The salon professional industry lost one of its true originals. Brad Johns, the colorist behind the buttery blonde and the precision highlighting technique known as chunking, passed on August 27th at age 71 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Johns’ path to becoming one of the world’s top colorists started far from a salon chair. Raised in a housing project in Pittsburgh, he moved to New York after high school to study acting at NYU’s Stella Adler School of Acting. A year in, he made the call that he’d never be a great actor, and enrolled in beauty school instead — a decision that changed everything. He honed his craft at some of Manhattan’s top salons, including Cinandre, Jean Louis David, Clive Summers, and Bruno Dessange, under the mentorship of Don Matthews, former Clairol lab colorist turned Color Director at Clive Summers.
Johns’ Legacy
Long before the “money piece” and “face-framing highlights” were part of the lexicon, Johns was already redefining what highlighting could look like. Working alongside editorial and celebrity stylist Oribe Canales at the Elizabeth Arden Salon in the early ’90s, the two bonded over a shared disdain for frosting. Johns explained the origin of his signature move in his memoir: “For me, hair color is an art form, and I was working on a technique for highlighting hair with more precision. Oribe came up with the name chunking to describe my technique for placing lighter pieces in big chunks around the face so it resembled the way a child’s hair looked after a summer at the beach.”
Supermodel Christy Turlington became his proof of concept. Johns started her with twelve subtle quarter-inch chunks around her face — modest by design, since she’d never colored her hair before. She loved it, asked him to go bolder, and once word spread, so did the demand. Soon Johns was coloring 40 clients a day. His client list eventually included Johnny Depp, Natasha Richardson, and Carolyn Bessette, for whom he created the signature buttery blonde that became one of her most recognizable features. In 1996, Johns opened his own eponymous salon in Manhattan’s Takashimaya Building, with Bessette in attendance for the grand opening.
His Impact
Chunking didn’t just define an era of highlighting — it laid the groundwork for the face-framing techniques colorists still lean on today. Johns’ insistence on precision over the era’s go-to frosting method helped shift hair color from a routine service into something closer to fine art, a philosophy that shaped how an entire generation of colorists approached the foil. His influence extended past the chair, too: he was a lifelong artist who studied gold and silversmithing at Parsons, with Oribe even commissioning a display case for his silver barrette and ponytail holder designs. After retiring from hairdressing in 2019, Johns moved to Los Angeles to study glass fusing, later founding Brad Johns Glass to showcase his work.
Those who knew Brad remember him for the light he brought into every room. Close friend Cindy Sherman recalls his smile, his sense of humor, his wisdom, and his grace — a fitting last word for a man who spent his career finding beauty in every detail.
Donations in his name can be made to the Pasadena Humane Society here.
