Lady Gaga’s longtime hairstylist Frederic Aspiras has opened up about working with her on high fashion crime drama House of Gucci. The pair have collaborated over 12 years across a variety of looks, including Gaga’s signature platinum blonde by Joico Blonde Life Color.

In an interview with People, Aspiras said that ahead of the filming when Gaga asked Aspiras to dye her hair brown, he was left “so beside himself” and “crying” at the request.

“We re-dyed her real hair from her platinum signature blonde hair back to brown months before the movie was shot, just so that she could feel be in the character (sic),” he said. “I mean, you’re talking about someone who is so devoted to characterisation and the art that she willingly wanted to colour white hair.”

“It was past her shoulder, it was very healthy, gorgeous, and (she) wanted to colour it brown. And I was so beside myself. I was crying. I was like, ‘Are you sure about that?’ ‘Like, yes.’ And we coloured it brown,” he added.

Director Ridley Scott initially wanted just two wigs and one make-up look to carry the story of Gaga’s character Patrizia Reggiani, but Aspiras fought for a range of wigs, including a tight 80s perm that helped age Gaga. Aspiras says, “Ridley said, ‘Well if you can make it work…’”

Gaga’s only request for her appearance in the drama, however, was: “I don’t want to see Gaga on screen,” Aspiras told Variety. “It sounds easy, but it wasn’t.”

With no photos of Reggiani around the required era available to Aspiras, he took on the challenge of recreating an Italian woman of that age, by “talking to people, reading books, (and) talking to people who lived in Italy at that time.” He also took inspiration from Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren.

The development process took five months and resulted in ten wigs and a 500-page directory detailing the hairstyles – something Aspiras considers a “passion project”.

Read Dazed’s interview with House of Gucci’s costume designer Janty Yates on working collaboratively with ‘LG’, steering clear of Dynasty-era Joan Collins, and running riot in the Gucci archives.