Chris Appleton Tells Us Exactly How to Get the "Glam Barbie" Updo

With Bella Hadid and Paris Hilton taking the lead at Versace and Kim Kardashian co-designing the Dolce & Gabbana show, it’s official: the L.A. girlies dominated Milan Fashion Week. The stars wore an array of jaw-dropping looks, but what can arguably be deemed as the most covetable accessory was Kardashian’s "Glam Barbie" updo. Kim's been wearing the style all fashion month long, but it really had its shining moment at the D&G show.

“[My initial inspiration for this look] was a mixture of the ‘90s Pamela Anderson and classic Hollywood glamour,” Kim's longtime hair stylist, Chris Appleton, tells Byrdie of the style. "A combination of the two provided the ultimate glamour with an edge.” The hairstyle creates volume at the crown of the head, while stray pieces of hair add to the laissez-faire style that Pam Anderson made her staple in the late nineties and early-2000s.

Appleton shared a highly requested tutorial for the look on Tiktok—it currently has over 7.5 million views—that's likely popped up on your FYP. The video features a step-by-step guide on achieving Kim Kardashian’s fluffy updo. Still, we had some follow-questions for Appleton on how to get the hairstyle just right. 

Appleton begins his tutorial by collecting all of his model’s hair into a ponytail, but leaves her bangs loose. Appleton notes that if you don’t have bangs, you can just leave two stray pieces of hair in the front. After that, he twists his model’s ponytail upward to bring the tips of the hair up to the crown, like he's creating a French twist. Now, I have hair down to my waist, and when I tried this look, the ends of my hair flopped down to my forehead when I folded my hair over my head. To solve this, Appleton tells me "instead of twisting the hair, wrap it into more of a bun so you can get rid of some of the length.” 

Next Appleton reveals the secret to the whole look. He intertwines two translucent rubber hair ties and loops through a bobby pin on each end. This may seem odd at first, but it makes so much sense—Appleton essentially created an invisible claw clip to achieve the tousled look a clip can give without any of the bulkiness. After that, he inserts both pins on either side of the twisted hair to allow the rubber hair tie to hold the twist in place. “The trick to making sure the rubber hair ties are hidden is to insert the pin back on itself and twist it in,” says Appleton, urging us to point the bobby pins in the direction of the hair twist itself, as opposed to inserting the bobby pins pointing towards your ears. 

Once the bobby pins are secure, simply let excess hair cascade in all directions, including towards the front of the head and over the back of the twist. After that, you can use a curling iron to add texture to the stray pieces at the top of the head, and then run the curling iron through your bangs to create a curtain effect. Since this look is almost gravity-defying, he recommends using the COLOR WOW Style on Steroids Color-Safe Texturizing Spray ($26) to lock this look in. Appleton notes that this hairstyle looks great with curly hair, as well. 

While Kardashian's made this her signature for now, the fashion chameleon may switch it up soon. “[I think this is a look that’s] only working for this moment. It’s flattering, it’s sexy, and it felt right for Milan, especially [while] she is blonde. It worked well with the Dolce campaign [and] it’s a feel-good hairstyle—it’s flattering on the face [and looks] good at all angles.”

Whether Kim K will wear this again or not, we think everyone from Milan to Malibu will be rocking this easy-to-achieve hairstyle this fall.