He styled Michelle Obama’s hair for years. Now Johnny Wright is tackling hair disasters on a new VH1 show

Johnny Wright, who kept the first lady’s hair stylish for eight years, has a new TV show To Catch a Beautician

In the show, Wright fixes bad hairstyles after confronting the offending hair stylist

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Michelle Obama’s hairstylist Johnny Wright will fix hair disasters on his new TV show To Catch a Beautician. Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Published: 5:15am, 27 May 2020Updated: 5:15am, 27 May 2020

Hairdresser Johnny Wright moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue television and red carpet work. After 13 years, which included a stint at the White House, his TV dream is coming true with the premiere of a new VH1 series.

Wright – who styled Michelle Obama’s hair when she was first lady – helps fix damaged tresses on To Catch a Beautician, which premiered on Monday. Stylists accused of giving a client a bad hairstyle are called in to meet with Wright. They get to explain themselves before they are ambushed by TV personality Tamar Braxton and the unhappy client. Stylists then redo the ‘do with guidance from Wright.

“It’s like the hair version of Botched,” Wright said of the E! network series about bad plastic surgery that is fixed by two celebrity doctors.

“The only difference is the client brings the stylist in to confront them about that bad hairdo, and then I put them through a boot camp so they can get their hairdo right. They get a chance to redeem themselves.”

Wright gives tips and tricks to a different stylist on each of the 20 half-hour episodes. A VH1 spokeswoman said none of the beauticians are from Chicago.

Wright, 42, grew up in the Roseland neighbourhood of Chicago. He said he started doing hair when he was around 11 years old and styled his classmates and teachers.