We’ve watched them walk red carpets for years, their eye make-up perfectly imperfect and their hair so achingly effortless it’s hard to say if they've bothered with a hairstylist at all.
If you were a ‘90s kid, you’ll recognise them from such straight-to-VHS films as Passport to Paris and Holiday in The Sun (check them out if you’re lacking a guilty-pleasure in your life). The twins started their acting careers still warm from the womb at one-years old, but retired at the ripe old age of 25 to focus on their fashion careers, co-founding fashion brand The Row.
Their sister Elizabeth Olsen has been slightly more au fait with the limelight (did you know she nearly got cast as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones?), but the twins have remained the personification (twinification?) of cool, meaning interviews about their beauty secrets are kind of a no-go.
Good job their long-time hairstylist Mark Townsend has decided to give us a glimpse into the off-limits world of the Olsen twins.
"They dress themselves," he told The Zoe Report in an interview about the twins' Met Gala looks over the years. "There's no stylist, no publicist, no borrowed jewelry, none of that.” He goes on to explain that while they tend to stick to their signature laissez faire approach to hair and makeup, they allow for “upgrades” for the famously flamboyant Met Gala.
"Mary-Kate has a very strict rule that I'm only allowed to use five hairpins or less for an updo because she feels if we need more than five we've thought about it too much and it's too done," Townsend reveals. “All we ever use is salt water and dry shampoo on their hair," he adds, admitting that he'll use an entire bottle of salt water in one sitting when styling them.
He recalls his “magical” take on Mary-Kate's usual beach waves in 2009: “We did her typical waves that I've done a million times, but once she got dressed with all her jewelry and makeup on, Mary-Kate asked, 'Is this just too curly?' I grabbed a flat-iron and ran it really quickly through the waves so they turned a bit more flat and less defined. Then, we brushed them out and created the most magical texture."
Townsend talks about always wanting Mary-Kate’s hair to look like a painting - how he often works in delicate braids and spent 20 minutes “strategizing” where to place each strand to perfectly frame her face when she wore the 2017 chained hairstyle (which he refers to as their “gypsy moment.”)
He also reveals the inspiration behind their “funky crimped” look at last year’s Gala: "When they sent me photos of their black leather dresses, my mind blew up," says Townsend. "I showed them images of the Wonder Twins, who were huge in the clubs in NYC in the '80s. So we went in with a plan that they would have the same hair."
We're gutted not to see the twins on that famous Met Gala red (blue? pink? white?) carpet this year, so will be paying homage to them by wearing vintage clothing and an entire bottle of salt water in our hair for the rest of the week...
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