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Before Scott King was Sabrina Carpenter’s go-to hairstylist, crafting her signature fluffy bangs and voluminous blowout, he was a kid who loved doing his Barbie’s hair and idolized the early 2000s hair aesthetic. “My number one would be Mary-Kate and Ashley,” he says. “Britney [Spears], Christina [Aguilera], [and] Topanga from Boy Meets World had the most beautiful hair. Lizzie McGuire, Clueless, and That’s So Raven—I just loved all of that.”
He trained and worked in Washington D.C. for five years before making the jump to L.A., where he assisted stylists and built his portfolio. Today, his clients include Lucy Hale, Lisa Rinna, Kate Beckinsale, and Ava Max, and this fall, he’ll be joining Carpenter on her Short n’ Sweet Tour. For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, King sits down with Editor in Chief Kat Collings to discuss his hair inspirations, recommended products, and just how he gets Carpenter’s bangs to be so fluffy.
For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
At what point did you realize that maybe this is my calling, maybe this can be more than just something I’m interested in, and it could be a career?
I never thought about it seriously. In high school, I was like, “I have no idea what I’m gonna do.” During the career-day quizzes, the only thing that would pop up for me was, like, party planner. I would color my mom’s hair, trim her hair, style it, whatever, and [I would do all of my friends’ hair] for homecoming and prom. She’s like, “You need to do this.” She’s the one that did the research into where I should go and pushed me into it, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
When you were a kid, how did you learn [hair]? Did you have any books or mentors to guide you or just through experimentation?
I had all girl friends. I had no guy friends growing up, so I would always play with their hair, and I would have my parents buy me the Barbie head so I could style the hair on that. I would just look at pictures in magazines like the J-14s and Teen Vogue and just try to re-create.
I do feel like there’s a whole corner of TikTok absolutely dedicated to trying to achieve Sabrina’s hairstyle, specifically the bangs and the bounciness. I must ask from the master, How can we attempt to style bangs at home?
We use the Dyson Airwrap with the round brush attachment and just blow the bangs forward. Or you could just use a round brush and a blow-dryer, and then we just take a medium-sized Velcro roller and set it while I do the rest of her hair, so it just has that beveled-under, blown-out vibe and makes it softer and fluffy.
I’m curious for the pinning of the Velcro roller. Do you pin the roller to the hair? I’ve seen different schools of thought.
I do pin the roller to the hair just right at the base, but I don’t overdirect it backward because that’ll give you some George Washington bangs. We go where it’s almost half of the rollers resting on the top of the forehead a little bit, so not too high up. The higher you go, the more volume you’ll get. Sometimes, that can be really tricky with bangs.
The spectrum from “Sabrina Carpenter perfect” to “George Washington accident” is just making me giggle.
The amount of times, though, that I make her look like George Washington, where we have to rewet them, blow them again… It’s always a work in progress. She has good days, bad days.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, check out our interview with stylist and costume designer Shiona Turini.
