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Prince's Hair Stylist Talks about the Person He Was Offstage
by Lauren Effron
There are a lot of mysteries surrounding Prince and
even his longtime hair stylist said it took her years to
get used to working with the notoriously private
music legend, who said he just wanted to be treated
like everyone else. "A lot of people, before I started
working for him, gave me a lot of rules, 'Don't touch
his ears. Don't do this. Don't look at him in the face.'
" Kim Berry told ABC News' "20/20." "I said, 'How am
I going to do his hair if I can't look at him in the face?
So how do I wash his hair and can't touch his ears?'"
"And years later after I had been employed by him he
asked me, 'What did they tell you when you first
started working for me?'" she continued. "And I said,
'Oh they gave me all kind of rules.' He said, 'I've never
told anyone anything like that.' He said, 'So I think it's
hilarious that people make up stuff.'
" Berry said there was even a rumor that Prince didn't
like people looking him in the eyes, and she said he
told her that he never said that and that he thought
it was "interesting" what people chose to make up
about him. "They wanted this mystique to be bigger
than it was and he just wanted to be treated regular,"
Berry said. "He never required anything. There was no
rules on that. I mean you just knew, you know, I work for
the biggest entertainer in the world so you knew you had
to be on your game at all times."
Berry started working with Prince almost 25 years ago. At
the time, she said she was friends with his then-stylist, who
had decided to quit, and then she got the call from Prince.
She said she was fresh out of beauty school.
"He said, 'Well, do you travel?'" Berry said. "And I said,
'Yeah sure,' you know, just talking, and he said, 'Well, OK,
I'm sitting in a limo to pick you up, the flight leaves in an
hour.' And I'm like, 'I'm sorry what did you say?' He said,
'The flight leaves in an hour, you good?' I said, 'Yeah I'm
good.'"
Berry said Prince was "particular" about people in his circle
and wanted his crew, "especially his band members," she
said, to be dressed nicely.
"He just wanted us to be classy at all times," she said. "I
didn't find it odd or anything wrong with it at all because I
felt like I got to this level so I got to bring my A game."
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