HAIR BY IGGY TRANSFORMS: INTERVIEWED BY IGGY AZALEA
Iggy Rosales aka HairbyIggy is one of the Top Hair stylists today. He’s curated wigs for the likes of Kim Petras, Christina Aguilera, Paris Hilton, and his long-time collaborator/friend – Iggy Azalea who interviews Iggy for our Cover Issue. Read our full interview below.
Featured Interview:
Interviewed by Iggy Azalea
Iggy A: Some of your editorial styles lean more toward sculptural art in nature than a “hairstyle” and I’m curious to learn more about this direction in your work. Do you find yourself taking any inspiration from visual art or sculpture?
As cliché as it sounds, I think inspiration can come from anything. I used to take a lot of inspiration from nature. Birds and flowers have really figured out the best color combinations. Or sometimes You just need to be pretty literal about it like the time I turned Kim Petras into a horse for the Met Gala. Why not? I’ll see something in a cartoon that might stick in my mind that I like but then maybe I saw a painting at the MET and then something in popular culture and I’ll try to merge them all together into a look. For Kim’s Seven Klein shoot, we looked at a lot of old Italian cinema for inspiration and after the test day with the styling, I created a bunch of different sculptural additions like hair bows based on different elements of the clothes.
Iggy A: What’s your approach when working in an editorial capacity: Do you map out the style prior in a sketch or work in a free form/organic format?
Ever since moving to LA, I have gravitated towards working, mostly with musicians. I love it so much because the girls love to dress up and play different characters depending on the album that they are currently working on. Normally before a new era begins We listen to music we might party to the music (a lot) or drive around in the car listening to it. this really helps to get an understanding of the feeling and mood of the project. From there, we normally start to chat about what that era might look like and I’ll pull together different ideas that I think suit the tone of the music and that work harmoniously with all the other elements like styling and makeup. I usually go back into an Archive of fashion images I have to see if there are elements I can take inspiration for and I might even collage together different images to create a hairstyle. From there sometimes we will do a day of testing with full hair, makeup, and styling and then make adjustments from there. In the music video that we did together (Iggy Azalea Started) Fran and I collaborated and did 10 hair changes in one day. For that, we fully prepared everything for the days leading up to the video. For each look change, we sometimes had under 30 mins. That’s why I will always work so much with wigs because it affords us a lot more time on the day and you can drastically change someone’s look in seconds.
Iggy A: What fashion show or campaign has been your favorite hair & what designer runway show or campaign could you envision creating the hair looks for?
I’ve always loved the sculptural, over-the-top looks from the Galliano shows in the 90s. Galliano. We need to bring back the iconic looks! I would love to work with him one day.
Iggy A: Throughout history hair has evolved, If you could live in any era simply for its hairstyles, which would you pick?
Time Machine? I would like to time travel 2,000 years forward into the future and see what’s happening over there with technology & wigs. I think we will have a hair machine that will help us solve with digital hairstyles.
Iggy A: Whose hair would you love to transform, and what new look would you create for them?
Forget humans, I’ve always wanted to do a collection of tiny wigs for tiny dogs. That’s my main goal for this year I fear.
Iggy A: How did you learn to do hair originally, did you ever have formal training and how do you keep evolving and learning new techniques now? Would you ever do a masterclass for us?!
When I was in high school, I was obsessed with hair I would sit on YouTube and Hair forums online and try and figure out how hair color and everything worked. We experimented, and let’s just say some hair survived, some didn’t. I spent all the money I had at that time buying a GHD hair straightener, and my friends would come to my house before school and I would flat iron their hair. It was my friend Dom who told me that I should get a job at the salon called Rixon’s Hair that she and her whole family go to and so I did. I did an apprenticeship there, which meant that one day out of the week for about 2-3 years I would go to hairdressing school where I lessened the foundations of hairdressing. I also learned from many talented hairstylists who worked at that salon over the years.
I was one of those kids who would just sit there and read fashion magazines all day, long in the bookstore and my friends would re-create looks from those magazines and do our own photo shoots. That’s why I started playing with Wigs and hair extensions which really prepared me for working with popstars.
I also worked under Sam McKnight, Guido & James Pecis doing the fashion week rounds for a few years which I loved. That was my first driving force to move to the US from Australia.
Nowadays, I’m always excited to try new hair toys and products. I’m constantly shopping because you never know if you are gonna find your new favorite thing. There’s a lot of very close Inspection that happens on Instagram or TikTok to see what is the best way of doing something and then assessing the risk and then trying it out on my clients.
I’m definitely open to doing education one day! I always used to love to go to seminars when I worked at a salon. I remember seeing Kevin Murphy when I lived in Australia and he chatted about his story and it made me realize that it’s possible to live as a freelancer.
Iggy A: You’ve done it all. From music videos to fashion editorials, red carpets to street style and even the most avant-gated Halloween looks – What environment do you have the most fun when creating in?
Nowadays, everything I do is very planned out I do a music video or a red carpet or photo shoot and we know exactly what we’re gonna do look by look and often everything is prepared beforehand because I use Wigs a lot of the time. I think that my favorite experiences happen when I’m working with my friends we are all creatively open to new ideas and we all trust each other we aren’t in pursuit of perfection we are just looking to create an image that inspires us.
Iggy A: I don’t know about you but I have my final form hairstyle planned out for when I’m 70+ (I’ll have shoulder-length white/silver hair with a feathered bang) what’s your hairstyle going to be when you’re 70?
I’m mostly hoping that I have hair still by then, but if not, I think it’s a great opportunity to wear a new wig every single day. All Thom Browne suits with wigs sound hot.
Team Credits:
Photographer: Thom Kerr @thomkerr
Stylist: Marc Eram @marc_eram
Beauty Alexandra French @alexandraafrench using @louboutinbeautyHair / Talent: Iggy Rosales @hairbyiggy using @ghdhair and @matrix
Hair Assistant: Dylan Michael @dylanmichaelhair
Tattoos designed by Michelles Farzo @michellesfarzomakeupTattoo application by Carleigh Herbert @carleighherbert and Hannah Shere@hannahsherermua
Talent: Louis Levin @louisjlevin
Special thanks to Terraform LA Studio @terraformla
Interview by Iggy Azalea
