Cobra Kai’s Mary Mouser Talks Final Season Feelings, Beauty Secrets, and Life Beyond the Dojo

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Cobra Kai might be coming to an end, but Mary Mouser, the actor who stars as the sweet but fierce Samantha LaRusso on the hit Netflix show, doesn’t feel bittersweet about any of it. Not yet.

“It’s all bitter for me right now; I don’t want to say goodbye,” the 28-year-old tells me over Zoom on July 18, the day the first five episodes of season 6 dropped on the streamer. “The ‘sweet’ is being there and the ‘bitter’ is stepping away.”

For Mouser and her peers, many of whom were just teenagers when the series began filming in 2017, filming the highly-anticipated sixth and final season was not unlike what their on-screen counterparts were experiencing as high school seniors.

“Knowing it was our final season was kind of a blessing because everybody took the time to enjoy every single minute,” Mouser says. “Even if we weren’t working and didn’t have to be on set, people came just to hang out, just to be there and be around each other. We enjoyed it for every minute. I shed many a tear, but many a happy tear as well.” Still, she has plenty to look forward to in the future—including, potentially, some behind-the-camera work, which she took to while on set.

Mouser’s experiences on the show were formative in other ways, too. Beyond becoming IRL family with the Cobra Kai cast, she became a bit of an on-set curly hair whisperer.

“Between seasons 1 and 2 of filming Cobra Kai, I figured out [my hair is curly],” she says. “Since then, I have inducted so many people into what has been deemed—not by me, but I have been told this is the name of the group now—the ‘curly cult’ of people that I went around to on set. I was like, ‘Oh my god, your hair freezes up exactly like mine did in the humidity!’ I think you might have curly hair!’” Mouser has since taught several of her colleagues how to embrace their natural texture using her curly hair care method.

Ahead, Mary Mouser shares all the details of her curly routine (as well as which Cobra Kai stars she’s since convinced to join the so-called “curly cult”); she also opens up about filming Cobra Kai’s final season and her favorite fight of the whole series.

Glamour: How have you been feeling since the first five episodes of Cobra Kai’s sixth season dropped?

Mary Mouser: It’s a little wild. It’s always really fun. I love the drops because I think we have such an incredible fan base and it really feels like getting to celebrate each other. It feels like giving a gift, like, “Hey, this is this thing we’ve worked on. I really hope you love it.” And then getting to connect with people about all the pieces of it that they enjoy, the pieces they wish were different, which I always find funny too. I really enjoy hearing all of it. It feels very collaborative, this show, between the creators who give us what to do, us actors who perform it, and then the audience that gets to enjoy it.

What are you excited for viewers to see in this next season? Can you hint at anything?

Well, I guess now people are getting to see at least the first five [episodes], which is great. I finally get to see reactions. Episode five was one of my favorite fights that I’ve ever gotten to film on the show. It was a super meaningful moment [between me and Peyton List, who the plays Tory Nichols] as friends and as performers. Peyton’s character and my character have been through all these ups and downs, and we ourselves are friends off camera. So it was really wonderful to get to have this moment of connection with her. It felt like we got to put our hands in and be like, “Okay, go team!”

But really, it felt like this connective tissue where we had the perfect lens to look through and say, “Oh wow, you remember how we started fighting and we had no idea what we were doing and we were doing our best and we were learning every minute of the day?” Now we’ve got all this internal dialogue that we’ve created between each other, and we get to come back to home base and reflect on the growth that we’ve had since then.

What are your post-Cobra Kai plans?

Cobra Kai has been so much of my life for so much of my life now that it’s weird even for me to conceptualize something outside of Cobra Kai, but I’m very excited about what’s next.

I learned recently that I am actually really into the idea of being behind the camera and in different positions in different aspects [of production], so that’s something I’m kind of exploring right now in a new way. There are also some other projects going on, even outside of the acting world, in my life which are really exciting. But I think overall, the next steps will be seeing people enjoy the next couple batches of Cobra Kai, and then on to maybe showing some different parts of my personality that I haven’t gotten to bring to the screen yet.

I’d love to talk a little bit about beauty and lifestyle. What are our favorite beauty trends right now?

I love and I’m really grateful for the trend of wearing your natural hair texture. I don’t know if you can tell, but I have a little bit of a mop of curly, wavy hair, and growing up I really struggled against it for so much of my life. I fought it—and I mean I would shampoo twice, then condition, and then once I got out of the shower, it took me four hours to do my hair. I would blow dry my hair straight and then curl it with a curling iron and then with a straightening iron. All of the stuff that I was doing to my hair, it was just for me, personally, a lot of work, and the more heat I put on it, the more I damaged it, and the more work I was having to do. So it was just the cycle that I hated.

Once I kind of discovered the way to actually properly take care of my hair, and that having your own unique hair texture and treating it as a unique aspect to you, all the benefits that came with that…now wash days are a little rough. Those take longer than they did when it was just shampoo, get out of the shower. But it’s worth it because it means that I can just wear my hair the way it wants to be worn. I don’t have to battle it in the humidity, especially in the humidity of Georgia where we film the show.

When did you figure this out about your hair?

Between seasons 1 and 2 of filming Cobra Kai, I figured out [my hair is curly]. Since then, I have inducted so many people into what has been deemed—not by me, but I have been told this is the name of the group now—the “curly cult” of people that I went around to on set. I was like, “Oh my god, your hair freezes up exactly like mine did in the humidity! I think you might have curly hair!” And they’re like, “Oh yeah! I do! It’s so annoying!”

So I told them to try these methods. I actually converted our makeup artist, Jamie, one of the other actors on the show, Tanner [Buchanan]—his hair when it’s longer is curly. And the woman who played my mom, Courtney Henggeler, actually has a beautiful naturally curly waves that she wears now too.

