Chris Appleton Covers Rollacoaster's SS26 Issue

“Hello?” Chris Appleton calls out to the Zoom room—where publicists lie in wait, cameras off, mics muted. Including me.

I reply the same, turning on my camera for a split second before turning myself back into a black square. The reason is simple—honesty seems appropriate here: my hair looks like total shit.

“First impressions matter,” writes Chris in his book, Your Roots Don’t Define You, which we are all gathered on a Friday night to discuss. I can’t make mine with greasy roots and three-day-old curls when talking to the most in-demand hairdresser of Hollywood, can I?

Luckily, Chris doesn’t need face-to-face action – hell, he doesn’t even need to be in the same country as his subject – to make a connection. You don’t gain the trust of celebrities around the world with their literal scalps by accident.  

We quickly descend into a discussion about his Rollacoaster photoshoot—one of the many tasks Chris has had to add to his manic schedule over the last few weeks. Just shy of a month ago [at the time of conversation], HarperCollins released his book. Since, there’s been little time to celebrate. From New York City to New Jersey, Miami to Chicago and back to Los Angeles, his book tour kept him on his heels. As did Harvard Business School just earlier today, who invited him personally to speak at their coveted podium. Just a few days before that, he was officially anointed a New York Times bestseller. Not to mention that during the period, Chris’ client chair was never left empty—after all, Martha Stewart needed a show-stopping up-do.

The demands of a hairdresser-turned-public-figure are constant. Their lives, whether chronicled by pap shots at red carpets or through an Instagram live feed, appear equal parts glamour and chaos. It’s the environment Chris now thrives in. It was the life he craved. And just one pass over the pages he laboured over proves one thing: he went to hell and back for it.

Like I said, honesty seems appropriate here. After all, when Chris entered his “book author era”, it was his only policy. Penning a title like Your Roots Don’t Define You was more than a smart wordplay by the 42-year-old hair guru. It was Chris’ way of chronicling the darkest and lightest moments of his life. To do so, he had to confront his roots himself.

In preparation for our call, I’ve learnt a thing or two about hair—the root of which holds nuclear DNA, a full genetic profile. When bleached, however – a habit myself and Chris have in common – the bleaching agents cause oxidative damage to that profile, making it far more difficult for a laboratory to read. For Chris, his bleached locks were synonymous with his brand—or, as he would describe it, his facade. Perhaps that’s why he parked the bleach at his writing desk, embracing more of his natural chestnut colouring for the book cover—or perhaps I’m just waxing lyrical. Either way, the book undoubtedly makes for one of the most vulnerable and authentic lenses fans, followers and friends alike have ever met Chris through. Even Martha Stewart agrees.

And as if on cue, she enters the chat.

MARTHA STEWART:Are you there, Chris?

CHRIS APPLETON: Hi, babe!

MARTHA: First of all, I really want to know how it went at Harvard Business School…

CHRIS: Oh my god, it was fantastic. It’s been a lifelong goal for me to get there.

MARTHA:Really? When did you first know about Harvard?

CHRIS: When I was a kid living in the UK, Harvard felt like the top of the crop. It felt like it would be the highest level of education you could get. And as someone who was dyslexic in school, it was something that I always admired from afar.

MARTHA: Not Oxford or Cambridge? You were aspiring to Harvard?

CHRIS: I guess it was the American dream. When they asked me to do a talk, it was an inspiring moment to think of—that little Chris would have been so proud. I never got the opportunity to go to college—we call it university. So to be able to go there and talk about my career and business as an entrepreneur in the space was incredible. I loved it. I was so grateful to be there and everyone was so polite.

MARTHA:That’s so great. I bet you are the first hairdresser ever to sit on that podium.

CHRIS:I never thought of that…

MARTHA: It’s a big deal! You’ve made such an amazing business out of your talent and passion.

CHRIS: Did you go to college, Martha?

MARTHA: Oh yes, I went to college.

