You may recognize her from the gorgeous cut and extensions transformation in our K18REPAIR™ campaign, but Fabienne Heymans is one of Manhattan’s original supermodels. She paved the way for grey hair to be mainstream when she made the decision to stop coloring it over a decade ago and embrace her silver look. We sat down with her on set to discuss her less-is-more beauty routines, approach to personal expression, and how she’s challenging the industry’s beauty standards one photoshoot at a time. 

let's talk about your personal hair journey—you mentioned on set that you're one of the first models in the industry to go silver.

I became silver very young, but I colored my hair for years and years and finally came to the point where I was done. I didn't want chemicals on my head anymore and I just announced it to my friend and my son, who were very upset. But I had to do what was right for me, and this felt right.

That was 12 years ago and at that time it was not talked about, it wasn’t a trend yet. There were a couple of other models in the city that were also choosing that route and the three of us paved the way because it took a little time. It was a little bit risky, but we were trying to inspire women to go natural. Looks like it worked!

how would you describe your relationship with your hair as it's evolved over the years?

Hair is very important to identity, it’s how we express ourselves to the outside world without words. Over the years I’ve had my hair all kinds of different lengths and it reminds me of different stages in my career and the trends at that time. 

In the 80s and 90s, I had it really short, kind of like Linda Evangelista, and then I’ve been longer the last five years because it’s more of a trend now. The thing about hair is it grows back, so if I'm in the mood I could chop it off today and just play with it. It’s amazing because it grows back and you can start again. 

it sounds like you’ve always been really fearless with your expression.

Yeah and my agents have not always been happy about that, but I always trusted my intuition. I like drastic change. I went silver even though people were saying no, but for me it was the right move. It hadn’t been done before. This is also true when women want to cut their hair. There's always something in their life that's right for them to do so, it inspires a big change that follows from such a major aesthetic decision.

There’s a confidence you carry with yourself that people can feel, like oh, she could do something so drastic, but still feel like herself? That's really cool. 

walk us through your current hair routine. do you have any favorite products?

Honestly I try not to use much when I'm not working, because on set, we are so bombarded with products. So in my life at home, I don't usually put anything in my hair. So you're kind of compensating for all the you're getting on set. 

sounds like you have a less is more approach, like us. any go to products or tips that you've learned about on set?

Well, certainly the K18REPAIR™ service now that I’ve seen what it can do in the salon, and the K18 hair mask to try at home. Living in today’s world, we can all use damage repair but my hair definitely needs it. As a swimmer, I'm always in the chlorine, and it really affects my hair. I can see that it turns green if I’m not careful. I’m excited about the K18 PRO chelator that Clayton used today before K18REPAIR™ since he says it gets rid of metals and minerals that react with chlorine and make it change colors. I’m going to ask my stylist for that next time!