Jeremy Allen White, whose winning streak now includes a best-actor trophy at the Emmys 2024, finally wore the closest thing to chef’s whites on Monday’s red carpet. His custom Armani suit conveyed a gentlemanly polish, every detail just so. The imagined Calvins underneath reverberated in the mind’s eye of his very devoted fan base. And above that pert black bow tie, White modeled his usual cherubic looks, skin youthfully aglow and tendrils coiled at his forehead.
That visage and hair are the purview of KC Fee, the celebrity groomer who reconnected with White for The Bear’s season one premiere and has accompanied his wild ride ever since. Arguably there are similarities between the high-stress environment of a restaurant kitchen and the awards-season gauntlet. “This is something I’ve witnessed with all my clients: It’s an experience nobody knows unless they have to go through it,” Fee says. “There is a lot of wear and tear, and there’s a lot being asked of them. It can be draining, but at the same time, positive, wonderful things are happening.”
That, in microcosm, sums up the scene at White’s house on Monday, where, amid the pre-show swirl of activity, the actor dipped into a state of relaxation. “My thing is I always do a very calming facial massage—doing a lot of still hand-placing on the face, and then working in the products,” says Fee, who used an array of Aesop skin care. First came the Parsley Seed serum, kneaded into the face and neck; the B Triple C gel, designed to help even the complexion, followed. The Seeking Silence hydrator locked in moisture. “Then I go in with some tinted moisturizer and concealer just to correct the skin tone and under-eyes and stuff like that”—an appreciated, if unseen, level of finesse for the camera.
The unwind continues with White’s hair, as Fee multitasks a scalp massage while applying product. “At this point with his hair, I just intuitively feel what it’s doing when I show up and kind of go with it,” she says. “[Tonight] we leaned into the curls he had at the moment.” She singles out RŌZ’s Milk hair serum as a favorite, created by hairstylist Mara Roszak, whose own red-carpet weekend took her from Emma Stone for Critics Choice to Juno Temple for the Emmys. The lightweight leave-in can be cocktailed together with RŌZ’s Santa Lucia styling oil: “That’s what I use in my hair. I swear by them,” adds Fee.
However much White’s own vibe is “super chill,” per the groomer—music playing and candles burning as he prepped for the Emmys—the internet is aflame after the recent Calvin Klein campaign dropped. “It’s hilarious. I have my [working] relationship with him, so when I see all this, it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, this feels weird!’” Fee laughs—a normal response when you catch sight of a colleague in their underwear. For now, with a break before next month’s SAG Awards, Fee will be cheering him on from afar and getting back to her day-to-day, with kids and a soon-to-arrive puppy. “I am the chef in my own life,” Fee says. “Everyone is ‘Yes, Chef’-ing me.”
