Maria Kovacs – From Australian Hairdresser to World Session Stylist

By Leanne Cutler, Hair Shots 2 the World

Australian ex-pat to the UK, Maria Kovacs has one of the most coveted hairdressing jobs in the world.

Armed with an amazing work-life philosophy and calm demeanour, Maria is now a valuable part of the one of the world’s leading session catwalk teams – the TiGi International Artistic Team.

She gave this candid interview to Leanne Cutler at Hair Expo in between rehearsals for the Cirque de Tigi show, the grand finale of Hair Expo’s Sunday night Next Gen show.

So how did Maria work her way from Sydney Toni & Guy apprentice to having one of the top jobs in the hair game?

“My first interested in hairdressing came about as a kid when I was a hair model and I thought hairdressers had the best job in the world,” Maria said. “I couldn’t believe people got paid to have so much fun.”

Maria started her career in 1993 at the Toni & Guy salon in Darlinghurst in its first year.  She worked her way up and five years ago was invited to work in London with Anthony Mascolo and TiGi.

Her work mainly involves catwalk sessions and some corporate sessions.  Currently she and the team are creating a fashion week backstage book and step-by-steps on DVD too.

Maria spends most of her life travelling to all the destinations hairdressers dream of.  The fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris are staples on the TiGi International Artistic Team agenda.

The  Cirque de TiGi show at Hair Expo in Sydney is her first work trip home.

“I just landed in this work,” Maria said. “But it is the people that keep me in it.

“I have some beautiful friends.”

And two of her favourite people to be around are Anthony and Pat Mascolo.

“Whilst our Creative Director Anthony Mascolo is a big name in the industry, he’s a bit like a father figure to me.

“We are like family,” she said. “Pat Mascolo (Anthony’s wife) is wonderful too.”

“She specialises in make up now but she’s an amazing hairdresser in her own right and is really inspiring.

“They are the perfect combination, made for each other.

“They are honest and open as a couple and that on its own is inspiring too,” Maria said.

“They are really nice to work with, so if they are really nice, then the entire team is in a position to  be nice too.”

She said all in all, Anthony and Pat create the right environment, a good environment, for their high pressure work.

“We run on adrenalin, sure, but our work can be done in a nice way, without any drama.”

Interestingly, the TiGi International Artistic Team often team up with other session stylists at fashion weeks to create the looks decided by the fashion designers.

When asked if she found this limiting to her creativity, Maria gave a surprisingly positive answer that perhaps indicates why she was invited into the TiGi team.

“I’ve always learnt something new from everyone I have worked with,” she said.

“It’s good to see how other styles use our TiGi products, sometimes we learn techniques we haven’t even thought of yet.

She said that there was no better job satisfaction than knowing that you’ve exactly created the hairstyles requested by the designers.

“I love making the designers happy,” she said.  “There is no better compliment than their thanks.

“It is not about me, it’s about being humble and being part of a team.

Maria said that sometimes the style that the designer wants might not be that hard, but that’s ‘cool for the ego”.

“We learn that a ponytail is not just a ponytail, that it can be positioned in many ways but the right way is needed to suit the fashion.

“The more we think about a simply style, the more intricate the task can be.

“It’s easy to forget how hard it can be to do something simple, beautifully.”

In the usually female dominated world of hairdressing, Maria pointed out that she was the only female on the team.

“By my age, most girls have had a family and aren’t working as much.

“I have made my choices in life and I live by them,” she said.

She said that she believed that women could have both a family and career if they have supportive partners.

But Maria has no regrets and completely appreciates the amazing career that she has.

“I believe everyone has a path that they are meant for and that people need to know when they are in that right situation to carry through on it,” she said.

She said that anyone can get ahead if they want to by making the right choices.

So what’s Maria’s advice for hairdressers starting out who want to be in her shoes one day?

“Be the first to start, be the last to leave and see you in 20 years,” she half jokes. “But be sure you have fun on the way and say ‘thank you’.”

After meeting Maria it is no surprise that she is a member of one of the top international artistic teams in the world.  After all, she’s cool, calm and people like working with her, proving the point that to succeed in the catwalk world the winning combination of creative excellence and an impeccable approach to teamwork wins out in the hair fashion world as it does in almost any other industry.

Learn more about Maria at www.mariakovacs.co.uk