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Before Scott King became Sabrina Carpenter’s favorite hairdresser and gave her her signature fluffy bangs and voluminous blow-dry, he was a kid who loved doing his Barbie doll’s hair and idolized the hair aesthetic of the early 2000s. “My number one would be Mary-Kate and Ashley,” he says. “Britney (Spears), Christina (Aguilera) and (and) Topanga from Life and I had the most beautiful hair. Lizzie McGuire, CluelessAnd That’s so Raven—I just loved it all.”
He trained and worked in Washington DC for five years before moving to LA, where he assisted stylists and built his portfolio. His clients today include Lucy Hale, Lisa Rinna, Kate Beckinsale and Ava Max, and this fall he will accompany Carpenter on her Short n’ Sweet Tour. For the latest episode of The Who What Wear PodcastKing sits down with Editor-in-Chief Kat Collings to talk about his hair inspirations, recommended products, and how he gets Carpenter’s bangs so fluffy.
Excerpts from their conversation can be found below.
When did you realize that this might be your calling, that it could be more than just an interest, but that it could become a career?
I never really thought about it. In high school, I was like, “I have no idea what I’m going to do.” All I ever thought about on the career tests was that I should be a party planner. I dyed my mom’s hair, cut it, styled it, whatever, and (I did all my friends’ hair) for homecoming and prom. She said, “You have to do this.” She was the one who researched where I should go and pushed me to do it, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
How did you learn hair design as a child? Were there books or mentors to help you, or did you just experiment?
I only had female friends. I didn’t have any male friends growing up, so I always played with their hair, and my parents bought me the Barbie head so I could style the hair on it. I just looked at pictures in magazines, like the J-14s and Teen Vogue and just try to recreate it.
I feel like there’s a whole corner of TikTok dedicated solely to trying to replicate Sabrina’s hairstyle, especially the bangs and bounce. I have to ask the master: “How can we try to style bangs at home?”
We use the Dyson Airwrap with the round brush attachment and just blow-dry the bangs forward. Or you can just use a round brush and a blow-dryer. Then we just take a medium-sized velcro roller and hold it in place while I do the rest of her hair so it just has that downward angled, blow-dried out look and it’s softer and fluffier.
I’m interested in how the Velcro roller is attached. Do you attach the roller to your hair? I’ve heard different opinions on this.
I put the rollers in the hair right at the roots, but I don’t pull them too far back because that would create a George Washington fringe. We go so that almost half of the rollers rest a little on the forehead, so not too high. The higher you go, the more volume you get. Sometimes this can be really difficult with bangs.
The spectrum from “Sabrina Carpenter is perfect” to “George Washington’s accident” just makes me giggle.
The frequency with which I her look like George Washington, where we have to wet them again, blow on them again… It’s always an ongoing process. She has good days, bad days.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, watch our interview with the stylist and costume designer Shiona Turini.
