Jenny Cho never dreamed of press tours, of sculpting the hair of A-listers, or of all the glitz and glam that comes with Hollywood proximity. Yet here she is — a Los Angeles–based celebrity stylist whose list of clients (which includes Greta Lee, HoYeon, Laufey, and Emilia Clarke) is so long it’s impossible to name them all. Growing up, Cho had a natural attraction to hair; she loved experimenting on her friends and brother. “Every time I would sit in a chair at a Kim Sun Young Beauty Salon, a Korean salon in Torrance that my mom used to take me to, I would ask tons of questions,” she tells me over Zoom, her eyes crinkling into a smile. “One of the stylists said, ‘You need to go to hair school.’”
Cho went on to enroll at Sassoon Academy, where she taught after graduation. For a few years, she moved to New York and took on stints at Sassoon Salon and Bumble and Bumble before moving back to Southern California in her mid-20s. At the behest of a friend, she began submitting her portfolio to agencies, which led to assisting celebrity stylist Ken Pavés on jobs for Jessica Simpson, Eva Longoria, Victoria Beckham, and more. When Cho started taking on her own clients, she found herself gravitating toward actresses. “One thing led me to another,” she says. “It was a natural progression into all of this.”
How would you describe your style with hairdressing?
I’ve always loved making the hair look lived in. I think that has a lot to do with what I was exposed to and how I define beauty. My Korean upbringing has a lot to do with it, too — you don’t always need to be in front. It’s about being quiet. Not quiet because I’m scared but quiet because I know how to restrain myself. That can also be very powerful.
(But that doesn’t mean that I can’t do a look, or that I can’t do something that is very much a thing if I need to. For example, I worked with Paris Hilton for a long time, and I did a lot of her music videos back in the day.)
You work with makeup artist Nina Park a lot these days. How do you collaborate with and inspire each other?
We noticed that we had similar aesthetics when we both started working with actress HoYeon Jung. That was our very first client together where we really got to play together for the first time with the stylist and HoYeon. We both know how to hold ourselves back instead of doing more. The way we both approach our work is very much like, Okay, how do we elevate this look that feels superchic but make this person come to life and feel really refined and polished at the same time? We both pay a lot of attention to detail.
Is there someone in particular who has served as a muse for your work?
Greta Lee. I can’t talk about her enough. She’s given Nina and me this platform, this canvas, to do what we do best. And I can’t leave out her stylist, Danielle Goldberg. She’s the honorary Korean. Greta trusts all of us to do what we do best, and she doesn’t second-guess any of it. Then she just goes out onto the carpet and does her thing, and it just feels so organic. I hear that a lot: “You guys must have so much fun together.” And we do.
Out of all the looks you’ve created for her, what’s your favorite?
I love the Met Gala look we did in 2024 with Loewe. We started with this crazy idea of putting on a white wig that we got made, and then that got nixed. But then Jonathan Anderson was like, “Hey, what if we did something different, like give her a haircut?” This was at 9 p.m., and the Met Gala was the next day. So my assistant and I went to a wig shop the next morning, and we found a wig. My assistant colored it, and I started chopping into it. The whole process was fun because it was the opposite of this feminine lace dress, and Greta was down to do it. It was a memorable experience that I’m so proud of.
Is there a type of person in your life who typically proves inspirational for you?
I experienced wildfires and the loss of my home last year, and so many women have shown up that I never thought would. They have physically shown up with pots and pans, bags of groceries, or beautiful, supportive messages and words with humor. That is the type of woman that I find myself being super-attracted to, and there’s a village of them surrounding me. They have held me together. They are still holding me together. My mom is an inspiration, too, and there are so many ee-mos around me, too.
What’s the last photo or video in your camera roll that was inspirational to you?
I have this video from the other night of me watching Bea Kim at 1:30 a.m. qualify for the women’s snowboard half-pipe final at the Olympics. I was in tears because my husband and I were the first ones knocking on her mom and dad’s door when she first came home from the hospital. Bea calls me ee-mo. So to watch this girl kill it — this is what it’s about. It’s so inspiring to me, and she’s inspiring other little girls out there to chase their dreams.
Is there a place where you go to recharge?
My backyard. I like to go out into nature, and I have the mountains behind me. I love to go out into the sun and hike. I also recharge by hanging out with my ahjumma friends in K-town — it feels like a warm hug. Also hanging out with my son and my husband at home has really been a place of comfort for me.
What’s the most surprising thing that has proved inspirational for your work?
Traveling to different places. I take a yearly trip to Asia. We go to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Seoul. I also go to cities like Paris and London. Sometimes it could just be someone walking with their hair in a random bun but the wind has blown, or they just took off their big beanie, I see something in that, and I’m like, Oh my God, that hair is so incredible. How do I re-create this? Architecture, too. Because I’m Sassoon trained, I learned Bauhaus-inspired hair techniques. So whenever I see structures or ceramics with different lines, curves, and concaves, that inspires me.
When you’re feeling stuck creatively, what do you do?
I go to this bookstore in Pasadena. There’s a magazine stand that still exists, and I really go through a lot of the magazines for that physical inspiration. And I go to Little Tokyo and a bookstore in K-town to see all the Japanese and Korean magazines. I also have conversations with my hair friends. Some of them eat, breathe, and sleep hair. Sometimes, I’m like, Oh my God. I remember being that way. But now, I have to make room for other parts of my life that require my attention. I also love fashion month and looking through all of the behind-the-scenes photos of what the artists have done with the hair and the makeup. I think part of what I do is editorialize runway-show hair into palatable red-carpet looks. I’m not a salon person, and I’m not an editorial-fashion person, but I live somewhere in the middle and marry the two worlds together.