Brad Johns, a close friend of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her longtime colorist, tells PEOPLE how he decided on her iconic "child-of-the-beach" hue
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/Carolyn-Bessette-Kennedy-022726-4-5566289da3cc4fc4ad1c36c931237cb4.jpg "Carolyn Bessette Kennedy 1998 Fire and Ice Ball December 9, 1998: Los Angeles, CA.")
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NEED TO KNOW
- Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s hair colorist Brad Johns spoke with PEOPLE exclusively about his longtime client’s iconic blonde shade
- Johns recalled the origins of her signature shade and revealed the facial feature he used as inspiration for the color creation
- He started working with the late fashion publicist, who was wed to John F. Kennedy Jr., in 1996
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's hair was unlike any other.
The late fashion publicist and renowned 1990s style icon was known for her effortless yet luxurious looks that seamlessly paired with the ultimate accessory: her recognizable buttery blonde locks.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Carolyn's longtime colorist recalled the origin of the now-trademarked "child-of-the-beach" hue he created for her when they first started working together in 1996, revealing that one of her facial features inspired it.
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"It's all about eye color first," Johns tells PEOPLE exclusively of Carolyn's "blue surfer girl eyes" that set the tone of the shade they'd ultimately create, transforming her light brown hair into the blonde we know today.
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"Eye color's first because if it's blue, anything that's golden's going to show that up," he explains. "And if they're icy blue, white shows that up. I would look at the whole package… I mean, she was just gorgeous."
While Johns largely created Carolyn's color based on her eye color, he cited three other individual factors that he took into consideration to best complement her hair.
"Skin color second, time of the season third and what you do for a living fourth," he adds of the variables he takes into consideration when choosing a client's color. "You can't be a judge with chunks in your hair, you just can't — but you could be Carolyn."
He emphasizes, "She was gorgeous. She was so beautiful."
Johns, who is now retired from the hair industry and works as a glass artist (but detailed his headline-making career in a memoir, Dye), used his famous "chunking" technique to highlight Carolyn's "toffee" shade with precision.
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"I was the founding father of the chunking technique," he tells PEOPLE of the method he used on John F. Kennedy Jr.'s wife, which involved putting the highlight chunks in three foils around the front of her face and two beneath it for when she styled her hair up.
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Johns truly viewed Carolyn's hair as more than just hair. He had a philosophy for it.
"My thing is hair color is the accessory you never take off. You're naked, it's you and that accessory — so it should look really sexy," he says. "Her hair was glamorous, shiny."
Now, the love story between JFK Jr., the son of President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jackie Kennedy, and Carolyn, is being told in Ryan Murphy's American Love Story. The first installment was released on FX and Hulu on Feb. 12.