Courtney Henggeler, left.

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

What advice did you give them and anyone else who might want to start a similar hair care routine?

I think that for beauty, like anything else, it’s important that it’s tailored directly to you. There’s going to be things that resonate with people and there’s going to be things that don’t, and that’s fine. Take what works and leave what doesn’t. That’s my philosophy on all of it. But what worked for me was cutting out as much heat as possible on my hair.

I also started to use products that didn’t have sulfates or silicones, which doesn’t work for everybody, but it helped me a lot because I realized the silicones were weighing my hair down and making it less curly. And without the sulfates, I couldn’t strip the silicones out of my hair. Without the silicones, the sulfates were too stripping on my hair. So sulfate-free, silicone-free, and as little heat as possible works for me.

I also only brush my hair when I’m in the shower. When it has conditioner in it, I’ll go through with my fingers to detangle and avoid pulling clumps of my hair out. I guess really what it comes down to for me is about caring for my hair first and then having the result be healthy hair that wanted to curl on its own.

My “desert island product” for curly hair care is definitely The Curlsmith Curl Quenching Conditioning Wash. Other than that, I’ve switched mostly to the Pattern Strong Hold Gel. I really like the brand in general. Their products smell super good, first of all, which again, is really important to me. I’m a Taurus, so I’m lazy and luxurious. Those are my standards.

CURLSMITH Curl Quenching Conditioning Wash

PATTERN by Tracee Ellis Ross Strong Hold Hair Gel

What are other must-haves in your skin care and beauty routine?

I love the OSEA Ocean Gel Cleanser as my face wash. I’m basic when it comes to my beauty routine because life is very hectic, and the only way I manage sticking to something is if I find one product that I just know I’ll stick to. Plus, it smells like Skittles to me. I wash my face twice a day so that’s part of my everyday routine, and sometimes more times if I have to get some wacky makeup on set or something. One time I had a scene where I was supposed to have chocolate pudding all over me, so I had to throw in a few extra face washes.

For morning moisturizer, I use Grown Alchemist Hydro Repair Day Cream. I also try to use as little plastic as possible. I try to do anything I can do to lower my waste footprint. The OSEA Cleanser comes in a glass bottle, which is easier obviously to recycle; the only non-recyclable part is the pump. But I’ll try and if I can, I find a program through TerraCycle to send it back. Same with the Grown Alchemist moisturizer. It comes in like an aluminum tube so it’s easier to recycle afterwards.

OSEA Ocean Gel Cleanser

Grown Alchemist Hydro Repair Day Cream

I also put on a sunscreen every day, which is the EltaMD UV Clear Tinted Face Sunscreen. That’s kind of what I do instead of foundation, to get a little more benefit for what doing. And then at night, it’s the drunk elephant moisturizer.

I also love the Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Sunshine Drops, O-Bloos Rosi Glow Drops, and now the B-Goldi Illuminating Drops. Those are my other ways of traveling with makeup that’s super versatile. I can use them on my cheeks, on my face, on my eyelids, and just be really versatile.

EltaMD UV Clear Tinted Face Sunscreen

Drunk Elephant Bronzi and the Bloos Color Serum Duo

Another one is the actually Peyton [List]’s makeup brand Pley Beauty. I love the Pley Date All Over Color Stick that again, I use for everything. If you can’t tell, that’s my overarching beauty theme: what can I do to get maximum output with minimum input in terms of the amount of things I have to carry.

Drunk Elephant B-Goldi Illuminating Drops

Pley Date All Over Color Stick

Do you have any other beauty tips you’ve discovered over the years?

I plop my hair with a T-shirt instead of a towel! There’s a small brand that I really love. What they make are these easier versions of a T-shirt for the hair plop, and they make a satin lined one for sleep. I use both the regular one to plop my hair when it’s wet, and then I use the satin lined one for sleep. It’s a brand called Moonstone Seven.

It’s a husband and wife duo and all three of their kids have curly hair and they both have curly hair, so they have created this super kind of foolproof method for flopping that makes it a little easier than doing it with a towel.

Moonstone Seven The Hair Plop

Do you have final words or what do you want to tell fans? I’m sure people are really sad and really going to miss the show, but it’s also really nice to be able to look back.

I think this show, to me, is a time capsule, which is really cool because I feel like every person that comes to me, and we talk about the show as they have watched it or connected with it in a different way, it all comes back to how it relates to time for them. I feel like I’ve met so many people who are like, “Oh, this helped me to reconnect with my parents because The Karate Kid was important to them when they were a kid, and Cobra Kai is important to me,” or vice versa, where parents have said, “This is the bridge between our generations—I get to share something with my kids that I loved when I was young.” And then [there are] people who discovered the films because of the show and people who found the show because of their love for the films.

People were looking at it from this nostalgic angle from day one. We’ve had nostalgia under our belt. So now that we have been doing this for seven years, we are looking back and having our own nostalgia, and I’m so eternally grateful. We of course would not be here if it weren’t for the people who love the show and make it possible for us to keep coming back and making it. So I just have so much gratitude, and I think that is the thing that’s helping me through the process of the grief—looking at the whole project and knowing that every minute that’s passed was incredibly meaningful and wonderful.

But if there’s anything that Cobra Kai has taught me, it’s that it never dies. Right?

It’s never really a goodbye. Samantha will always be with me. And I’ve watched Ralph [Macchio]. The people who come up and connect with him and the stories that he shares, it makes it so visible to see that these characters don’t leave you. This world, so long as people love it, this world lives on and it lives on with the people who love it a lot. We love it a lot. I love it so much and I love all the people that I’ve gotten to meet because of it. So I don’t think it’s going anywhere from my heart.

Danielle Sinay is the associate beauty editor at Glamour. Follow her on Instagram @daniellesinay.