The Who What Wear Podcast: Celebrity Hairstylist Adir Abergel Talks Crafting Charlize Theron's Stunning "The Odyssey" Press Tour Hair

0:10Hillary Kerr:Welcome to the Who What Wear podcast. I'm your host, Hillary Kerr, and today I'm joined in studio by celebrity hairstylist and friend of the pod, Adir Abergel. Adir works with the likes of Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart, but today we are diving deep into his work with Charlize Theron on the Odyssey press tour from crafting looks worthy of a goddess to styling Charlize's gravity-defying bob. Plus, because Adir is also the creative director of the hair care brand Virtue Labs, he also shares the specific products he uses on his client's hair to achieve such flawless results. It's all coming up on Who What Wear.

1:01Hillary Kerr:Adir, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you back. Do you know that we have not done this in this format since March of 2022? And that is really upsetting to me. Wait, March of 2022. We have a lot to catch up on. By the way, everybody, 20 years coming on Who Would Wear very, very soon. We are very, very proud of Hillary and the team that she built. It's really beautiful. Thank you. It's really beautiful. You should be very, very proud of what you've created. Well, part of what we have created is because we've always had really amazing folks like you who contribute and will sit down with us and share about your incredible work.

1:36Hillary Kerr:And you've always been so generous with your time. Thank you. So for folks who need some backstory, we will link to your previous episodes so they get a little backstory. But for anyone who's tuning in now for the first time, can you give us just a smidge of background about how a deer became a deer? My life is very interesting, right? I moved to the United States when I was seven 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. And I was very, very lucky to have that. I then was surrounded by very strong women, Moroccan women who were women who loved getting their hair done because they had frizz and they had to get their hair blow dried all the time.

2:25And so somehow to make extra money, they had convinced me that I could do their hair color and apply it on their hair. And I think I was like nine or 10.

2:35Hillary Kerr:Stop. Yeah. That's like really when I started doing hair on my mom's friends and on my mom and all of that. And then soon enough, like when I was like 11, they would be like, okay, can we show you how to blow dry our hair? Because, you know, why not? But this kid, give him some labor. Give him some labor. He wants money. We're going to do this great exchange. I was always very attracted to beauty. It's interesting. When I was three, four, five, six, my dad basically brought me these photos that he found that I used to draw from the age of three till I was six. And it was all of women and it was all hair.

3:14And it was all these crazy, crazy, exaggerated hairstyles and lipstick and like women and cigarettes and drama and the thing. So I think that's kind of like the birth of Adir into beauty, into loving it. And then when I was 15, I went to school at Santa Monica College and went to cosmetology school. And 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. And Arthur Johns, at the time, I didn't know, had people like Sally Hershberger, assistant before me, and Jonathan Anton 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.

4:06He was going to do an apprenticeship program. I was going to get my license through him. And then I ended up working for him for almost like seven and a half years as his assistant. And women like Tina Turner, Shaka Khan, Olivia Noonjohn, Julie Christie, Diane Carroll. These were all my moms.

4:26Hillary Kerr:A murderer's row of talent. That's next level. From the age of 15 till I was like 21. Wow. So that's kind of like my story of how I started. And then it built from there. One thing I love is that you have so many phenomenal clients who you have worked with for so long. And I get excited whenever I know one of them has a press tour coming up because I know that we at Who What Wear are going to feast on the looks that you create. The same reason why every award season, I'm like, what's a deer doing? I'm following his Instagram. What are we going to see? What are we going to see? And I know that we don't have all the time in the world today because you're getting on a plane to go do part two, the Asia part of the Odyssey tour.

5:08Hillary Kerr:So while we have you here, let's talk about Charlize and some of the things that you've been doing. Let's talk about it. Because I have to say. That entire tour, by the way, everyone's been looking so beautiful on it. I'm actually so proud of my hair brothers and sisters and everything that they've done. It's been such a beautiful way to kind of digest beauty and individuality. And it's just it's really nice. It's really nice. I mean, talk again. It's like an all star league of talent across the board. The stylist, the talent themselves, the hairstylist, the director, all of it. Yes, everyone, everyone.

