Published in Cleo View Article Source January 2011
Author Samantha Brett makes a date at Hollywood's hottest hair salon.

Long hair makes me feel sexy. More than garter belts, heels or eating ice-cream nude. So I'm mortified when my hairstylist turns a "trim" into a Victoria Beckham-style chop. On top of that, I'm in LA to do a photoshoot for my new book without my signature hair!

So I call in a favour with a girlfriend to get me an urgent appointment at the hair salon of Oprah Winfrey's favourite hair guru, Ken Paves. Oprah calls him one of the most "sought after stylists in the entertainment industry", Megan Fox has him on speed dial, and he recently extended Eva Langoria's mane after it got the chop for her role as a frumpy mother of two on Desperate Housewives. Feeling like a total frump myself, I find myself sitting inside the stylish Ken Paves Salon in Beverley Hills, right next to Rumer Willis. I quickly discover that it's two women behind the paparazzi-stalked doors of the hair salon that wield most of the hair magic. Known as Capri-Lee, duo Riawna Capri and Nikki Lee work together for hours even before you hit the hair salon to custom design and weave together single strands of hair extensions to get that perfectly natural look. "Nobody will ever know you have hair extensions when we're finished with you," Nikki says. The girls begin to weave and glue single hair extension strands of the three different colours of Great Lengths hair extensions onto my head with speed and precision. While the process isn't cheap (prices range from US$3000), what you get in return is hair that is perfectly cut, layered and blended, so it all looks natural.
As I leave the salon with long butter-blonde hair that even Jessica Simpson would be jealous of, I notice a few paparazzi lurking in the bushes. A rumoured big name star is supposedly heading to the establishment soon. When I arrive at my own photoshoot, the photographer compliments me on my thick waves of luscious hair. When I tell him I have extensions, he snorts, guffaws and tells me that I'm pulling his leg. Mission accomplished.