Hailey Bieber has worked with Priscilla Valles since she was a teenager. “She has always taken such good care of my hair and cared about my hair health,” Bieber tells Vogue of the celebrity extensionist, who is launching her hair line, Perlino (named after her beloved horse), today. “She is the most meticulous and seamless when it comes to extensions, and her technique and quality, to me, can’t be topped,” says Bieber. “Not only is she the absolute best at what she does, but she is also the kindest, most sincere woman who always has the most incredible attitude and energy. That’s very rare to find.” After a quarter of a century doing hair, Valles has become an if-you-know-you-know contact for creating faux hair looks sans damage.
Valles, calling from her car while on set, recalls the first time she met Bieber. “I just remember her being so beautiful and so adorable,” she says of the days when Bieber (then Baldwin) wanted to add some length to bleached hair. “What I love about Hailey is she’s just always on the super supernatural side, she has a beautiful head of hair herself, and when she went blonde, she’s like, ‘Let’s just go a little longer in little layers,’ and we did that.” In the years since, “I’ve been able to help her with all the trendsetting that she does. She can have a bob and then the next season she wants to go just two inches longer, and we can easily do that, making it look as natural as possible.” Part of Valles’s success is in technique (she plans to launch a masterclass to share her secrets) that respects what real hair needs to keep growing with extensions in, and part of it is the ultrafine Eastern European Remy human hair she uses for near-invisible extensions.
Her top request is individual extensions, which “probably 98%” of her clients use, and she describes as “tiny, tiny; imagine a grain of rice and attached to that is hair.” In Valles’s mind, “every girl has a set of clip-in extensions in their drawer,” and her Perlino offerings of Hand-Tied Tape-Ins, Luxe Clip-Ins, Keratin Tips, and custom pieces will level up the market for what she calls the “elite of hair.”
When I tell her I am not that girl and mostly know extensions for their highly searched damage control queries, she’s understanding. “You can interview any single one of my clients and they will all say, ‘Oh my God, my hair has gotten better,’” Valles says, noting that the maximum lifetime of a head of extensions before an update should be about four to six weeks. “My clients are usually prebooked throughout the year—no matter where they are in the world, that’s where I go to redo them because we just don’t want to chance this timeline,” she explains. “When you leave them in too long, that’s when I see a lot of damage.”
Khloé Kardashian, who’s been working with Valles for “years and years,” happily vouches for her work (“I trust her implicitly”) and her “undeniable” talent. “She has a blessed gift,” says Kardashian. From the “heart and soul” she pours into clients to the “magic that is Priscilla,” Kardashian is another true believer. “Priscilla understands that hair isn’t just about beauty; it’s about confidence, identity, and feeling like your best self. For me, hair is my security blanket, but I also love exploring different styles, and Priscilla makes all my hair fantasies come true.” Valles sees Kardashian as “the most adventurous client” she works with, and that the many different looks they’ve achieved are made possible by collaboration and trust. “Where all that trust comes into play is that the integrity of my client’s hair is my number one priority,” says Valles. “So once they see there’s no damage, it’s like the sky’s the limit with the different looks.” Now Kardashian is “beyond excited that she’s launched her own extension brand.”
It’s been a long road here for Valles too. “I had started this brand originally with my husband, and he passed, and it was a tragic time,” she shares. “And creatively, I put everything on pause, and I wondered if I would get that kind of love in my heart back for starting anything new again.” Horseback riding was a way to work through grief, and her Perlino horse, Mateo, was “my thousand-pound therapist,” she says with a soft laugh. “And he taught me so much about strength and patience and grace and just beauty, and I realized in those moments that I was ready to start the brand again. But I was going to start it being extremely authentic to who I am, what I’ve been through, and getting the brand and my extension world to collide and become one.”
For the ultra-custom options, a bespoke Perlino order will take about two weeks, she says, though “regular orders are available online the next day, and I’ve got all of the tools that you need to install and to remove,” she explains. “If you are going to invest, those are something that can last you a couple of years. You should invest in the best quality, and that’s what this line is offering.” What you can expect from a set of her Luxe Clip-Ins, for example, which start at $700 and come in 15 colors, is the ability to wash and restyle them again and again, plus “the colors are beautiful, the clips are lightweight and flat, and I have two different textures of hair to choose from,” she says. Her Tape-Ins and Keratin Tips come in 20 colors, and packs start at $229 and $150, respectively.
Alix Earle is also one of Valles’s newer clients, and she appreciates the seamless quality of Valles’s extensions. “I forget the hair isn’t actually mine,” Earle tells Vogue. “The fact that she installs them in under an hour while making them look flawless is unreal.” She’s also excited to try the new line and “proud” of what Valles is building. “As someone who struggled with thinning, shorter hair, she not only gave me the confidence of beautiful, natural-looking length, but also made sure my own hair kept growing underneath,” she says. It’s something that sets Valles apart and makes the masterclass element essential. She’ll offer Perlino Method courses online to share her signature techniques and lessons to keep natural hair healthy while playing with length and color.
Once you learn the right techniques, “you can improve someone’s hair using extensions,” says Valles. “With the right tools and the right application and the right hair, there will be less stress on your hair because of my method, the way that I build it,” she says. Valles considers what she does “an intimate service,” a reason you may be hearing about her now for the first time. “A lot of my peers, they have millions of followers,” she says, but her clients’ privacy has been paramount, and her methods have been earned through 25 years of service, ever since she was a teenager doing her aunt’s hair. Now, the whole world can experience her work.
