One day in January, St. Louis hairstylist Kelsey Miller received a rather interesting request from a client of hers: would she be available to work with a VIP client the next night?
This client gave Miller no additional information, nothing about who the VIP was and what they needed done to their hair. Yet, Miller felt a need to say yes.
From there, Miller discovered her current client was out to lunch with members of the U.S. Figure Skating organization because the U.S. Championships were happening in St. Louis at the time. Miller then received a text from coach Phillip DiGuglielmo providing more information about the VIP client. He described the client having “tree rings” that needed to be touched up and made a brighter color. Miller was excited to try something new, but she needed more information. Turns out, Miller would be working with Alysa Liu.
“I was like ‘Can you tell me who this is, and tell me what I’ll be doing so I can get an idea and prepare for the appointment?’ That’s when he sent me videos of Alysa skating. I was like ‘Oh, s---. O.K., cool. This is fun,’” Miller told Sports Illustrated.
So, the next night, Liu showed up to Miller’s salon, Thirteenth and Washington Salon, by herself and was ready to sit for the next five hours to perfect her now iconic halo ring hairstyle. Her one request was to make the rings “more dramatic.”
The halo ring style was new to Miller, as it is to virtually every hairstylist out there now, but she was ready for a challenge. Miller didn’t focus on the fact that Liu would likely be sporting this hairdo in Milan a month later during the Winter Olympics. She just wanted to fulfill Liu’s wish to make her happy.
“If anybody’s ever met [Liu], you know she’s just so chill and such a cool vibe that I wasn’t really nervous to do her hair by any means. I was excited more than nervous,” Miller says. “She was so calm about it. It was just like doing anybody’s hair. I wasn’t thinking like ‘Oh my God, this could be on TV,’ or ‘She might go to the Olympics.’ None of that ever really crossed my mind, I think I was just so mentally in the zone trying to come up with a game plan of what I’m going to do and how I’m going to achieve this look, that those other things didn’t really phase me.”
The 20-year-old skater spent hours asking Miller about her own life, while also sharing her incredible backstory about her family and how she got into skating. They also talked about school, relationships and friends. After the five hours, Miller felt like she truly understood Liu as a person. It sounds like Liu’s persona everyone around the world grew to love during the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics is exactly how she is off the ice and world stage, too.
“You do [get to know someone well] when they’re sitting in your chair that long,” Miller says. “The common denominator in everything she was telling me is that she’s a no judgement zone. She is just a lover. She roots for everybody. You don’t have to be afraid to tell her anything because she’s not going to judge you.”
When Miller finished styling Liu’s hair, she could tell Liu truly loved what she created. Liu asked to take a photo with Miller, shown below, and the two stayed in touch leading up to the Olympics. Miller even attended the U.S. Championships the following day to watch Liu win silver in competition and qualify for the Olympics. It was an emotional moment for Miller watching Liu debut her now iconic hair on the podium, while also truly loving her hair—a hairstylist’s dream.
Those emotions translated over when Miller watched Liu perform at the Olympics on TV. Liu’s hair quickly became one of the biggest storylines off the ice during the Games, especially as Liu’s popularity grew. Liu won gold in the team event, and of course in the women’s individual event. Miller started receiving requests from moms asking if she could recreate Liu’s halo rings in wigs for their daughters. Fellow hairstylists asked Miller to send them tutorials on how to create the hairdo for when their clients request it. It’s become a phenomenon in the hair world.
Miller is proud to see Liu making such a statement on the ice and off of it with her personal style. She thinks Liu has changed the figure skating world by establishing her own unique look.
“For her to come in and just do things her way and rock her style—haters are going to hate on it and that’s fine, she doesn’t care—and then she goes and wins gold for the figure skating world. That’s huge. She’s changing the style and helping it evolve.”
Looking back on that text message she received nearly two months ago now, Miller is extremely grateful she said yes to a challenge she knew nothing about. The biggest takeaway for her moving forward is to become more of a “yes” person, because you never know what may come out of saying yes to something. Your creation could become a global phenomenon.
“Something I’m definitely taking away, and I remind myself of this all the time, is to just say yes. Be a yes person because you never know what could happen by you just saying yes,” Miller says. “Even if you don't know details or anything like that, it can definitely open some doors for you. … I said yes not knowing what I was about to get myself into and definitely my life has changed.”
More Winter Olympics on Sports Illustrated
- Connor McDavid Had Blunt Response to Brutal Question After Team Canada’s Olympic Loss
- Jack Hughes Hugs Tage Thompson, Addresses Devils Fans in Return From Olympics
- Hilary Knight Addresses Backlash Over President Trump’s Joke About Women’s Hockey Team
- Speedskater Jordan Stolz’s Path to Olympic Gold at Milan Cortina 2026
- Johnny Gaudreau’s Parents Open Up About Special Gold Medal Celebration at Winter Games
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Meet the Hairstylist Who Created Alysa Liu’s Iconic Halo Ring Look.
