When Charlize Theron chopped her hair into a bowl cut earlier this year, the internet went wild. The minute her hairstylist, Adir Abergel, shared the photo on Instagram, people began double tapping and resharing, and us beauty journalists began writing furiously about her brand-new style. Then, for the next four months, we all watched as Theron and Abergel navigated the tricky process of growing out said cut, hanging on to every added highlight and snip of the sheers. But here's the thing: Theron's bold hair changes started long before that bowl cut. In fact, if you liken Theron's hair transformation of the last year to the plot outline of a novel, the bowl cut was just the climax.
The beginning (or exposition, if we're still going with the plot-line metaphor) was the 2019 Golden Globes, when Abergel and Theron — who have worked together on and off since 2008 — teamed up for the first of a long series of events that included two award show seasons, multiple screenings, and press tours for Theron's movies Long Shot and Bombshell — as well as over a dozen different hairstyles and hair colours. "I think it was something beautiful that had happened in our relationship where there was an immediate trust, and, because she is such an incredible artist herself, she really became this amazing collaborator and muse where she said to me, 'I'm willing to take these risks [with my hair] to see where you want to go,'" Abergel told POPSUGAR.
"[Charlize] really is fearless when it comes to beauty and expressing it."
While calling a haircut or dye job risky in the grand scheme of things seems hyperbolic, to a Hollywood actor, for whom image is everything, putting out the right aesthetic — especially during award season, when all eyes are on you — is incredibly important. More often than not, that aesthetic errs on the safe side and remains constant, which is why you don't see many nominees getting wild with their beauty and fashion choices during award season. For Theron, however, it seemed that in 2019, she had decided to throw caution to the wind and have some fun — a notion Abergel said we shouldn't be too surprised about. "Charlize is incredible and she's fearless, and it's the way she approaches all of her life," he explained. "You can see it in the roles she takes on, from Monster to Tully, and she really is fearless when it comes to beauty and expressing it, and she is also really trusting her team."
As we all wait to see what Theron and Abergel will do for the Oscars and the direction the two beauty daredevils will go in 2020, we look back through the past 14 months — from the 2019 Golden Globes last January to the 2020 BAFTAs last week in London — as Abergel shares all the details behind the mind-blowing number of shades, lengths, and styles he and Theron pulled off this past year, perhaps inspiring us all to take a few beauty risks of our own.
January 2019: A Blunt Lob at the Golden Globes
Image Sources: Getty / Daniele Venturelli and Adir Abergel
Abergel and Theron's epic hair journey started over a year ago at the 2019 Golden Globes, when Theron was nominated for best actress for her role in Tully. "This was the first moment that we were really starting to think about transition," Abergel said. "I wanted to give her a cut that felt modern and that had a certain kind of edge to it. So I gave her a beautiful blunt lob, taking away a lot of layers and keeping it quite minimal and linear. We also went ahead and gave her a lot more brightness around her face in terms of colour."
The minute Abergel saw Theron's pale blue Dior Haute Couture gown, he knew he wanted to chop her hair short so the ends would graze the top of the neckline.
He also knew he wanted to dye Theron's iconic blonde hair brunette. "I knew that bringing brown tones into it would really anchor the dress beautifully," he said. "So I started to play by showing Charlize brown extensions around her face — which is a really nice way for anyone to see what works if they're thinking of making a big colour change. Once Charlize was on board, I brought those extensions to colourist Tracey Cunningham and told her that these were the cool brown tones I wanted to stay in."
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April 24, 2019: An Asymmetrical Brunette Bob in London
Image Sources: Getty / Marc Piasecki and Adir Abergel
Two months after the 2019 award season, Theron was off to Europe to begin promoting her movie Long Shot with Seth Rogen. Their first stop on the press tour was in London, and Abergel and Theron didn't wait long before switching things up again.
"At this point, I wanted her hair colour to feel a little softer and not as dark and severe," Abergel said. "So we started putting in some highlights to brighten it a little. You can even see it in her makeup, the tones are warmer and her brows started getting a little lighter." As for the cut and style, "it was about having it feel a bit more asymmetric," Abergel added.
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April 24, 2019: A Wavy Lob in Paris
Image Source: Adir Abergel
Same day, totally different vibe — and that's exactly the point. "Often people think that short hair is limiting, but what I think we've shown this past year is that it's exactly the opposite," Abergel said. "It's just about taking it and changing different partings and creating different textures and shapes. Like this wavy look, for example, it's just a very different version of something that you think could be very satin and straight, and making it softer."
Next stop on the press tour was Paris, where Abergel smoothed Theron's hair back into a pristine low ponytail with a sleek middle parting.
