Of the varied and vast hallmarks of Mary Kate Olsen’s style, one aspect of her appearance remains constant—her covetable hair. The unpretentious chic of her signature long, slightly disheveled locks are a perfect juxtaposition to red carpet couture. Also, unlike some of the fussy styles we’ve seen on young Hollywood, Olsen’s hair looks achievable. We got Matrix celebrity stylist Mark Townsend, the man responsible for this look, to explain his method for this mad coolness.
Townsend’s talent needs no introduction, but we’ll give one anyway. He’s worked with both Olsen girls for the past five years and you might remember his work from Oscar night—do Reese Witherspoon, Cate Blanchett, and Natalie Portman ring any bells? Part of the reason he’s in such demand is because Townsend keeps fashion-forward Hollywood heads looking modern and youthful, even when they’re wearing very grown-up duds. “When you’re wearing a piece of art—which is what these dresses are—you don’t want to go over the top with the hair,” Townsend says. “Mary Kate was attending the Chanel Cruise show so we wanted to keep the hair fresh-looking and give it as much texture as possible.”
To get Olsen’s casual waves, Townsend first applied Vavoom Gold Heat Blow-In Control Protective Serum to her damp hair. (The serum is for medium/course hair, but if you have fine/medium hair, get Vavoom Gold Heat Blow-In Volume Protective Lotion for the same results.) The product protects hair from heat tools like blow dryers, deflects humidity, and amps up shine.
Olsen has natural waves, so Townsend only dried the top section of her hair, letting the rest of it air dry while she had her makeup done. (If you have very straight hair, scrunch some volumizing mousse into your damp hair to help it along.) Next, Townsend blew out the top section of Olsen’s hair with a small round brush and clipped this section aside. Using a medium curling iron, he created texture in the rest of her hair by curling random-sized sections. Not every strand was curled, Townsend left a few pieces untouched as well.
Since Townsend wasn't going for standard barrel curls, he didn't use the iron in a traditional manner (clamping the end, the rolling up to the root.) Instead, he wrapped the hair from root to end around the iron, while holding the ends in his hand (no clamping at all). He curled each section very briefly—no more than 10 seconds. Once the entire underneath section was finished, he unclipped the top part and curled these pieces away from Olsen’s face. Finally, Townsend spritzed Vavoom Freezing Spray on his hands, rubbed them together, and raked them through Olsen’s hair. “This gives the hair some roughness and keeps the little flyaways at bay,” he said.
While Townsend used a Magic Ionic Digital Spring Ceramic Curling Iron ($120,
drugstore.com), obviously you can use whatever you own. Katherine’s fond of Conair’s Instant Heat Iron ($14.99,
drugstore.com) and Hillary likes Hot Tools Professional Ceramic Spring Curling Iron ($28.95,
folica.com). To get either the Vavoom Gold Heat Blow-In Control ($13.95) or Vavoom Freezing Spray ($14.95), visit
matrix.com for a salon locater near you.
http://www.whowhatweardaily.com
I do like it though, it's ultra chic and annoyingly 'effortless' looking.
