Cambodia & Pathways: Arya, Beauty as a Passport Between Two Worlds

Established in Phnom Penh for more than fifteen years, Arya Vong Kim embodies a life shaped by exile, resilience, and the pursuit of excellence in the art of beauty. Born in Cambodia, a refugee in France at the age of two and a half, she has become one of the country’s most respected hairdressers and colorists, while training a new generation of Cambodian professionals.​

From Childhood Exile to a French Identity

Arya was born in Cambodia into a Khmer family before being forced into exile because of the war. She left the country before the age of three, passing through Albertville before growing up in Amiens and later Lyon, where she completed her entire education.

Her father was a military officer, her mother a homemaker, and the family included eight children, two of whom were born in France. From this childhood marked by displacement emerged an early capacity for adaptation, as well as a dual perspective on the world—balanced between her culture of origin and her host society.

A Deliberate Career Change Toward Hairdressing

For a long time, Arya envisioned a future in education and initially pursued a conventional academic path oriented toward business. It was while working alongside her husband in the restaurant business and various retail ventures that she discovered a deep passion for entrepreneurship, and eventually for hairdressing—strong enough to prompt her to “return to school” in order to fully professionalize.

In Lyon, she accumulated qualifications: CAP, BP, and then the Master Craftsman Certificate, a trio that allows one to practice the profession, open a salon, and teach. These diplomas, recognized at high school and BTS level, provided her with strong technical and pedagogical foundations, particularly in colorimetry, a discipline that requires solid knowledge of chemistry.

From France to Cambodia, a Final “Big Business”

In the mid-2000s, Arya sensed that the economic climate in France was becoming increasingly difficult and anticipated a decline in small retail businesses. She therefore decided to capitalize on what she mastered best—and loved most—hairdressing and aesthetics, to build an exportable project. After briefly hesitating between the United States and Cambodia, she chose her country of birth.

In 2009, she settled in Phnom Penh and opened her first salon in Sovhanna, under her own name, Arya Vong Kim. She quickly became one of the first professionals in the country to hold complete French diplomas—an invaluable asset in a market where many practitioners rely on private certificates.

Technical Partner of Major Brands

Ambitious by nature, Arya did not stop at opening a salon. She approached L’Oréal to obtain professional distribution rights for salon hair products in Cambodia, presenting a detailed business plan and development strategy.

Initially, her project focused solely on distribution, but faced with the lack of technical expertise in local salons, she opened her own high-end establishment to demonstrate proper product usage and to train teams.

She also became a partner of Guinot, first alongside a financial associate, before taking over sole distribution when the partner was no longer able to keep up. Today, she represents two strong brands—L’Oréal Professionnel for hair and Guinot for skincare—serving a clientele that includes both expatriates and affluent Cambodians.

A Demanding Vision of Beauty

Arya emphasizes the scientific dimension of her profession, particularly in color work, which requires a precise understanding of chemical reactions. She distinguishes herself in a market where some salons use low-cost “supermarket” dyes, by advocating strict protocols and immediately visible results—especially with treatments such as HydraClean, priced at around $80.

Her offering is structured around two complementary approaches: technological treatments using ionization and patented Guinot prototypes, and manual treatments for clients who value touch and more natural methods.

This dual approach allows her to combine innovation and sensory experience, while building strong client loyalty—extending even to teenage customers who return regularly.

Training and Certifying Young Cambodian Women

True to her original inclination toward teaching, Arya places her expertise at the service of education and training. Alongside the association Toutes à l’école, and in coordination with the Cambodian Ministry of Labor, she has helped implement a program enabling young women to obtain an equivalent of the CAP hairdressing diploma, providing direct access to employment.

She also contributes to a “mastery section” developed with Tina Kieffer, while her salon serves as a practical training site for young women learning hairdressing trades, notably in partnership with Shanty Town Spirit. However, the project was slowed by the Covid crisis and a lack of students, while the workload between Phnom Penh and the campus—located about thirty kilometers away—became increasingly difficult to sustain.

A Profession That Struggles for Recognition

While hairdressing attracts many young Cambodian women, Arya regrets that the profession remains less valued than fields such as accounting or management. Yet she emphasizes that it is a career capable of providing a good living for those who commit to it seriously and are equipped with high-quality training.

Her initial ambition to open a full-fledged hairdressing school has been hindered by a lack of time and the difficulty of recruiting students truly motivated by effort and technical rigor. Nevertheless, she continues to pass on her knowledge daily through informal training within her salon and by sharing her expertise with partner teams.

Between Cosmology, Travel, and Francophonie

Beyond scissors and color, Arya nurtures a strong interest in cosmology and quantum science, which she carefully distinguishes from astrology. She spends long hours watching documentaries and conducting online research, benefiting from what she describes as an era in which the internet and technology—including artificial intelligence—offer unprecedented access to knowledge, provided sources are verified.

In her free time, she enjoys sports such as swimming and volleyball. A passionate traveler, she holds particularly fond memories of Turkey, whose cultural richness she praises beyond stereotypes, as well as trips to Spain and Tunisia during the 1980s and 1990s.

A Family Between Phnom Penh and Paris

Mother of two children, Arya describes them as very different yet equally strong personalities. Her son, an artist at heart, enjoys dance and social life and works in the cryptocurrency sector, while her daughter has chosen a diplomatic path, serving at the Cambodian Embassy in France.

Her son now lives in Phnom Penh, while her daughter remains in France, where she is building a diplomatic career while maintaining strong ties to Cambodia and expected to return for events such as the Francophonie Summit in late 2026. Between these two generations and two countries, Arya continues to chart her own course—that of a beauty professional who has made hairdressing far more than a profession, but a bridge between worlds.

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