CHRIS:Which one?

MARTHA:Barnard College—one of the Seven Sisters. A woman’s college, it was a branch of Columbia University.

CHRIS: Did you have fraternities?

MARTHA:Excuse me?

CHRIS: You know the groups?

MARTHA:Like sororities? Oh, no. We had nothing like that. It was a serious academic school. Columbia had clubs, but the women had nothing. I don’t like sororities, anyway. For me, it was all about studying and getting the best education I could possibly get AND having a little bit of fun—and we did have fun. But anyway… So you were speaking at Harvard Business School which is such an honour and I am so proud of you.

CHRIS:Thanks babe, it means a lot to hear you say that. Especially from someone as incredible as you—someone who has created the world that you have.

MARTHA: Well, somehow we have come to like each other in quite a short period of time—which is really nice. How did we first meet? Who introduced us?

CHRIS: You know what it was? We were in New York City and you came to Kim [Kardashian]’s SKIMS event and you guys lined up for a picture with Kris Jenner and Kim. I zhuzhed Kris up and you said, “Hey, give me a little zhuzh!”

MARTHA:You zhuzhed me up and I just loved the feel of your hands on my head. I thought, “This guy knows what he’s doing!” Everyone looked so incredible that night. I got there so early – the red carpet had just started – so I got all the nice pictures. It was an amazing launch for a very nice collaboration. Now they’re doing sneakers and all kinds of stuff! And since then, you did my hair for my launch of Still G.I.N., my collaboration with Snoop and Dr. Dre…

CHRIS:When am I going to get my hands on this gin?!

MARTHA: I know. I need to get you a case. The campaign is going to start pretty soon. Then after that, you did my hair for that little video that went kind of viral. Do you remember the one? With all the hair pieces in it?

CHRIS: Yes!

MARTHA: I do look at your Instagram on a regular basis, and I saw you have lots of fun with Drew Barrymore. She loves you! I think she loves being manhandled by you.

CHRIS: She’s just got a very infectious energy. Did you like her grey hair? She wanted to try grey hair…

MARTHA: She looked fabulous!

CHRIS: It’s nice to have a change, right? She wanted to see if grey hair could be sexy, and I think it can be.

MARTHA: It really worked on her—she looked good.

CHRIS:And do you remember what we did with yours, Martha? We went with that mocha mousse colour. That was a change too, wasn’t it?

MARTHA:Oh, yeah. Everyone responded very favourably to that one.

CHRIS: I think my favourite style of yours was that Brigitte Bardot-inspired up-do we did the other night. I saw you from across the room and you looked like a Hollywood star, totally glamourised.

MARTHA: I think that’s your talent! You know how to make every single woman you touch look like a movie star. You can look at their face and imagine what they could look like, and you make it happen. And by the way – for the readers reading this – you have to see what Chris brings with him on a job. He brings with him a very attractive female assistant, two giant black suitcases—one filled with hair pieces from wigs, extensions and attachments and the other with blowdryers and curlers and pins. I still have that picture of that hair-pin mound you have, by the way. I show it to everyone and no one can work out what it is—they think it’s either a strange living organism or a work of art. I love it.

CHRIS: It keeps the hair nice and tidy!

MARTHA: Do other stylists have mounds like that?

CHRIS:I don’t know, I just couldn’t stand these pins flying about everywhere. I thought it was a great way to keep it all together—plus they’re easy enough to take out. Talking of taking things out… How DID you get that hair off when we did the up-do?

MARTHA: Well… Did I tell you that hair is very much like what I had done on my wedding day?

CHRIS:No!

MARTHA: Oh my gosh. On my wedding day, I went to my local hairdresser around Elm Place. Elm Place is actually the inspiration behind Elm Biosciences, the name of my skincare, by the way. And Elm Place was by Franklin Avenue and there was a little hairdresser, and they did an up-do for me. And they used as many pins in my head that day as you have in your stash.

