took issue with a boyfriend she had before meeting husband Sam Asghari, whom she married in June.
Kim said: “One of the funniest moments was where the dog was ped with one of her new boyfriends.
“She’s like, ‘I don’t know why he gets so moody when this person comes around’. And I go, ‘Because he’s ped at him, he’s telling me!’
“She goes, ‘Oh my God. That makes total sense’.
“I think there was a lot of jealousy between the dog and the boyfriend.”
Born in Vietnam, floppy-haired Kim moved to California with his family aged nine.
After going to beauty school he landed jobs in some of Tinseltown’s most famous salons during the Nineties.
That is when he gained his first famous client, a mousy-haired Canadian actress called Pamela Anderson.
Kim said it was thanks to him that a newly peroxided Pammie became an iconic Baywatch bottle-blonde.
He explained: “That blonde hair with the red swimsuit is my work.
“I was like 20, 21, and doing this and just not understanding the impact hair has. I was very young and she was amazing and starting her career.”
Kim told how, while on the road, he would have to coach Pamela’s assistant over the phone on how to touch up her roots.
He said: “This is way before FaceTime and Skyping and all this. “So we would be on the phone and she’d be like, ‘Am I doing this right?’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t see it, love. Describe what you’re doing’.” But it wasn’t until he worked with Gwyneth Paltrow that he truly landed on the showbiz hairdressing map.
He first dyed her locks in 1997, when she was filming Sliding Doors and dating Brad Pitt.
Kim said: “She’s got her own masseuses. She’s got it all set up.
“She’s one of those people who’s the best hostess. She’s got her world.
“I only do hair colour. I don’t blow dry or cut. So I bring our little glam squad with me.
“But it was after Gwyneth that Vogue magazine voted me the best blonder in the business, so this is when the journey started with all my blondes.”
Kim credits himself with creating the “ombre” hair trend — where hair is darker at the roots and lighter at the tips.
He says the style came about accidentally when working with socialite Paris Hilton’s sister Nicky.
He said: “She wanted to grow out her natural colour. I started painting the ends and then we ended up creating this ombre.
“Then I created another look called sombre, which is a softer side of ombre.”
Working almost exclusively with blonde clients, Kim has highlighted household names from Clueless actress Alicia Silverstone and actress Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate to Reservoir Dogs star Uma Thurman.
But he made one exception — for a raven-haired Katy Perry when she was first cracking the music business in the Noughties.
He said: “I can kick myself now. She gave me a CD, a demo, and I didn’t keep it because it was just this silly song called I Kissed A Girl.
“I was like, ‘I’m not a record producer. Is this song going to go anywhere? What’s the big deal?’.
“I don’t know what I did with it but it became famous. It was a hit and I had the original.”
Special table for a designer handbag
The pair soon became fast friends, with Katy inviting Kim to her rock ’n’ roll parties.
He said: “I remember her 25th birthday party, where she had us all wear white.
“It was an Alice In Wonderland theme and what she didn’t tell you is that when we got in there, we were going to get splashed with paint in different colours.
So I had a gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana all-white outfit.
“If someone would’ve told me, I would’ve worn Zara. But still, for Katy I would do anything.
“That’s how she is, that’s how spontaneous she is.”
As well as celebrities, Kim and his salon cater to some very high net-worth individuals who want the Hollywood treatment on their hair.
One client, who goes only by the name Megan, has a hidden closet in her mansion where she hides £3.3million of designer Hermes Birkin handbags.
He explains other clients demand separate tables to place their luxury handbags.
Kim said: “I remember the first time I’d seen that, where they’re like, ‘Oh, can I get a table for my Birkin?’ I thought this person was drunk.
I didn’t understand. And the waiter brings out this little table just for the bag. It’s very Beverly Hills.”
Yet even the wealthiest clients will have their heads dunked under the kitchen tap if they don’t have an at-home salon set up.
Kim said: “You put their hair colour on, put a towel over their face and we literally put your head under the tap.
“So you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m putting this celebrity that’s worth a hundred million in her sink, trying to scrub her hair’.
“If she’s wearing mascara, she comes up with a raccoon look.”
Although Kim sees celebrities at their least glamorous moments, he prides himself on his discretion.
But even if he wanted to indulge in tittle tattle, the juiciest moments are usually protected by iron-clad NDAs.
He said: “Once someone touches your hair and you really trust them, barriers come down. And I feel with celebrities, they have to really watch what they say.”
He added: “I’m constantly in those moments where celebrities find out something’s going to hit the press and it all kicks off.
“The interesting thing about this — and this is where the NDA kicks in — I really can’t tell you about those moments.”
8
8
8
He hinted: “We just had a movie opening recently where two of the actresses didn’t get along and another actor was rejected from the film. He bowed out gracefully.”
- Blowing LA is available from December 7 on Paramount+.