The late fashion publicist and renowned 1990s style icon<\/a> was known for her effortless yet luxurious looks that seamlessly paired with the ultimate accessory: her recognizable buttery blonde locks.<\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Carolyn’s longtime colorist recalled the origin of the now-trademarked “child-of-the-beach” hue he created for her when they first started working together in 1996, revealing that one of her facial features inspired it.<\/p>\n Carolyn Bessette Kennedy “It’s all about eye color first,” Johns tells PEOPLE exclusively of Carolyn’s “blue surfer girl eyes” that set the tone of the shade they’d ultimately create, transforming her light brown hair into the blonde we know today.<\/p>\n Brad Johns in October 2006. “Eye color’s first because if it’s blue, anything that’s golden’s going to show that up,” he explains. “And if they’re icy blue, white shows that up. I would look at the whole package… I mean, she was just gorgeous.”<\/p>\n While Johns largely created Carolyn’s color based on her eye color, he cited three other individual factors that he took into consideration to best complement her hair.<\/p>\n “Skin color second, time of the season third and what you do for a living fourth,” he adds of the variables he takes into consideration when choosing a client’s color. “You can’t be a judge with chunks in your hair, you just can’t \u2014 but you could be Carolyn.”<\/p>\n He emphasizes, “She was gorgeous. She was so beautiful.”<\/p>\n Johns, who is now retired from the hair industry and works as a glass artist (but detailed his headline-making career in a memoir, Dye<\/a>), used his famous “chunking” technique<\/a>\u00a0to highlight Carolyn’s “toffee” shade with precision.<\/p>\n Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. “I was the founding father of the chunking technique,” he tells PEOPLE of the method he used on John F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a>‘s wife, which involved putting the highlight chunks in three foils around the front of her face and two beneath it for when she styled her hair up.<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johns truly viewed Carolyn’s hair as more than just hair. He had a philosophy for it.<\/p>\n “My thing is hair color is the accessory you never take off. You’re naked, it’s you and that accessory \u2014 so it should look really sexy,” he says. “Her hair was glamorous, shiny.”<\/p>\n Now, the love story between JFK Jr., the son of President\u00a0John F. Kennedy<\/a>\u00a0and first lady\u00a0Jackie Kennedy<\/a>, and Carolyn, is being told in Ryan Murphy’s\u00a0American Love Story. The first installment was released on FX and Hulu on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n![\"Carolyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/75dcefac4ee1a238eb9bc73cd4bd7d68.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Lawrence Schwartzwald\/Sygma via Getty<\/p>\n![\"Brad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/96b19e2fdde95e25a24c240d2a33d0b6.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Patrick McMullan\/Patrick McMullan via Getty<\/p>\n![\"Carolyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/445e18a72c967639243727b88d646a9c.jpeg\"\/)
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Credit: Fairchild Archive\/Penske Media via Getty<\/p>\n