Hairstylist to stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway and Kristen Stewart, Adir Abergel has been working with top-notch talent for his whole life — just not in the beauty sphere.
“As a kid, I fell in love with dancing,” Abergel said. “I thought that’s where my life was going to lead me. I went on tours with Brandy and performed with Michael Jackson on the We Are the World tour. Funny enough, at the age of 10, I started blow drying all of my mom’s friends’ hair and doing color for $5. That was when I started doing hair.”
Abergel’s transition into professional hairdressing came after an unexpected detour, when an injury all but eliminated his prospects of joining the American Ballet Theatre. He found himself at the age of 15, having already completed his high school requirements, back in his hometown of Los Angeles. “I heard this guy named Arthur Johns was looking for an assistant. I didn’t know who he was, but prior to me, Sally Hershberger had assisted him, Jonathan Antin had assisted him. His sister started the Pussycat Dolls, so I worked with them later in my career,” Abergel said.
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That early exposure to Johns’ clientele gave Abergel an unparalleled education in culture. “I was a 15-year-old kid working with Arthur on clients like Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, Olivia Newton-John, Julie Christie, Nancy Reagan and Betsy Bloomingdale. All of these incredible women were a part of my life from 15 years old onward,” he said. “It was some of the best mentorship I ever got in my life. I really understood that it was about building true relationships.”
These days, Abergel divides his time between the worlds of Hollywood and high fashion. He underscored that the considerations couldn’t be more different for each, but that he relishes both. “From Givenchy to Chanel to Gucci, they’re like an extension of my family,” he said. “I’ve been able to break through only Hollywood red carpets. When you are working on a red carpet, you’re working on an individual human, and you think of it like a woman having her wedding day. Like the dress, the hair can’t wear the woman. You want the woman to come through, and you need to see her in three dimensions because she’s being shot at every angle. She has to feel within her body, so you don’t want to push her outside of her limits.
On the other hand, working with brands is about “trying to convey what they’re trying to sell — it’s really about the vision of the fashion house, and telling a story through the lens of the brand.” He is also a partner and creative director of hair care brand Virtue Labs.
“It’s an amazing new phase for me in my career, and I can be in everyone’s homes. It’s about how I could grow, how do I give more of myself to more people, rather than just the few that are in my chair every day,” he said. “Social media has done that for me as well,” where he counts nearly 800,000 followers on Instagram alone.
Abergel views doing hair as an intimate exchange between stylist and client, which is why the longstanding relationships with his regulars — he’s been working with Witherspoon for the last 15 years and with Stewart since she was 13 years old — is imperative to understanding their needs.
“It’s about individual expression, there is no right or wrong,” Abergel said. “If you want to follow a trend, it’s beautiful, but no trend is a trend within itself. We are in a moment of life where we are celebrating all textures of hair again, and it’s so refreshing and beautiful to have that expression and freedom. It’s all beautiful, as long as there is that individual expression, and you feel powerful and confident within that.”
His inspiration doesn’t just come from the women he works with, but from those who have preceded them. “There are a lot of people who have influenced our society with incredible [hair] moments. When you think about Jackie O., you think about her hair,” he said. “You think about people like Cleopatra, Tina Turner and Diana Ross, the way her hair is moving everywhere.”
Abergel’s lexicon of cultural references is broad and tied to no one subculture or time frame. “I look at not just present pop culture, but throughout the ages, and the importance of truly staying relevant within all of that,” he said. “Understanding the ’40s and the ’50s, the Edwardian and pre-Raphaelite [periods] — how hair has shifted, the importance of what hair represented around freedom in the ’70s.
“I really focus on freedom and individuality. I believe hair is a medium that allows us all to have freedom and evolve,” he continued. “We are never the same, and the haircut you liked when you were 20 is not the haircut that you’re going to like when you’re 30,” he added. “It redefines you, and it changes, and that’s the beauty of all of it.”
The Artist’s Eye
Favorite Song: “Bag Lady” by Erykah Badu. “I grew up in L.A., going to public schools, and ’90s R&B is just what we listened to. When it comes on, it’s super nostalgic for me.”
Favorite Choreographer: I grew up dancing classic ballet, so Rudolf Nureyev was someone who I loved watching when he would choreograph a piece. When you get a little bit older, you become a more serious person. Dancing is a way to keep my childlike essence still alive.
Favorite Art Medium: Definitely sculpture, I love art in general and I love people watching. I like artists that have a deeper reasoning that they bring to art, and a lot of that has to do with sculpture: Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly, Rosha Yaghmai.
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