A Little Trim and a Little Therapy
March 3, 2006 — -- So why do you go to the beauty parlor? If it's just for a coif and color, you're missing out on the biggest secret of them all. For many women -- and men -- all that snipping and poufing is a perfect coverup for the real highlight: a chance to spill the beans.
Hollywood gets it. Remember the Reese Witherspoon character in "Legally Blond," racing to her manicurist after a very bad day? Or the Warren Beatty character getting very personal with his clients in the movie, "Shampoo"? That's art imitating life.
Just ask Kim Vo, co-owner of the B2V salon in West Hollywood. "I'm part pseudo therapist, and I'm part artist, and just a good friend to most of my clients," he says. Ask if he's there to do their hair, and he answers matter-of-factly, "I am here to do their hair, but sometimes that comes secondary."
As stylist to the stars, Kim gets plenty of dish with his dos. He is one of the privileged few: Jennifer Aniston has one. So does Jessica Simpson.
"They know everything," Kim says. So does he. Long before the tabloids were even on the case, he knew about actress Denise Richards' separation from husband, Charlie Sheen. Ditto Mark Wahlberg's new baby, and Jenny McCarthy from pre-nup to breakup. Kim knew, natch, that Jenny was pregnant before the rest of us did.
"I always know everyone's pregnant before the world knows they're pregnant," he boasts. "Even their mothers." But he says he's never tempted to pick up up the phone and tell the columnists. "It's like a therapist or a lawyer," Kim says. "You don't want to kiss and tell."
A Salon Becomes a Safe Haven
For some busy celebs, it's the ultimate one-stop shopping. Jennifer Murphy, a contender on last season's "The Apprentice," says she bonded instantly with Kim. Never mind that some people actually use therapists to unload.
"Kim is my hairdresser and therapist all in one," she says, laughing.
But it's not all giggly gossip over Rockin' Red nails. Sometimes beauty parlor secrets are deadly serious. Melanie Caldwell and her manicurist, Laura Love-Brown, ultimately made headlines far beyond suburban Birmingham, Ala., with her story. Caldwell seemed to have a model marriage, but she said her husband was violent and abusive, and that she had been thrown down the stairs, and slammed into the dishwasher -- all of which Caldwell was keeping to herself.
But slowly, the details began to leak out at an unlikely location. "The salon is the one place I could go that he didn't give me a hassle about," Caldwell explained. "It was free ground for me. A safe haven."
She began to confide her agony in Love-Brown, and her advice became a lifeline, as the violence escalated. One night, Caldwell recalled, "He dragged me by my hair over to the couch, shoved my face in the couch, and then that's when I felt him put the gun in the back of my head. And the whole time I'm going, 'No, this is, this, this would never happen.'" She said her manicurist told her, "Melanie, think. This man just held a gun to your head."
Why did Caldwell trust her manicurist with information she never told another soul? "Because she had never given up anything I asked her to keep in confidence," she said.
That trust is shared by so many women that beauticians are cited as a first line of defense against spousal abuse. And that inspired Dianne Mooney, of Southern Living at Home, to form "Cut It Out," a national organization that trains salon professionals to advise abused clients that they can get help from a national hotline. Essentially, "Cut It Out" is creating a network of reporters to get the information out.
"We just want people to talk about it, because silence is the problem," said Mooney.
For Caldwell, talking about the problem was the first step to regaining her life. With Love-Brown's support, Caldwell finally divorced her husband and today she works with the domestic violence unit of the sheriff's department in Birmingham. Love-Brown saved her life, and she's still hearing Caldwell's secrets every week at the beauty parlor.
Back in Hollywood, the dish also goes on. But like the curls placed so carefully on these golden manes, all that gossip goes in only one direction. Where does Kim -- dispenser of advice to the stars -- go for his own words of wisdom? "Oh, I have a therapist," Kim says, laughing. "Every good hairapist has a good therapist."