Every Product & Technique Used To Achieve Ella Rubin’s Enviable Curls In ‘Sterling Point’
Beauty
Hair designer Chrystal Lotz is responsible for Annie (Ella Rubin) and Oona’s (Bo Bragson) perfect, luscious curls, in addition to every other hairstyle you’ve been admiring on the island. Below, she dishes on the techniques and products that helped create the hair looks of“Sterling Point.”
Scrolling through the Instagram page of “Sterling Point” breakout star Ella Rubin, three camps predominantly populate the comment section: 1) Team Ellis, 2) Team Rory, and 3) Team “please share the curly hair routine.” We sat down with hairstylist Chrystal Lotz to give the girls what they want, one Muskoka-tested hair serum at a time.
For every character in “Sterling Point,” Lotz embraced each actor’s natural hair texture, while considering how it would respond to the heat and humidity of a Canadian summer. “We didn't want [“Sterling Point”] to look like a typical YA with perfect hair and no flyaways. We really wanted it to look like they were at the lake all day,” Lotz says, accounting for the island's humidity and occasional fits of torrential rain.
The cast of "Sterling Point."
@ellarubin1
For Lotz, every project is an opportunity to both learn and impart something from the actor in the chair. Since working with Camila Morrone on “Something Bad is Going to Happen,” Lotz has incorporated the RŌZ hair milk serum into every one of her finishing routines. In the case of “Sterling Point,” Rubin imparted a new curl technique from Ella Rubin that Lotz had never seen anyone do before. Below, she detailed the process.
Ella Rubin’s Curl Routine
- On damp hair, scrunch curl products into the hair and let air-dry. Lotz opted for Oribe curl gel and Shu Uemura curl mousse on Rubin.
- Apply K18 Heat Balm, or any other heat protectant of choice.
- Using a half-inch curling wand, take a section of hair and wrap only the top portion around the barrel, leaving the ends and bottom section out. Hold the wand briefly, then slide it out rather than curling the entire length of the hair into one continuous ringlet.
- Move the wand to the middle of the hair shaft and wrap the section in the opposite direction to mimic a more natural-looking curl pattern instead of one uniform Shirley Temple spiral.
- Continue alternating the curl direction within each section. The change in direction gives the hair movement and mimics the way natural curls typically form.
- Once all the curls are formed, finish with RŌZ milk serum and Santa Lucia Heat Protectant Oil for moisture and shine.
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Lotz used Rubin’s curl technique on Bo Bragson for her more done-up looks, taking a long, skinny wand and pulling it in the natural direction of the curl as she took it off the wand. “If you pull that curl a little bit as it's cooling, it sort of stretches it just enough to make it look a little bit more natural without having that perfect Shirley Temple or old Taylor Swift ringlet,” Lotz explains. On Bragson, she opted for a combination of Pattern Moisture Milk and Virtue Leave-In Conditioner to refresh and diffuse the natural curls. “We'd let it air-dry completely before breaking up any curls that were a little too tightly curled with Roz Santa Lucia Oil Serum, and finish with a little Oribe Texture Spray,” Lotz adds.
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For Annie’s laid-back, wavy-haired sister Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle), the haircare routine was much less involved. “I really wanna say that it was some in-depth magical system that we would use, but it's a braid,” Lotz shared. In many cases, Hoeferle would do the loose braid herself with Lotz rebraiding in between scenes as needed.
Amélie Hoeferle and Ella Rubin in "Sterling Point."
Amazon
The cast of "Sterling Point".
@ameliehoeferle
Amélie Hoeferle and Ella Rubin in "Sterling Point."
Amazon
The cast of "Sterling Point".
@ameliehoeferle
Lotz was lucky to work with actresses who already had an established curl routine, but for girls who don't know where to start, she recommends a more generalized approach. Lotz’ first and foremost advice to foster perfect curls is starting with a head of healthy hair. “If you have curly hair and are really struggling with it, finding someone who can cut curly hair really well makes a world of difference,” Lotz advises. In her decades of experience cutting and styling hair, girls often make the mistake of seeing stylists who cut curly hair the same way they would straight hair. “When it dries, it will bounce up differently than gravity allows it to, so it’s really important to see somebody who understands what that curl is going to do when it’s wet and what that curl is going to do when it’s dry,” Lotz explains.
As far as product recommendations go, Lotz believes that moisturizing products—whether that be moisturizing shampoo and conditioner or a finishing serum—foster the best curls. But for a more personalized product recommendation, she suggests scrolling through TikTok to find someone whose hair type most closely matches your own, and trying out their techniques until something lands.
