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Adir Abergel got his start as a hairstylist at a very early age.
When Abergel was 9 or 10, he began learning how to do the hair of the women in his life.
“I was surrounded by very strong women, Moroccan women, who loved getting their hair done because they had frizz and they had to get their hair blow-dried all the time,” Abergel said. “Somehow, to make extra money, they had convinced me that I could do their hair color and apply it on their hair.”
Today, Abergel works with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including one of the stars of The Odyssey, Charlize Theron.
For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Abergel sits down with Who What Wear co-founder Hillary Kerr to share how he got his start, a behind-the-scenes look at some of Theron’s iconic press tour moments for The Odyssey, and more.
To read excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
For anyone who’s tuning in now for the first time, can you give us just a smidge of background about how Adir became Adir?
I moved to the United States when I was 7 years old.
Didn’t speak the language, had to acclimate very quickly into my life here, and I had really incredible teachers early on who really invested time in me.
I was very, very lucky to have that.
I then was surrounded by very strong women, Moroccan women, who loved getting their hair done because they had frizz and they had to get their hair blow-dried all the time.
Somehow, to make extra money, they had convinced me that I could do their hair color and apply it on their hair.
I think I was like 9 or 10.
When I was 15, I went to school at Santa Monica College and went to cosmetology school.
When I was there, I’d heard someone was looking for an assistant, and I took the bus to Beverly Hills, and I met this guy named Arthur Johns.
Arthur Johns, at the time I didn’t know had people like Sally Hershberger assist him before me and Jonathan Antin before me, and so he was this really prolific, beautiful hairstylist who I somehow convinced by the time I left that I was going to quit school. He was going to do an apprenticeship program, and I was going to get my license through him.
Then I ended up working for him for almost seven and a half years.
I want to talk about how you started to approach this with Charlize Theron for this press tour. Can we start with the premiere in London?
I really kind of started the tour, which I always do, with really trying to understand what some of the pieces are going to look like.
Also, where are we at with Charlize’s hair, right?
We had just finished a movie that I actually went ahead and did. I was on the movie for three and a half months called Tyrant, where she plays this incredible, incredible Michelin-star chef.
I had already created this really strong bob that had very strong lines to it that was all about symmetry. That was all about intention, where every highlight was, where every cut was.
I’d already loved that concept going into this tour.
So I was thinking, “Okay, what are some of the things that I could work into this?”
I start with going into the history in my brain of things that are interesting, that I love, that I remember, and I start building boards around it.
I was thinking, “Okay, let me see the structure of this dress.”
It had this really great gathering that went to the side. It had beautiful symmetry to it.
So I wanted to create that same tension in the hair for Charlize, but it’s very hard actually when you have a bob to create something that doesn’t feel like a bob.
Because it was actually very structured and had a lot of weight at the bottom. It didn’t have a lot of layers. I had to think on how to do it.
Not easy for the everyday woman to maybe re-create this specifically at home, but if you are going to an event, it’s nice to know that you have ability to actually think outside of it.
With this, I wanted to have structure, but I still wanted to have softness to see the clarity of the bob.
It was all about linear lines.
Talk to me about the look that she wore for the Paris photo-call in front of the Eiffel Tower?
This is where haircuts are incredibly important and investing in your haircut because when you have weight, the thing that was really magic about that is that there was a lot of weight at the bottom, right?
It wasn’t thin; it was about heavy. Almost think of it as taking kitchen scissors and cutting blunt, blunt, and so you have all of this weight.
If you have fine hair, it’s incredible. Even if you have thick hair, this is incredible, right? Because it kind of creates all of that shelf right at the bottom.
The rest of it, I didn’t create a lot of volume right at the top.
I actually just took my fingers, and I wrapped it around the hair, and I scrunched it, and then I used a diffuser.
I didn’t use any curling irons. I didn’t use any heat on it.
Can we do a quick lightning round? Most underrated product in your kit?
I really, really, really, really love my Sheila Stotts detangling brush.
Hair ritual that seems extra but will actually change your life?
Scalpcare is incredibly, incredibly important.
The idea back in the day that you could go six days without washing your hair: uh-uh.
There is microbiome. There is actual bacteria growing on your scalp. If you want healthier hair, it always starts at a scalp level.
So really, really take the time and really clean your scalp.
Actually, the lengths of your hair, most of the time, don’t need a lot of washing.
Most of the time, we actually wash our hair and not our scalp.
At Virtue, we have amazing scalp products that are really focused on that to really help your hair health from the ground up.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
