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Celebrity hairstylist Danilo talks hair health and working with Gwen Stefani for the last 20 years

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It’s just after 6 a.m. on a grey morning in L.A.. I’m told this is part of “June Gloom,” but that by the afternoon it will pass and sunny California will reveal itself.

I set out from my hotel on Sunset Blvd. and head northeast towards Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, a sprawling green space in Montecito Heights where Gwen Stefani’s hair guru, Danilo likes to take his morning hike. Originally from San Francisco, Danilo recently transplanted himself to East L.A. and is surprised how much he likes it here.

“I said I would never live in L.A. and yet here I am. The city has a way of drawing you in somehow.”

To call Danilo a pro would be an understatement. He’s had a long and storied career working with some of the biggest and the best in the industry including Vidal Sassoon, Paul Brown and Oribe.

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“I was actually approached by head of Vidal Sassoon in San Francisco to be a hair cut model and while I was there, he was like ‘I think you’d make a good hair dresser. I’ll train you.’”

From there, he was brought under the wings of Demetre Savala and Paul Brown to learn the extremely technical Sassoon way of doing hair. In 1980, he moved to New York, working at John Dellaria in SoHo, where he honed his technique and really began to grasp an understanding of how to translate concept to scissors to actual hair. Seven years later, he became the art director and vice president of Oribe salon and right around that time, the “Supermodel movement” happened.

“I was with Cindy, Christy, Linda. We all worked together and grew together in the industry. We were working 17 shows a season with everyone from Vivienne Westwood to Jean Paul Gautier, Calvin Klein and Versace.”

“That time opened a lot of doors for all of us.”

Danilo would later move in to working with musicians, celebrities and brands like Pantene, for whom he’s the global ambassador today.

After our hike, we head to Juice Served Here, a trendy juice bar in West Hollywood, where we indulge in some smoothies and talk hair health.

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“Hair has no life force,” Danilo reminds me. “It’s not like skin, it doesn’t regenerate so it needs all the help it can get.”

He explains that in summer, we really need to be mindful of our hair “diet,” opting for products that are nourishing and provide moisture. He tells me about the new 3 Minute Miracle deep conditioner from Pantene, which delivers a moisture that not only goes inside the hair but it also repels the cons of moisture.

3 Minute Miracle Repair & Protect Deep Conditioner (photo: Pantene)

“Our technology both locks the moisture into hair but then also creates a barrier between hair and the environment so no further transference of moisture can happen.”

“I like to think of it as having your hairdresser in a bottle when you can’t make it into the salon.”

Danilo is best know for working with Gwen Stefani – she’s been a client for nearly 20 years – but he’s also styled some of the industries biggest heads of hair including Whitney Houston, Gigi Hadid, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.

“Beyonce is so gracious and so grand and really such a lovely person and then there are people that are trippy,” he says. “In those instances I just stick to doing my job and doing it well and don’t try and get personal.”

It’s different with Stefani, though.

“The great thing about Gwen is that she has a willingness to ‘go there’ and isn’t afraid to switch things up.”

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Because Gwen sticks to a pretty signature makeup look, her chameleon-like style is attributed mostly to the work of her hairstylist and clothing team.

“I’m always like, ‘OK, let’s try something new,’ but that might just be a reinterpretation of something we’ve already done because we’ve basically done it all at some point or another.”

“I just so grateful that I get to work with someone who gives me the opportunity to do different things on a regular basis and to have one person that I can work that deeply with because that’s really rare these days.”