JANE'S ADDICTION

Blonde Ambition

W‘s beauty director talks with hairstylist Ian McCabe.


Ian McCabe

Ian McCabe has been obsessed with hair color for as long as he can remember. As a teenager, he’d tag along on his mother’s appointments with über-colorists Sharon Dorram and Lorri Goddard, “just so I could pick their brains during the process,” he remembers. “I couldn’t wait to turn 16—so I could start working!” McCabe, now 28, opened the Ian McCabe Studio in Washington, D.C., a year ago, but New Yorkers no longer need an Acela ticket to book an appointment. McCabe shuttles back and forth to Whittemore House, in Manhattan’s West Village. “My pet peeve is when colorists just slap the same color all over a blonde,” says McCabe, whose fans include the fitness phenom Tracy Anderson. “There should always be a lighter formula around the face, with softer tones on the ends.”