Cass Kaeding & Allison McNamara Are Redefining The Modern Power Couple

Most media depictions of couples working in the same industry are enough to make the average person want to steer clear of the situation altogether. Competitive pairs of lawyers or jealous writer duos can make it seem like stress and in-fighting are the norm, but the reality is that sharing a professional space with your spouse can mean increased creativity, improved understanding, and a particular type of kinship not often seen in romantic partnerships. Wives Cass Kaeding and Allison McNamara are individual artists and creators in their own rights, but together, they make one of the beauty industry’s most formidable power couples.

You likely already recognize both women’s names. McNamara is the mastermind behind MARA, one of the most innovative skin and body care brands on the market today, known for its science-first, sea-inspired ingredient lineup. Kaeding is a preeminent figure in hair, an acclaimed salon owner and celebrity colorist who’s worked on every A-lister from Hailey Bieber and Angelina Jolie to Cate Blanchett and Sophie Turner. While the wife-wife duo exist in different areas of the industry, there’s plenty of crossover. Ahead, TZR speaks with McNamara and Kaeding about how they got their respective starts in the beauty world, their relationship, and how they make marriage work while sharing overlapping professions.

How They Got Started

It took a bit of time for both McNamara and Kaeding to figure out their exact path in beauty, but both women clearly gravitated toward that space early on in childhood. Kaeding recalls her first foray into hair color, which involved her neighbor friends, a packet of Kool-Aid, and some very angry parents. “I got in trouble because I stained their hair pink,” she laughs recalling the story, a rudimentary version of the bespoke dye jobs that years later celebrities would pay top-dollar for. Kaeding got into sports excelling as a soccer star and would even go on to play in college while attending business school, but she says she still gravitated toward hair through it all, styling her teammates and experimenting with her own color. When she realized she needed to take her passion full-time, Kaeding assumed the massive financial responsibility of pivoting to cosmetology school, putting herself through her rigorous coursework and then straight into a demanding role as assistant to a top colorist. “She was doing four or five clients at a time, and a lot of them were celebrities,” Kaeding shares. “For her to pick me? I busted my butt — I did anything and everything.”

For McNamara, beauty was the family profession. Her father was a top executive at Neutrogena, which gave her a distinct perspective and insight into the industry — “his love of telling stories is what made me love telling stories,” she explains. But as an all-around creative with a passion for communication, McNamara wanted her hands in all sorts of different projects in fashion and beauty. She worked as a beauty editor and eventually an editorial director, and became a well-known on-camera personality and red carpet host through 2016, even winning a Digital Emmy. It’s safe to say that McNamara spent her early professional years learning every imaginable aspect of the space, which gave her a unique edge when inspiration struck while in Turkey, near the Sea of Marmara. The name, and its similarity to her own, got the wheels turning, imagining it as a brand. And a family vacation to Positano, she saw the word mara in white paint scrawled across an Italian cliff . “I took that as my sign,” she says. While finishing off her editorial career at Refinery 29, she got to work on what would, become her very own line three years later. MARA’s first product launched in 2018 and, with meticulous formulations and a slow-and-steady approach, the brand would eventually be found in every Sephora store across the country.

Relationship (And Career) Goals

McNamara actually met her future wife at Kaeding’s birthday party, one of those serendipitous meet cutes movie execs build rom-coms around. “She just lit up the room,” Kaeding says. “She was talking to everyone, and I was like, ‘Whoa, who is this chick? She seems really cool, very smart.’ She just came in like she knew everyone.” The pair had natural chemistry, but really hit it off at a dinner two weeks later. It was truly meant to be, and the couple got married in a stunning seaside ceremony in February 2022.

As their relationship grew and expanded, so did each of their careers. MARA developed a mass following, co-signed by more than a few celebrities, while Kaeding opened her own salon, Crane Los Angeles. They work in different categories, of course, but the high-profile nature of each woman’s career means there’s plenty of overlap. Not to mention that McNamara is something of a hair expert herself, once serving as the editorial director of Jen Atkins’ now-defunct Mane Addicts site . “It's really awesome because I feel like when I talk about certain things in beauty, like about hair, we have a lot to talk about,” Kaeding shares. “It’s hard sometimes when someone isn't in the industry. My long hours, the way I work, certain things I do, and the way I push myself, sometimes people, exes, didn't really understand that.”

Both McNamara and Kaeding share that their experiences as members of the LGBTQ+ community in the beauty industry have been very positive. As McNamara points out, though, it’s still a largely male-driven professional space without as much representation for lesbian and bisexual women. “One thing that’s always going to happen my whole life, and people don't really understand it, is that I have to come out every single time I talk to someone,” she explains. She might mention that she’s married to an acquaintance, and they immediately follow up with a question about her presumed husband. “I [say], ‘don't worry, it happens every day,’ but it literally happens every day.” She and Kaeding do say that they’ve felt extremely supported in their professional spheres, though, and McNamara emphasizes how good it feels to work with truly inclusive retailers like Sephora. “It’s nice to be in the conversation, and I think part of that's due to representing something that isn't as widely represented in beauty.”

How They’re Balancing It All

No matter who you’re with, though, sharing an industry can be rife with unique situations to navigate for the sake of your relationship. For Kaeding and McNamara, they both underscore the importance of knowing when to leave the shop talk at the front door. “It's really important to find common ground that's not your work,” McNamara says, adding that it’s advice she’d given to friends and family members in the same field, too. “Find those things that you love to do together. Cass loves to cook, so I’m now kind of in my cooking era,” she laughs. Kaeding says it’s also key to celebrate each other’s wins, taking care to focus on your individual journey and not let comparisons creep in. “In the beginning, when MARA was taking off, I was like, ‘God, am I not doing enough?’” she shares. “But when I was able to separate that, I understood — this is me, this is my career, that is her career.”

With two highly successful creatives in one couple, though, the potential is truly unlimited. When asked if they’d ever collaborate on some sort of crossover in the future, both women were extremely open to the idea, praising the other’s general talent and eye for business. Considering how much they’ve achieved on their own, there’s no telling where a true professional team-up might take them.