5:42It's like the head of the studio. Everyone is everyone is chic.

5:46Hillary Kerr:Everyone is working on their it's like very a game only. I want to talk about how you started to approach this. with Charlize for this press tour. She's so cool and she's so elegant and then also has edge. And I always feel like she's a bit of a chameleon. You never know what you're going to get. It's always going to surprise and delight to see a grown woman who's so authentically herself is just a pleasure from the outside. So talk to me. Can we start with the premiere in London? I mean, well, you've kind of said it all, which is, which is, this is why Hillary is the genius of excuses with words.

6:24Yeah, so London.

6:25Hillary Kerr:Yes, loose and like some sultry pieces in the front, but the back was this very sculpted, half bun, half down. I just love the fact that it is sculptural and then also has elements of softness, which sculpture can. Not everything has to be brutalist, but walk me through how early do you know what the look is? Are you talking to Leslie about that? Like, was it in the moment? I'm so lucky because I get to work with really professional, amazing group of people. I mean, if you don't know Leslie Fremar, you should. You know her work. She is incredible. You definitely know her work. Actually, Devil Wears Sprata was really kind of based on her character.

7:06Yes. If you don't know that. So she is an incredible stylist who is very intentional in the way that she approaches style. She is incredibly detail-oriented. And so it's a really beautiful way to start the collaboration. I also then have my makeup sister, who is basically like my wife, Kate Lee, who I've worked with for probably 27, 28 years, who is also incredibly detailed and very meticulous and very considered in the way that she approaches things. And so, you know, 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.

7:46Hillary Kerr:Yeah. 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 on the movie for three and a half months called Tyrant, where she plays this incredible, incredible Michelin star chef. So I had already created this really like 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. And so I'd already loved that concept of going into this tour. I'm definitely an artist where it's the fiber of keratin is my choice of art right now in my life where I get to play with it and I get to manipulate and I get to create with it.

8:38And so I was thinking, OK, what are some of the things that I could kind of work into this? And so I start with going into the history in my brain, right, of things that are interesting, that I love, that I remember. and I start building boards around it. And then a lot of the time, Leslie doesn't even have photos of the outfits. She may have tried it, but she wasn't sure that if she's going to wear it yet.

9:06Hillary Kerr:There's still stuff in play. Exactly. She ended up sending me a few things that I kind of like understood. And I immediately knew that I wanted for this first premiere, first of all, it's Sarah Burton. Right. Okay. Yeah. Givenchy, Sarah Burton, genius. And so I was thinking, OK, let me see the structure of this dress. And it had like this really great gathering that kind of went to the side. It had beautiful symmetry to it. And so I wanted to kind of 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.

9:47Hillary Kerr:Right. You know what I mean? Because a bob is a bob. A bob is a bob. And it's a power bob. Exactly. And it's really hard to give it something else. Yes, exactly. I didn't say it. Somebody else did. But very true. Very, very true. And, you know, in Charlize, we have done every length bob on her throughout the years. I mean, that poor woman, we have shaved her head. She has had a bowl haircut. We have gone dark. We have gone light. But she has had many bobs. She will go down in history with like probably the most diverse amount of iconic bobs on her head. Yes. And so this was because it was actually very structured and had a lot of weight at the bottom.

10:29It didn't have a lot of layers. It didn't have a lot of that. I have to think on how to do it. It's hard to work with.

10:34Hillary Kerr:I mean, said with love, but like it's complicated to work with. Not easy for the everyday woman to maybe recreate 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. So with this, I wanted to have structure, but I still wanted to have softness to see the clarity of the bob. Yes. Right. The integrity of it. Yes. And it was all about linear lines. What products or tools did you use? Yeah. Because if someone wanted to recreate or attempt to have someone else create it, like, what do you need? So what's interesting is I have a tub that has like many different lines in it.

