Jennifer Lopez Pays Tribute To Late Hairstylist And Friend Oribe Canales: ‘We Fell In Love With Each Other’
In Hollywood, hairstylists can become the best friends of celebrities, just ask Jennifer Lopez.
Earlier today, the singer took to her Instagram to pay tribute to her longtime friend and hairstylist Oribe Canales, who died a the age of 62. According to Page Six, Lopez and Oribe first met in 1997, when the 49-year-old was working on her album On the 6.
To pay tribute to the late hairstylist and her friend, Lopez shared a lengthy Instagram post along with a series of photos of herself and Oribe. The actress started off the post by telling her fans that when she was just 16-years-old, she used to be obsessed with Vogue Magazine and would look at all the images of the supermodels in the publication, and she became “obsessed” with the hair.
There was one image in particular that Lopez says caught her eye. She realized that it was Oribe who styled the hair, and she remembers thinking that he was “amazing.”
“Cut to years later I was making my first album. I started working with Benny Medina and he said to me we have to do an album cover shoot who do you want for hair and makeup… honestly I was so new to the industry I knew no one and remembered my time flipping through those magazines on the 6 and said ummm Oribe and Kevin Aucoin,” she recalled. “Benny laughed and said oh OK!”
The cause of death for the Cuban-born hairdresser is currently unknown https://t.co/OuUQVc8kjA
— KSAB Tejano 99.9 (@ksab999) December 17, 2018
Lopez then went on to share with fans that she spent the next 10 years of her life spending almost every single moment with Oribe, who she considered one of her closest friends.
“We fell in love with each other. We traveled the world together. And along with Scott Barnes they helped me blossom into JLO.”
The actress says that time in her life was both “magical” and “exhausting,” but when she was really tired, Oribe would lift her up and tell her that she was “beautiful” and “fabulous.” She says that Oribe was the one who made the “glam” part of her job fun and he saw it as a tool used to empower women, a quality that was really special.
“He made me feel special and beautiful for so long. I could go on and on but I will just say with a heavy heart… Thank you sweet, beautiful man. I will miss you. I love you Oribe… so much…” she said before ending the caption with a broken heart emoji.
She also added the hashtags “latino legend,” “artist extraordinaire,” “hair god,” and “familia.” So far, Lopez’s tribute has earned her a ton of attention on her Instagram page with over 239,000 likes in addition 2,000 comments. Many fans chimed in to wish Lopez well during this rough time in her life while countless others sent their prayers to the late hairstylist.
Lopez did not mention how Oribe died and if it was sudden or if he was sick, but it’s clear to see that it’s left a hole in her heart.