CHRIS: Did you get any compliments?

MARTHA: At my wedding or with your up-do?

CHRIS: With your up-do!

MARTHA:YES! Everybody posted it. They were loving it. But after I got married, we were on the way to Vermont for a brief honeymoon before the real one, it took me an hour to get all the pins out of my head—and it really reminded me of taking out your up-do after that event. Anyway, let’s talk about you, not about my hair. When you look back at the boy you were growing up, what do you think he would be most surprised about? Speaking at Harvard is one thing, but you have a really fabulous life! Look where you go and look what you do!

CHRIS: It’s funny, Martha. As a kid we were very poor working class. Life wasn’t glamorous at all. I loved Hollywood, I loved watching it on the TV or seeing it in magazines, because it had a sparkle about it. So I used to make my mum look glamorous because her life was far from that—and it was nice to see her react to that. So from a young age, I really enjoyed making people feel great, it felt like a superpower.

MARTHA:So were you always doing people’s hair?

CHRIS: Always. From the age of nine. I couldn’t believe how much it changed people: their identity, their mood, the way they stand or hold themselves, the way people treated them. But it was always just a dream. I wanted to be the best at hair. I wanted to go to Hollywood. Everyone has dreams and goals, but now at 42 I can see those dreams have become a reality. Now I just find myself in a space of gratitude. I’m grateful for everything that has happened. There’s been a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, but I’m still so grateful.

MARTHA: What’s one of the sacrifices?

CHRIS: Leaving my country. Leaving England and moving to Hollywood. I packed two suitcases, I left my house, my family. I went to Hollywood trying to push my career to the next level. I had two kids that I had to provide for—and it was such a risk. Luckily, it was a risk I could financially afford.

MARTHA: Did you have to leave the kids behind or did they come with you?

CHRIS: The kids would go backwards and forwards during the time because they were still at school. When school had finished, they came out. That’s one of my proudest achievements: bringing my kids to America, because they flourished. They saw different experiences and opportunities and they’ve grown so much from it.

MARTHA:That’s so nice. What do the kids do now? How old are they?

CHRIS: So Kitty-Blu is 21 and she works at Kim’s office at SKIMS and is into social media and influencing while having her own management company. My son Billy is at university and does sports management. They’re both living their dream and experiencing life. I’m so proud of them.

MARTHA: Do you live with them?

CHRIS:They have their own places now! Their own apartments, their own partners. It’s amazing.

MARTHA:So you’re 42, you have two grown children, you weren’t married to their mother, were you?

CHRIS:No, but we were together for 10 years.

MARTHA: When did you part ways?

CHRIS: I was 27. My book, Your Roots Don’t Define You, is about being defined by what you’re told you are as a child. And I think I very much tried to do what the “normal” thing was, what society told me to do. I realised I’d made a career out of making other people look and feel good, and never allowed myself to do the same for me. I was at that age where I had to finally cave into it. It was really hard. Seeing yourself and truly looking at who you are and if you’re aligned with the decisions you’re making – or whether they’re a result of what you’re being told you should do or think – is probably the hardest work I’ve ever done. But it was also the most honest and the most rewarding. My whole life started to change when I began being authentic to who I really am. It was a hard time but one I’m thankful for.

MARTHA: Do you have a partner now?

CHRIS: No! I’ve been single for two years. The thing is, when you’ve really done the work and know who you are and what you want and what’s good for you and what’s not, you become allergic to the bullshit. I think I’m just allergic to a lot of the stuff that’s out there that I used to be attracted to. It’s like an ex-alcoholic: they’ve done the 12-step programme, they can still see a drink and like the idea of having it, but they know where that leads to. I know what’s good for me, so now the pool of people is just a lot smaller. I have a good life, so someone that’s coming into it needs to be able to enhance it, rather than take from it. I’m in a place where I’m open, but it’s not my priority.

MARTHA:So you haven’t found Mr Right yet.

