"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)."