"For years, you saw Charlize with these blowouts and hairstyles that felt very classic and fluffy," Abergel said. "It was at this point that I started playing with all of these different graphic and linear shapes that felt very minimal and modern and building this story around that for her."
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April 30, 2019: Fake Baby Bangs in NYC
Image Sources: Adir Abergel and Getty / Manny Carabel
Back in the US to continue promoting the Long Shot, Theron and Abergel continued to surprise us. This time, it was fake baby fringe that totally transformed Theron's face. "Charlize was wearing a very simple suit, and I pulled all of this imagery of Betty Page and these great, simple linear styles, and I said to her, 'I think this would be very, very cool.' And she was completely down. So, I went, I got fake bangs, and I chopped it all off."
And while, sure, most of us don't have a professional hairstylist following us around most days, fake fringe is something you can totally play with at home — just bring the piece to your hairdresser so they can cut them to fit and flatter face shape. "Fake bangs are such a fun way to change your look quickly, and also a way to not be committed to bangs since, as any woman who's had them before knows, they can be such a nightmare to grow out," Abergel said.
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September 2019: The Bowl Cut Shared Around the World
Image Source: Adir Abergel
And now, for something completely different: five months after going short and brunette, Theron and Abergel shocked us all when he chopped her hair into a bowl cut that, from the minute he posted it on his Instagram feed, went viral.
"At the time, she was shooting Fast and Furious, and when I read the script, I thought about her character. I was like, 'I think this woman is someone who is bold, who takes risks, and who really feels powerful and empowered to do what she wants.' So I pulled loads of imagery — all of those early Peter Lindbergh photos of Linda Evangelista and that great photo shoot where all of the supermodels were in bowl haircuts — and I sat down with Charlize and I said, 'I think this would be super cool.' And she said, 'OK, if you think so.'"
"I don't think I slept for a week because it was such a huge change and shift, and because once you do a bowl cut, there's really no going back until it fully grows out," Abergel said, laughing.
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Oct. 6, 2019: The Bowl Cut's First Red Carpet Appearance
Image Source: Adir Abergel
Until the LA premiere of The Addams Family in October, we hadn't seen Theron's new style on the red carpet yet. And when we did, it was just as incredible as it was in pictures on Abergel's feed.
"A lot of people want to associate long hair with what is beautiful, and I think this cut opened up conversations for a lot of women who love to wear their hair a little bit shorter," Abergel said. "After doing this, I received incredible emails from people saying things like, 'Thank you so much for representing this kind of a woman, and for showing something that's not always perceived to be beautiful.' This was absolutely beautiful in its own way, and it was a really beautiful process to see how it went viral, and how it touched so many people in different ways. I mean, people either loved it or they hated it, but that's going to happen with anything."
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Oct. 13, 2019: A Lighter Bowl Cut in Hollywood
Image Source: Adir Abergel
A month later, for a special screening of Bombshell in LA, Theron was still rocking the bowl cut, just a lighter, softer version both in terms of colour and shape.
"This was the start of a transition period, where we had to be like, how do you take this bowl haircut, and how do you transition it into something different? And how do you play with the colours to also give it a very different feel?" Abergel said. "So we starting going lighter and I took away the severity of the bowl, and I took a lot of the weight out from around the perimeter of the bowl so that the hair collapsed a lot more. That way, it felt almost like a long pixie."
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Oct. 14, 2019: Brushed-Back Bowl Cut in Beverly Hills
Image Source: Adir Abergel
For the 2019 Elle Women in Hollywood Awards, it appeared the bowl cut was perhaps gone for good. However, it was really just some nifty styling tricks and a few more snips of the scissors.
"At this point, I started cutting all of that weight away," Abergel said. "If you notice, it goes even shorter on the sides. I went and undercut the sides so that the front section of hair sat on top, which also changed the shape and gave it a little bit more severity. And then we went crazy . . . "
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Oct. 27, 2019: Wispy and Blonder For the Governors Awards
Image Source: Adir Abergel
By the end of the month, Abergel knew he wanted to bring Theron back to blonde, but it wasn't a process that could happen in one go. "I knew that I had to do it incrementally because there was bleach underneath from when we first gave her the bowl cut. To get that original tone, I had to bleach her out completely and then put back the colour to get those beautiful brown tones, so we couldn't just go in and start bleaching her whole head."
With her hair blown-out smooth and sleek for the Governors Awards, you can easily see the beginning stages of the lightening process, which required Theron's colourist to add threads of blonde highlights throughout that not only lightened up her ends but also seamlessly blended with her naturally dark blonde base.