CHRIS: No, and that’s okay. I’ve had so many wins, I have a great life, I’ve lived a big life. It takes someone special to come in and handle that, I think.

MARTHA: You’ve been so successful, truly. Describe a week in your life… Because you don’t have a salon or a base, so how does a superstar hairdresser to the stars work?

CHRIS:I realised to be successful and to grow that I needed a team—and that’s one of the key things in my world that changed…trusting a group of people who could help me grow. For such a long time, I tried to keep things to myself, but I knew it was important to assemble a team. So now I have a manager in hair, in my company, business and I have an agent, I have people who can help me in different realms whether I’m doing hair or TV or if I’m attending a red carpet. There’s many different people you need. So the average week for me has changed. I was doing hair every day, travelling the world with a different artist or celebrity. But as I’ve grown, I’ve built a business which we’ve just sold, Color Wow—which has been a lifelong goal. I also wanted to take everything I did and help more people, which is why I wrote my book. It’s for people who don’t necessarily look like J Lo, and letting them into the magic on how they can.

MARTHA:By the way, I’ve given your book to my two local hairdressers and they LOVE it.

CHRIS:Good! Aw, that means a lot to me.

MARTHA:Then they saw my pictures with you and they got jealous.

CHRIS: [Laughs.] I think my average day now is a bit of everything. I’ve just come back from a day of teaching, I was at Harvard, I just did The Drew Barrymore Show, I was at your event and did your hair for that TikTok, the day before that I was in New York on a shoot for a campaign. So now, I act more as an entrepreneur and look to help others, too.

MARTHA:That’s what I was about to say. You’re an entrepreneur, a promoter of product—what products are you promoting right now?

CHRIS: So we have Color Wow which we have just sold to L'Oréal—I’m still a part of that. Schwarzkopf hair colour, which is so great, and I also work with Shark Beauty on their hair tools. They’re the main brands I’m working with right now. And it’s great, because I’m always asked what products or tools I use, so it goes full circle.

MARTHA:What products were you working on in Color Wow?

CHRIS: It’s a wet line, so shampoo, conditioner, one of the best products was a dream coat and a money mask—a deep conditioning treatment which I helped them make. I actually had the opportunity to work with a much “bigger” brand at the start of my career, but I wanted to work with Color Wow because they were smaller and I was able to grow alongside them. To work with a business that sold for—well, I can’t say the amount, but it did very well, makes me very proud. It’s great to see how many people now use it and can find proper haircare solutions.

MARTHA: I need a mask right now. My hair is dry so I better get onto Color Wow. Where can we buy it?

CHRIS:Sephora, colorwow.com, or I can send you some stuff—and I need your gin. So I tell you what, we can swap.

MARTHA:Okay, let’s trade. I’ll send you some gin, you’ll love it. I had a watermelly made out of fresh watermelon juice and the gin with some lime juice—it’s very tasty. Now, the book. You published just a couple of months ago?

CHRIS: Yep, it came out pretty quick!

MARTHA: And the publisher is…?

CHRIS: HarperCollins!

MARTHA: HarperCollins, one of the foremost American publishers—excellent choice. You did a very beautiful package, the cover is a gorgeous picture of the author. You switch from blonde to brunette hair a lot…

CHRIS:Yeah, I kind of go between the two. I feel different with each one. The blonde is almost a bit of a facade… When I moved to America I bleached my hair and became known as the guy with blonde hair and dark roots and it sort of became a brand—but then I felt stuck by it. So for the book I went more brunette because it was telling a more authentic story and scratching away at this polished version of it and being more vulnerable—literally going back to my roots. I needed to live in that again for a minute, because it does change the way you feel. When I’m darker, I feel more sophisticated—it’s when I felt like I was in my book author era. After the book author era, I wanted to go back to blonde to have some fun and to enjoy the summer. I think it was hard, I loved doing it, but doing the book was brutal—it’s difficult to talk about some of the darkest moments of your life, and I did it a lot. Even down to promoting the book and it going into the New York Times bestsellers.

