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This Hairdresser Worked with All the ’90s Supermodels

Kevin Mancuso on how to channel Cindy and Naomi

I could listen to Kevin Mancuso go on about the ’90s all day. “For at least 20 years, I had a cover on a newsstand,” he says. “Naomi [Campbell], Linda [Evangelista], Christy [Turlington], Tatiana [Patitz], Stephanie Seymour… for every magazine. And Cindy Crawford so many times I’ve lost count. We were great friends. She wrote the forward to a book I did back in 1999, The Mane Thing. Then later, Kate Moss, Amber Valletta, Shalom [Harlow], Heidi Klum, and on and on…”

 

The global creative director and co-creator of Nexxus Hair Care reminisces about the way those big production shoots would happen. A supermodel would book a cover, then she’d select the hairstylist she wanted to work with. “There was the excitement of getting a job and then the planning of it, the secrecy of not having anyone know what the cover would be for the next issue. The character that you created, the story, or the amazing elaborate trip that you went on that was like two weeks somewhere and they sent a limo and booked you a first-class flight.” 

It was the golden age of print. Limitless budgets and editors with clothing allowances and daily car service. I once met a woman who interned at Vogue as a teen. The magazine sent a driver to pick her up every morning at her parents’ house… in Connecticut! Times have certainly changed. “I’m doing a shoot next month,” says Mancuso. “It’s a big production and there’s absolutely no budget. I better bring a sandwich with me, you know! [Laughs]”

 

But it wasn’t just the budgets that were different, it was also the culture. For one thing, he says, social media today has desensitized us to celebrity. “Back then, there was a mystique about it. People really fantasized about being these people, being these characters. And I think there’s less and less of that now because it’s so over-exposed.”

It was also a much freer time, he says. “People would do anything.” They partied and had fun and weren’t constantly barraged with emails and texts and Slack notifications. It’s no wonder we now tend to romanticize it. “It’s because that will never exist again,” Mancuso muses.

 

Indeed, it won’t, but we can still pretend. Inject a bit of that spirit into our 2021 lives by way of a slip dress or a stroke of brown lip pencil. Or, even better, a fabulous ’90s hairstyle. Here, Mancuso shares a few tips on how to do exactly that.

Your hair is precious—act like it

“I tell everyone I’ve ever worked with to treat their hair like a precious fabric—you wouldn’t take a $5,000 dress and shake it and iron it on an ironing board at home,” he says. That’s why he recommends brushing hair gently instead of yanking at it. His favourite way to do this is with a cult-classic Mason Pearson brush. “Although your hair grows, it’s not biologically active, so once you’ve ruined it, you can revive it to some degree, but you can never bring it back.”

 
90s supermodel
Mason PearsonMason Pearson Popular Mixture Bristle & Nylon Mix Hairbrush, $299, fwrd.com

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That said, a little damage can be good

“There is a sweet spot of damage that we all want because it makes hair easier to style,” says Macuso. Some people will actually purposely damage their hair to get there by colouring or highlighting it, but most people will naturally have some kind of breakage or roughness. “It’s unavoidable. You could just take a walk on the beach and your hair would get damaged.” So the key becomes replenishing your hair just enough to achieve what Mancuso calls a “responsive texture,” meaning hair that’s touchable and shiny but still has enough grit to hold a style. Nexxus’s Humectress Conditioner is ideal for that, he says, imparting exactly the right amount of moisture without weighing down the hair.

90s supermodel
NexxusNexxus Humectress Conditioner, $17, amazon.ca

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Don’t forget about your scalp

“It’s just as important as caring for any of the skin on your body,” says Mancuso. “Think about it: You protect your skin with moisturizer, SPF, etc., and your scalp is left pretty much uncared for and completely exposed.” Now, you’ve probably heard that spacing out washes as much as possible can help your scalp “balance itself.” Not so, says the pro. Although he loves the grunge look, he says, “People should wash their hair more often and they should use a scalp scrub to exfoliate.” Take some time to massage the product onto your scalp to stimulate blood flow and get rid of any buildup. Finish by rinsing thoroughly.

90s supermodel
NexxusNexxus Clean & Pure Scalp Scrub, $16, amazon.ca

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Really go for it

“There’s something about the feeling of fantasy beauty dress-up that is always exciting,” says Mancuso. For those whose fantasy involves channeling their inner ’90s supe, he says it’s all about “beautiful, healthy, flowing, gorgeous hair” with sexy texture that looks almost “untouched.” Think bounce and movement but no obvious trace of a curling iron or flat-iron. Another direction would be glam grunge. “It’s always strong and cool,” says Mancuso, listing off the hallmarks of the look: leave-in waxes, oils or creams, strong textures and clean silhouettes. “And let’s not forget, beach hair was invented in the ’90s,” he adds. His go-to products to achieve all this? “Kiehl’s Silk Groom and Phyto Plage Protective Sun Oil are ’90s and I still love them.”

90s supermodel
Kiehl’sKiehl’s Silk Groom Serum, $25, kielhs.ca

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