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Nov. 8, 2019: Back to Blonde
Image Sources: Adir Abergel and Getty / Rodin Eckenroth
After the Governors Awards, the next step was bleaching Theron's hair and adding lots and lots of highlights, which she showed off at the American Cinematheque Award Presentation. "I told her I wanted to go really light and almost take her back to where we started from 10 months ago, but even lighter than that," Abergel said.
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Dec. 3, 2019: And Then Even Blonder For the Bombshell Press Tour
"This was a bleach and tone," Abergel explained of Theron's cool champagne colour for the screening of Bombshell in London. "I wanted a beautiful canvas of blonde that allowed the integrity of the hair to show through. And without the highlights, the singled-toned blonde had a much more punk rock vibe." As for her haircut, "the bowl cut is really gone at this point," Abergel said. "I matched it to the layers so that they blended a little more."
With all of this bleaching and highlighting, it was integral that both Abergel and Theron take extra steps to keep her hair as healthy as possible. "All of the colourists who I worked with — Tracey Cunningham, Daniel Moon, Nicola Clarke, and Shannon Gallacher at Nicola Clarke's place — I made sure they were putting Virtue Color Kick into all of their formulas and that Charlize was using all of the masks at home," said Abergel, who is creative director of Virtue Labs.
"And when I was styling, I was only ever using my blow dryer on medium heat and flatirons that had dial control, keeping the temperature at around 65 or 70 degrees Celsius, which is very low for an iron. The one thing people don't realise is that if you're using a flatiron on bleached hair and the temperature is too hot, it can turn the hair yellow very quickly. I also always made sure to prep her hair with heat-protecting products like the Virtue 6-in-Styler (£17) or Un-Frizz Cream (£19)."
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Jan. 2, 2020: A Little Extra Length in Palm Springs
The holiday season gave Theron a break from the red carpet and time to let her hair grow out. For the first event of 2020 — the Palm Springs International Film Festival — Abergel created a simple style, adding some extensions on the sides to add length. "When you have short hair, it doesn't mean that you have to be completely locked into that," Abergel said. "Just by adding a piece or two in the front, it changes the shape entirely."
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Jan. 5, 2020: Buttery Blonde With a Deep Side Part For the Golden Globes
Image Source: Adir Abergel
The 2020 Golden Globes marked a full year since Theron and Abergel started their hair transformation journey, which they celebrated with a fresh dye job. "It's more of a warm, golden blonde shade," explained Abergel, who also made sure her roots were done for the occasion. Her cut, which at this point could be described as a classic pixie à la Twiggy or Jean Seberg, was given a clean, deep side part that perfectly mimicked the angle and pleating of her dress.
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Jan. 18, 2020: An Elegant Side Swoop For the Producers Guild Awards
Image Source: Adir Abergel
To create the seamless swoop of hair that ran from her side part to back behind her right ear, Abergel again utilised short pieces of extensions. "By adding more length, I elongated the front of her hair, and it's those little details that can shift everything, including the silhouette and even the shape of her face."
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Jan. 19, 2020: A Bejewelled Part For the SAG Awards
For the 2020 SAG Awards, Abergel created another look that went viral. This time, however, it was his genius use of accessories that caused a social media sensation. By stretching a Tiffany necklace along Theron's middle part, he both distracted from her dark roots and added a bit of sparkle that complemented both her top and her jewellery (on the red carpet, Theron admitted she didn't have time to get her roots done before the event). "This was really more about bringing something to the look that felt very linear, and very straight, and very strong — and playing with accessory in a very unexpected way," Abergel said.
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Jan. 27, 2020: A Shaggy Pixie For the Oscars Nominees Luncheon
Abergel is always an expert when it comes to hair accessories (so expert, in fact, that he collaborated on a collection with Lelet NY a few years ago), and this style that he dreamed up for Theron — using a headband he designed with Louis Vuitton specifically to match her gold dress — is one of his crowning achievements, literally.
Headbands can be tricky, even on long hair; too big, too far forward, too embellished, and you can instantly look a little goofy. The secret to why this looks so damn chic is where it's placed on her head. "It literally sits behind the ear so that it's more like a crown than it is a headband," explained Abergel, who also added some face-framing extensions to add softness to the look and balance out the height of the band.
When she attended the event as a nominee (for best leading actress in Bombshell), Theron's violet Dior dress for the 2020 BAFTAs inspired Abergel to loosen things up a bit and add some length. "The dress had beautiful movement to it, so I wanted to create a hairstyle that had the same softness and movement to it." To do that, Abergel again reached into his kit for extensions that he added in and blended in with her natural hair using a curling iron.