MARTHA: It’s strange, because it doesn’t feel like a dark book. It feels like an uplifting book with a lot of good advice and how-to’s. I think that’s what people take away—they feel enlightened, not depressed.

CHRIS:Thank you for saying that.

MARTHA:I think that’s a good point to make. You don’t just want to lighten people’s hair, you want to enlighten them! I’m fascinated, how did you meet Kim Kardashian? Who has been the most famous of all your clients?—Do you call them clients? What do you call Kim?

CHRIS: A friend. We’ve done so many things together. I met Kim when I’d just moved to America and started doing a few celebrities. I got called to do Kim. I remember we did something different. We did a wig and she wanted to do a shorter hairstyle. I walked in and she said, “I’ve had my eye on you. I’ve heard that you’re the best.” And I thought, “That’s a lot to live up to.” So I did her hair and that was the start. It’s just like me and you, I did your hair, we vibed and had fun and started creating different looks. There’s a comfort to doing something different and it bringing out a different side of you. So naturally, our relationship just grew. She’s been amazing and so kind and very giving and supportive of my career. Even while I’ve been doing the book tour she’ll text me and say, “I’ve been seeing everything you’re doing and it looks great! I’m so proud of you.” We have a very honest relationship—just like I have with you!

MARTHA:But you’ve worked with and transformed her for how many years?

CHRIS: It must be over 10 years now.

MARTHA: And the looks! Talk about chameleon. She is such a chameleon. She’s changed and changed and only gets better! Anyway, so we have a little more time together. Tell us a couple of things about yourself that people don’t know.

CHRIS:I think I’ve spent more of my life losing and not getting a job and receiving a “no” than I have ever had yeses. The reason for me writing this book is so that people could relate a little bit more to some of the stories I talk about. I wanted there to be more human-ness to my story. Social media gives you a very polished version of your life and what you’re doing, but I wanted to scratch behind the surface and show more people my world and the highs and lows of it. Hopefully, the main message and reason behind writing the book is that it’s never too late to transform your life and create your comeback. And that’s coming from someone who has had many dark and low moments, like everyone has. But it doesn’t mean you can’t come back from it.

MARTHA: I think that message really comes from self-employed people who challenge new ground—and that’s exactly what you’ve done. You’ve carved a new lane in an old, expected, industry. In the beginning when hairdressers became celebrities, it was a short-lived thing. But you have done it in such a natural way with some very visible clients—and managed to get into the business behind it in such a quick timeframe.

CHRIS:Yeah, but I’ve always watched and learned from the people around me, Martha.

MARTHA: You’re a very good student, I have to say.

CHRIS:I’ve always been a bit of a sponge. I watched Kim create SKIMS and her relatability, the way she’d stand in the mirror and point out her cellulite—and women love that they can relate. She didn’t just stand by a picture saying “buy my product”. She got personal with it and brought the product to life. I’ve always tried to learn as much as possible, and also ask for their advice—I’m very inquisitive in that sense. When I was assisting with hair during fashion weeks I’d watch the main stylist and see how they talk, how their hands would move—I would just watch in the hopes that I could be like them one day.

MARTHA:Well, it’s worked!

CHRIS: I hope so!

MARTHA:You’re fantastic, and you’re only 42 years old! I cannot wait to see what else comes from this superstar, Chris Appleton.

CHRIS:Well, one of my highlights of 2025 was meeting you, Martha. I am so happy I get to work with you and call you a friend.

MARTHA:Thank you, Chris. But I just think that the book has got on the bestseller’s list a week after publication for a reason! That is such an accomplishment, and I congratulate you on that. And please keep in touch, I want to know everything that you’re doing. I want you to stay as forthright, as honest and as nice as you are, forever.

CHRIS:Thank you for doing this Martha, I love you.

MARTHA: Thank you, darling.