Jennifer Aniston's Low-Maintenance Hair Routine
(Getty)
It’s not exactly surprising that Jennifer Aniston, a woman known for “The Rachel”—the layered cut streaked with highlights made famous on Friends—is now invested in, and the face of, hair company Living Proof. What might come as a shock, however, is how easygoing she is about what’s on her head. In fact, for her acclaimed role in Cake, she ditched the golden blond (and her elliptical machine) and “threw some dye” on her hair in order to fully assume the part. “It was so drab and no-fuss, and that was kind of exactly what the character was—someone who had given up on her entire human self over the last few years,” Aniston explained. “It was kind of wonderful, as well as easy, to roll into work and not have to worry about my hair.” And off-screen, she’s just as low maintenance. “I have more of a face ritual with the wash and the serums, but for my hair, I usually put in something through the ends and just leave it alone,” the star said of her evening beauty regimen.
As for the product she works through her celebrated strands once a week: Living Proof’s latest launch, Night Cap (an amino acid- and antioxidant-infused night treatment that the actress claims is “pillow safe”). Though Aniston says she was skeptical of the formula at first, thinking it would leave her hair greasy, now that she’s had a chance to sleep on it (in her flannel sheets on those brisk California nights), she’s officially a believer. “Even if it’s shampoo day, it actually doesn’t wash out the product [entirely] because it doesn’t sit on top of the hair follicle, but absorbs into it and continues to do the work for a few days,” she explained. Here, Aniston shares the one style she can’t pull off, the best beauty tip she’s ever learned from mane master Chris McMillan, and the movies that are currently in her queue—you know, for nights you just want to stay in and not wash your hair.
Read: 5 Runway-Inspired Short Hairstyles to Try This Spring
The two-second hair game plan: “It’s usually up in a bun—a little twist-up—or I spray water around the edges and let it do its thing.”
The hair trick she hasn’t mastered: “I do it once in a while if I’m going for a look,” she said of braiding her hair before bed to create texture. “But that’s not so often!” Trying to DIY beachy waves is a skill that’s still not in her wheelhouse: “It looks like a little Greek ’fro on me—shorter hair with curls or braids, not so much. I never understand girls who have short hair and actually get it to do a wave. I’m like, ‘Oh, God—that always looks so wrong on me.’”
The secret to stress-free strands post-awards season: “I gotta tell ya, I don’t have a lot of damage…The one thing I don’t do is wash it every day because there’s no silicone in these products, which is what the scientists on my team figured out.” Her skip-a-day strategy comes courtesy of her longtime friend and hairstylist Chris McMillan: “His whole thing is don’t touch it—don’t wash it, don’t put a blow-dryer to it. I used to not be able to do that and now I can, so I’m thrilled.”
The flicks you should add to your queue: “Oh, Lord, we’re [Aniston and fiancé Justin Theroux] big documentary junkies.” A few recent film favorites: The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, Virunga, and Capturing the Friedmans.
By Amber Kallor
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