By Clyde Noel

The Washington women’s network caught up with hair stylist Suna Johnson Sunday when she was asked to style Tipper Gore’s hair.

Johnson got the chance when Vice President Al Gore’s campaign for President of United States brought him to the Peninsula last week for fund-raising parties in Atherton and Sunnyvale.

The Gores dined Tuesday with celebrities and high-tech executives in Atherton and later danced to the music of Elton John.

The vice president’s wife wanted to look her best. On Sunday, Tipper Gore asked members of her White House staff where she could have her hair done. Handlers pointed the prospective First Lady to the Balisimo Salon at the corner of First and State streets.

The way the story goes, Johnson styled hair for a woman from Pennsylvania who was pleased and told Laureen Lyman of Gore’s White House staff about the Balisimo stylist.

Lyman had her hair cut and told another White House staff member, Darcy Lumo, to go to Balisimo. Lumo spent three hours at the Los Altos salon having her hair cut and colored.

So it only made sense that Gore’s turn was next. Johnson was summoned to a Sunnyvale location to do the honors.

“She was nice and easy to get along with,” Johnson said. “I styled her hair for an elegant evening before her husband’s Democratic fund-raising party in Atherton. Tipper told me she liked it and when she’s in the area again, she will call for me.”

Gore’s Sunnyvale stop capped a two-day California swing concentrated largely on fund-raising. Between a Beverly Hills event and the John concert, Gore told the press the Democrats raised more than $7 million, almost half of it coming from Silicon Valley, a local record for Democrats.

For more information about Balisimo Salon, call 948-8235 or logon to www.balisimo-salon.com.