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Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s hair has been an object of fascination for years. Ryan Murphy’s recent limited series, Love Story, has only further driven interest in her hair. Analysis shows that searches for her shade of blonde have jumped significantly in the past several months.

Murphy’s Love Story follows the relationship between Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. Bessette-Kennedy’s style has inspired viewers. Her hair color has too. Research from beauty and wellness platform Fresha found that searches for “Bessette blonde” are up by 7,100% in the past three months.

“Style icons like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and pop culture are some of the biggest trend setters in the beauty industry, with people looking up to celebrities and characters for inspiration,” said Annabelle Taurua, a hair and beauty expert at Fresha. “We’ve seen this time and again, from K-pop influencing Western beauty standards, to media nostalgia reviving entire eras, like the Y2K aesthetic.”

Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s hair colorist shared how they landed on her shade of blonde

Brad Johns, Bessette-Kennedy’s longtime hair colorist, said he landed on her shade because of her eye color. 

“It’s all about eye color first,” Johns told People.

“Eye color’s first because if it’s blue, anything that’s golden’s going to show that up,” he explained. “And if they’re icy blue, white shows that up. I would look at the whole package… I mean, she was just gorgeous.”

He noted that there are other important factors to take into account when landing on a shade.

“Skin color second, time of the season third, and what you do for a living fourth,” he said. “You can’t be a judge with chunks in your hair, you just can’t — but you could be Carolyn.”

Johns said hair is the ultimate accessory, so it should fit a person well.

“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.”

Actor Sarah Pidgeon underwent a transformation to capture the look

Sarah Pidgeon plays Bessette-Kennedy in Love Story. While she initially wore a wig, it looked too fake. They had to transform Pidgeon’s brunette bob into long blonde hair.

“We were looking at a six-month shoot and changing the hair color throughout,” hairstylist Barry Lee Moe told Allure. “[We wanted] Sarah’s hair to be healthy. It had to look effortless. It had to look real. So how do we get there?”

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Colorist Kari Hill spent 24 hours spread over two days applying color to Pidgeon’s hair. They also applied roughly 400 microbonded K-tip extensions.

“Sarah’s hair could support [the extensions] because after six months of filming, her natural hair was a good two to three inches longer than where we started,” stylist Alex Pardoe said. “And it was healthy.”

Moe noted that anyone trying to replicate the process for themselves could be paying at “tens of thousands of dollars.”

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