11:18And it's about this thick. So about like two inches thick. And it is filled with different pomades. Don't ask me where I've gone these pomades. Don't even know what these pomades are. Half of them, the name has like wiped off. So when I go and I dig into it and put it into these things, we have no idea. Right. But I like it texturally. So I would say if you want different structured hair, right, go and buy a bunch of different pomades, decan them, put them into something.

11:52Hillary Kerr:But I love the idea that they have different, like some are more viscous. Some have more shine. Some have more matness. Some have more grit. I ended up using one that felt that it had shine, but it was kind of on the drier side. Interesting. Even though it reflected shine. Yeah. It was a little bit drier. Yeah. Right. So I ended up. Exactly. So it's not greasy. Took that, played with that, ran it through the hair. You want to kind of fill in the cuticle before you use pomades. Right. You don't want it to look so thin. Right. Because it can flatten. Yeah. So I ended up actually using damage reverse serum, which is literally a very, very, very, by virtue, very lightweight.

12:36weight, but it fills in any of the holes, like truly kind of like repairs your hair. And then I ended up using all of these different kind of pomades to create the different textures.

12:49Hillary Kerr:Because then you have like maximum hair shaft fill. Exactly. And then you can manipulate. Yes, you're almost like filling. It's like almost like if you were like on the road and you had, well, we have something happening on Sunset Boulevard, you guys. That's more than a bottle. Yes, exactly. That's pretty big. You don't want that big of a hole on each hair. No, that would be that would be a problem. Then you need a wig, by the way, at that point. But let's say you have little like potholes within like the hair. You basically want to fill it first and then apply like the things that tend to be a little bit heavier.

13:21Hillary Kerr:Is there a flat iron involved? Is it a is it just like drawing with a brush? No, this was blow dried because I didn't want to lose the volume. So it looks like it's almost like flat, but it isn't because you actually want to create. Hair is amazing. Hair is like architecture, right? If you don't create the right foundation, then everything falls. Yeah. So you want to build a foundation for the hair. With repair. Even if you're going to go flat. Yeah. Because you can always go flatter, but very hard to build. That makes sense. Okay. Talk to me about the look that she wore for the Paris photo call in front of the Eiffel Tower where she's in that Tom Ford.

14:02Hillary Kerr:Like it was down and it was like sharp but undone. Again, like this is one of the things I love so much about your art and the medium of keratin that you work in, which is that it feels like you get tension. So, right. Yes. 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? So it wasn't thin. It was about heavy. Almost think of it as like taking kitchen scissors and cutting blunt. And so you have all of this weight. If you have fine hair, it's incredible.

14:45Even if you have thick hair, this is incredible, right? Because it kind of creates all of that shelf right at the bottom. And then the rest of it, I didn't create a lot of volume right at the top, right? It was about, I actually just took

15:01Hillary Kerr:my fingers and I wrapped it around the hair and I scrunched it and then I used a diffuser. So I didn't use any curling irons. I didn't use any heat on it. I kind of just, it was about, And listen, hair is amazing. And the fiber that we're talking about, keratin, is really a beautiful fiber because if you heat it and then you let it cool down, it'll manipulate so beautifully. And actually, when you use curling irons in higher heat, a lot of the time it'll fall out. Right. Because it opens up the cuticle too much and it looks great for a minute. But then it tends to kind of like get a little bit dry, wilt.

15:43So a lot of like all these French hairstyles that you see that we all love from the 60s and everyone from the Birkins to all of that. Those are not like curling irons. That was just like you kind of wrapping your hand, scrunching it, using a few great products, making sure you have a little bit of heat, but making sure that it cools down before you let it down.

