When we saw Rooney Mara‘s BFI London Film Festival look for the premiere of her new movie, Carol, on Wednesday, Oct. 14 we thought it was drop dead gorgeous — and then she turned around.
The Pan actress, 30, wore her hair up in a sectioned-off ponytail, wrapped in light pink fabric, and looped. “I bound Rooney’s hair with a blush-colored silk cord — eight yards of it to be precise,” her stylist, Ken O’Rourke, tells Us Weekly. “The only tool I used were my hands, but at moments, I wished I’d had another pair!”
O’Rourke, who has also worked with Rachel Weisz, Emilia Clarke, and Lily Collins, came up with Mara’s hairstyle concept after seeing her Alexander McQueen dress with floating ruffles, which she wore with matching blush heels. The idea was “quite Japanese, really,” according to O’Rourke, who matched the silk cord fabric to the color of Mara’s gown.
When he took a step back to see the final effect, O’Rourke had a feeling the style would be a showstopper. “I knew when the photographers got to see the back of her hair they would start taking closer head shots,” the stylist tells Us. “I like the surprise element in doing styles like this. It’s another point of interest, another thing to talk about.”
So, how did he do it? First, he saturated Mara’s hair with Charles Worthington “Body and Bounce” and secured two ponytails — one on the crown of her head, and the other at the nape of her neck. He then wrapped the top ponytail tightly with the silk cord. “When I reached ponytail two, I continued to bind both ponytails together,” O’Rourke explains. “With six inches of hair left, I made a loop of hair and bound it again, leaving a two-and-a-half inch tail.” He secured with a knot, and pinned with a standard Bobby pin. “Then I took some gel and smeared on the tail to keep the ends together and applied some serum to the head to give an intense shine.”
What do you think of Rooney’s intricate updo? Tweet with @UsWeekly using the hashtag #stylebyUs!
