Heidi Klum on Hair Issues, Her Mother and Michelle Williams

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After talking face-to-face with Heidi Klum yesterday for a good twenty minutes, we have to say that she seems incredibly nice, normal and down-to-earth. Which is pretty surprising, considering her immense fame. Klum and team had set up at the Mondrian to talk to LA press about the model and TV host's new gig as the face (and hair) of soon-to-launch Unilever hair care line Clear Scalp & Hair Beauty Therapy." The shampoos and conditioners, which drop in stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Walgreens May 14, are focused on nourishing your scalp to the benefit of your hair. We asked Klum a few ridiculous hair-focused questions and she humored us by revealing all sorts of details about her day-to-day life.

You must get approached all the time about deals like this. What appealed to you about this product line?
"Before I signed I asked to get the product. I tried it for about two weeks and I really liked the way my hair was responding. It became more beautiful and stronger. I also thought that their approach of feeding the scalp was very new. I never heard of that before. It totally made sense to me. I'm naturally a brunette and my hair is quite dry because it is bleached a lot and I feel that it improved that. It looks better."

Aside from the dryness you mentioned, what are your biggest hair issues?
"Well, once it was over bleached and it broke. I had two-inch breakage up here [gestures to right above her head]. It was hard because I had to keep spraying it down and kind of covering it. When that happens you have to deal with growing that out and it's difficult. It looks like you have very high layers."

This product line is all about scalp maintenance. How do you make that topic seem sexy?
"With the results, not with the part about washing it. At the end of the day we all probably wash our hair the same. When you have beautiful hair to show. I think that's why I never really cut my hair fully short even though I like it. I look at Michelle Williams and I think she is adorable. But would I ever have the guts to do that? No. I need [longer] hair to feel feminine and more sexy in a way. Sometimes I'm like, just chop it off! But I can't do it."

There's been a movement over the past few years of people advocating less shampooing. How often do you shampoo? [Did we really just ask her that question?]
"When I work I wash it always at the end of the day. I hate going to bed with sticky hairspray. If I don't work, then I leave it two days, sometimes three. But I think I work too much to leave it, and also my hair has gotten used to it. Some people, they do it once a week and it doesn't look one bit greasy. That doesn't work for me. I would look like I hadn't washed my hair in a month."

Your mom was a hairdresser. Did she teach you any tricks and did she ever experiment on your hair?
"She didn't teach me tricks, but I was a guinea pig on many different things. She did perms, highlights. She chopped it all in different layers and then she gave me a perm afterwards, so this [gestures to the sides of her head] all got really short and I had straight sideburns and then the back was slightly waved because, obviously the long hair didn't hold the perm as well as the rest so here [sides of head] was super poodle and here [back of the head] was like a slight wave. It was horrible. She did a few crazy numbers with my hair."

Does your mom still tell you her opinions about your hair?
"If we go to the hairdresser together which we've done in the past, if they don't do as blonde and bright as she wants, we would drive by a drugstore on the way home and she would get peroxide and she would do it at home, again. After we just spent a fortune. She always tells me, 'Go blonder! Go blonder!' She's addicted to having it really blonde."

Totally off-topic: Can you give us any hints about this year's Halloween costume?
"No!! Truly I cannot because I don't have an idea yet. I do it in June and July. Before, I don't even think about it. When we are filming Project Runway, which we do in June, July and August, between hair and makeup we start thinking about it. And the person that usually does my costumes, Martin Izquierdo, and I just come up with an idea. He comes on our lunch break because he has a studio close by and we brainstorm and start drawing things. And that's still early! Then he has a few months to build it. He has a whole team of great artists and it's all done by hand and they make it right there."
· Clear Scalp & Hair Beauty Therapy [Facebook]
· Heidi Klum on AOL [Official Site]