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Celebrity hair stylist Mara Roszak had luck on her side when she landed her big break in Hollywood at just 18 years old. After graduating from beauty school, Roszak’s first client was actress Sarah Michelle Gellar. Yes, really. Since then, Roszak has gone on to work with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, from Emma Stone to Zoe Saldana, just to name a couple.
Roszak wasn’t done there. In 2021, she launched her own line, Rōz, which has a cult following for its award-winning haircare and styling products.
For the latest episode of Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr, Roszak sits down with Who What Wear’s editor in chief, Kat Collings, to share her favorite Rōz products, the styling tool she’s obsessed with right now, and more.
For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
I know that your first celebrity client was Sarah Michelle Gellar back in the early 2000s. You gave her what must have been a life-changing blowout because she kept asking you back. Talk to me a little bit about how that client relationship helped set the stage for your styling career?
That was really day one. She was my first-ever client outside of beauty school. How many people can say that, right?
I was very nervous, very excited, had no driver’s license. I did, however, have a hairdressing license.
My mom had to drive me to her house, and I was too embarrassed to have her actually pull up in front of the gate, so she dropped me off around the corner, and I rolled up with my kit that I’ve seemingly blocked out because I have no idea what I actually brought to her house in terms of my beauty-school tools.
Like you said, I must have really done a great job because Sarah is a superstar. She had just finished, I think, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and she has me as an 18-year-old showing up to her house to do her hair.
How she let me do her for an event is a question I don’t really have the answer to, and I’m not sure I’ll ever fully clearly get because any time I’ve tried to ask her, she’s just like, “Of course, you were so adorable. Of course, I would have you do my hair.”
I will say blowouts, they were the reason I really got into hair in the first place. I love a good blowout.
I have quite frizzy hair. I’ve learned over the years how to style it and really work with it and love it.
As an adolescent, when I developed this frizz and curl, I really wanted straight hair. It was also the late ’90s, early 2000s, [which were] all about that straight hair.
I really perfected my own personal blowout to make it look very on-trend, straight, and smooth.
I think that really taught me a lot. I was determined to get it to look the way I wanted it to.
I think I was really able to give her this killer blowout that she loved. Then we went on to travel the world together after that first time in 2003.
[Can you share how you styled] Emma Stone’s Golden Globes hair from this year, where she had the lob flipped out at the ends?
It’s actually very easy to do. I mean, I’ve been using Rōz on Emma for years. She’s often my guinea pig. I test all my lab samples on her. I used the Santa Lucia styling oil and the Milk Hair Serum in her hair plus the Root Lift Spray at her roots because I’m a big believer that any blowout, even if it’s going to be quite sleek, deserves a little bit of movement, a little bit of height at the root.
(Image credit: Getty Images/Steve Granitz)
Rōz
Santa Lucia Styling Oil
And that Root Lift Spray is very buildable, very light. And so I spray that on her roots too. And then I blow her hair out smooth with a round brush that’s like a medium size. I love these Ibiza round brushes, medium-size boar bristle.
Blow-dry it quite smooth and then just ever so slightly, flip the ends up. You can do a little bit more flip if you want to. Let the hair kind of sit into the brush for a second. So that it really creates that curve, and then let it out. And you can always manipulate that flip. You know it tends to fall a little bit. You can smooth it out a little bit more at the end. So I would err on the side of more flippy than less, and then you can kind of just brush it out and work your way through the hair. And then I finish usually with a little bit of the Milk Hair Serum on her dry hair just to tame any flyaways and add a little bit of extra shine.
Are there any other tools or products that you think people could benefit from owning?
I was actually just given it. It’s called the AireBrush from T3. I think it’s a newer launch from them. I have plenty of clients that use the Dyson Airwrap, and that seems like an incredible invention. I’ve never tried it.
I was really curious about these air brushes because it seems like if you don’t want to blow dryer and a round brush and you don’t feel super skilled at using both together, how can you execute a beautiful blow-dry?
They sent me this tool. I tried it and was blown away—literally—by the results. It had beautiful tension. You can turn it up or turn it down.
If you have finer hair, I would suggest putting it on a lower setting. You can keep it on high heat but not blowing it kind of aggressively—my hair can take all the blowing.
I was very, very impressed by how smooth it got my hair and how easy it was to manipulate using this AireBrush. So I highly recommend that tool.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, check out our interview with Zac Posen.
