She thought it was just another client. Then Alysa Liu won gold. |
Hairstylist Tiffany Barrios didn’t know at the time that the job she was tasked with would soon become one of the most iconic looks on the planet. What she did know, however, is that this wasn’t an ordinary appointment. When she arrived at Oakland’s Pony Studios Co. on an otherwise nondescript Tuesday in January, her client was figure skating champion Alysa Liu.
Ahead of her trip to Milan for the Winter Olympics, Liu reached out to Pony owner Corinna Hernandez for a cut and color session. The 20-year-old Liu had already created her now-famous halo-style hair design herself, adding one ring to the look each year, and it really started to take off during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis thanks to local hairstylist Kelsey Miller. But in the time since that competition, the color had faded, and she needed not just a touch-up but a whole revamp to match her upcoming Olympic outfit. Hernandez knew exactly who to tap for this request.
“Anyone here would tell you that if you want a creative color, come to me,” Barrios told SFGATE in an interview on Tuesday.
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Barrios has 20 years of experience under her belt as a hairstylist, a profession she fell into full time by accident. For a short while, cutting hair was simply a paycheck en route to an education. Now. it’s been decades, and Barrios is a sought-after Bay Area pro. After a brief chat with Liu, she understood exactly how to tackle the unique request.
The exterior of the Pony Studios Co. hair salon in Oakland, Calif., on March 10, 2026.
Customers have their hair styled at the Pony Studios Co. hair salon in Oakland, Calif., on March 10, 2026.
Some of the interior decorations at the Pony Studios Co. hair salon in Oakland, Calif., on March 10, 2026.
All told, it took about four rounds of different toners for the Olympian’s hair to support the color without it veering into a different part of the spectrum,........