16:07Hillary Kerr:While it's still scrunched. While it's still scrunched. Oh, so that really locks it in. Correct. Got it. That was like the magic of that. Got it. It was just a beautiful middle part. She went with this awesome Tom Ford little booty shorts, honey. Like a tap pant almost. Like a little silky men's blazer almost. Yeah, and I loved it because it was like there was such great easiness about it. She didn't not look crazy. But still, obviously, Heider, Ackerman. Heider, I love you. Everything that you do with fabrication makes me so happy. I try to mimic a lot of your play of fabrics into hair. So just want you to know, I love you if you're listening to this.

16:47Hillary Kerr:We will make sure that he does hear it. Please. I just loved it so much. I thought it was really remarkable. And I also loved the play of like the silkiness of the shorts and then the severity of the jacket. And then like the movement of the hair. And it felt right also for that moment. It was like, yes, it felt French. It was during the day. It was like still beautiful and light. And this is what I loved about the tour as a whole, though. Then you have Z going with like her face mask and the thing. And you know what I mean? And then like, it's like on the side and I give him a hug and a kiss.

17:20And then you, you know, and then you get Lupita with her gorgeous hair. And it was like such an amazing individual group of humans. Yes.

17:29Hillary Kerr:But for fashion and beauty. Yeah. No, I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. That was such an iconic moment. It's like seeing the photos from that. And it was interesting because I spoke with Michaela the other day talking about Lupita and the looks. And she was saying the stylist didn't necessarily talk very much beforehand. She's like, sometimes we do, depending on the project. This time everyone was just like in their own lane. And for everything to come together in such a thoughtful and cohesive way that's individualistic and artistic. I mean, like, that's when you have all the A team working together on every level.

17:58That's when you have real talent, understanding the mission.

18:01Hillary Kerr:And mission accomplished. Now, talk to me about the Paris premiere look. Oh, yes. Because she's wearing Dior and that was that was reworked from the runway. And it's like the black and white lace. And I don't understand how you managed to make her hair look like this. What wizardry is involved? Like it feels like black magic because it's like to be slicked back, but then also to have the cascading into long waves. And then you saw the bob still underneath. Which is also so cool. Which was really cool. That's the part that I really loved. I thought about this before leaving. I didn't know where it was going to 100 % land.

18:39And obviously, time is also very much an issue in our lives. Weather, time, but like really time. You have to remember all of these amazing women were doing press all day. So then you go from press and then all of a sudden you're like, you have an hour 45 minute to lay full on extensions and then make sure the hair dries. And then make sure the makeup artist does it. And then Leslie's like, can I please have my own time? And then you're like, and then a photo please before because we need the photo. Yes. So before you know it, it's like, oh my God. I really have like 30 minutes.

19:19Hillary Kerr:Yes. But I do have to say I've dedicated my entire career into mentorship. And so I have an assistant everywhere around the world. Every country that I go to, I have someone that I have mentored for many years. help them build incredible careers. I mean, I have probably 10 kids that have the most incredible careers around the world. And I'm so proud of that. And they always come out of retirement and they always come and help me when I'm in this moment. I was just talking to Kate Lee and she was like, if you need any help, I can help you in Beijing and in Korea. And I was like, girl, I have, I have my girl.

19:59I have my girl.

20:00Hillary Kerr:You're paying it forward. Like you were mentored and you mentor and it is the right thing to do and it's useful and it's great for them. And all boats rise with the tide. This is a craft and crafts die if you don't truly pass it down. To think about hair in very different medium where it is sculpture, where it is a fiber, right? It is incredibly important that you pass that along. But not only that. Mentorship is about how you think about the process, how you pull things, how do you prep for a big tour like this? How do you behave on set? There's so many other layers than just hair. Hair is just like a small part.

20:42Look at what you're doing here with so many of your girls as well and boys. You're mentoring ultimately at the end of the day to give them independence into their own dreams. A hundred percent. Right? So I love doing that. But that specific style, I remember I had seen it on some runway. It wasn't a bob, obviously. It was just kind of like the feeling, the feeling and the shape, something like that. Like it was like,