We caught up with Matt Benns in between the Sweat and UK brat tours. Here, he talks about his career path in the hair industry, from assisting Jawara to meeting Charli xcx, and the hair magic that happens in the beauty room on tour.

Matt’s start in the industry

I moved to New York six years ago, determined to make my mark in the industry. I started assisting hairstylist Jawara Wauchope who I was with for three years. He prepared me for the industry, taught me about culture, and I loved his approach to hair. He’s a genius; I’m appreciative of everything we did together. I branched off on my own after three years. Since then I’ve been honing my craft.

Meeting Charli xcx

Charli and I met at a photoshoot in LA for the face, and that was at the beginning of the year, so the very beginning of the brat album rollout. 

When we met, I was so excited because she’s so talented, so smart, and very intentional. I loved working with her, and what a year it has been. 

Developing Charli xcx’s look + maintaining healthy hair on tour

Charli had this idea of wanting to look a certain way for this album. It was on the raw, natural side, but evolving in different ways. We could wear it in her natural way, whether it was length, or  twists, or half up or things like that. But it’s her natural curl pattern.

I use the leave-in mask on her hair a lot. It's important that she does these treatments to maintain the curl, because every show we were blowing it out or diffusing it, or adding extensions.

This was my first tour, and I didn't really know what to expect. It was a once in a lifetime moment. It was hectic, you know? It was a lot of days. We would set up, do hair, and then immediately after the show was done, we'd be out of there. We'd be straight on to the next destination. 

Before I left for the tour, her stylist Chris Horan sent me the deck of all the outfits for each show. Hair really came down to the energy of each city, like Miami, there was a little nod to Spring Breakers.   

There were some days where I would see her walk into the beauty room with her hair thrown into some twists or its wild and natural, and I'd be like, this is the direction but let's accentuate and play on that, and go a little wild.