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Gwyneth Paltrow Helped Her Celebrity Hairstylist Pal Lose 135 Pounds! Find Out How

See pics of David Babaii's big weight-loss transformation

By Marc Malkin Dec 31, 2014 10:49 PMTags
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Top Hollywood hairstylist David Babaii's journey to lose weight began three years ago.

And he's now opening up exclusively to me about how Gwyneth Paltrow helped him lose 135 pounds.

At just 5'5", the Vogue-crowned "king of curls" had ballooned to 285 pounds with a 44-inch waist.

"I was working a lot. I had a really bad breakup. It was like my first adult breakup," Babaii, 40, remembers. "I looked at myself in the mirror and I wanted to start changing."

At the time, he had been working with Gwyneth Paltrow for about 10 years. (His celeb roster also includes Kate Hudson, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Aguilera and Uma Thurman, among others).

"It was during a casual conversation and I said to Gwyneth, 'Listen, I really want to lose weight. I want to become better,'" Babaii said. "She looked at me and said, 'Sounds good, what do you want to do? How do you want to do this?' It was just very organic and not in a judgmental way."

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And that's when Babaii's transformation really began. "If I was hungry, I would email her any time of the day and if she wasn't sleeping, she'd reply right away," he said. "She would say, 'Try this. I think you'll like it. It's not boring.' She said that everything you do, do it in moderation. She would never say stop doing this or stop doing that. It's like she lead me to it without the pressure."

When Babaii asked her about gluten, Paltrow said, 'Gluten is not really a good thing, but don't kill yourself to all of a sudden become gluten-free. Just do it slowly.'"

With the help of Paltrow and Equinox trainer Will Castillo, Babaii dropped 135 pounds in just four months.

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"She had become almost like a life coach," Babaii said of the Goop guru. "She always says to me, 'Enjoy food.' But I was never enjoying food. I wouldn't taste the food. Now I actually taste it."

Just yesterday, Babaii, who became business partners with Paltrow earlier this year when they announced they were teaming up with Blo Blow Dry Bar, posted before-and-after photos of himself on his Facebook page to help motivate a friend who has been struggling to lose weight.

"I hope this can show him that if I can do it then really anyone can," he wrote in the post. "I did not love myself and food was my best friend till one day I looked at myself I mean really looked at myself and thought I need help and I want to love myself again so my dear friend @gwynethpaltrow helped me get myself to understand that I'm worth it and I am loved and that I should love myself. She did not look down at me or judge me."

Sounds like the perfect friend.