What was Jennifer's hair like when she first came to your salon?
I've been doing Jennifer's hair forever. When I first met her, she had long, one-length hair with bangs, and she was like, "Don't cut my hair—I want my hair long." But I'm a hairdresser, so I obviously cut her hair and told her she needed to grow her bangs out. I cut a couple inches off and layered it from her bangs down to the ends. Then I taught her how to pin the bangs over with a bobby pin and make them flat—remember how everyone was doing that on the first year of Friends? Six weeks later, she came back to the salon for another haircut—her bangs were longer, and we just cut a little bit more off her length. The next thing you know, her bangs were down to her chin, and the rest of her hair was at her shoulders in these long, loose layers that sort of flipped out—and that's what we called the Rachel.
What was the Friends hairstyle inspired by?
I'm always inspired by other hairdressers, models, fashion, and magazines like ELLE. For the Rachel, I was inspired by a model named Beri Smither—Ward Stegerhoek did her hair at the time. She was wearing this really great shag haircut—it wasn't the Rachel, but it inspired me. These days, though, Jen likes her hair on the longer side with her layers grown out.
What's Jennifer's natural hair texture?
She has naturally wavy, medium-texture hair, and she has what you would call good hair—it goes curly really easily if you scrunch it, and if you blow-dry it straight, it stays straight but with body.
What shampoo and conditioner does she use?
She loves having her hair shampooed fresh and clean. She shampoos and conditions pretty much every day—if she's going for the day-old-hair look, she prefers to create it using products. The shampoo and conditioner she's using right now are my shampoo and conditioner. I used her and Courteney Cox as my guinea pigs. Jennifer uses the products every day. She also loves deep conditioners—I'll do professional treatments at my salon using Shu Uemura products.
What hair products did she use before she came to you?
Oh, God, we used to laugh—she loved Aussie 3 Minute Miracle back in the day. We would use that stuff. We loved the smell of it. They also have that Aussie Sprunch Hairspray—we'd use that, too.
How does Jennifer keep her hair looking great between salon visits?
I cut her hair religiously every six weeks, but between visits, she takes care of her hair, she really does—she doesn't rip through it when she brushes it after a shower. And she lets her hair dry on its own when she's not working. She likes to wear her hair natural, and she's good at styling it on her own.
So how would you describe her hair personality?
She's not one to say, "Oh, I want something really funky." She likes pretty, sexy hair. "Pretty" to me is adding texture, and "sexy" is undone-looking hair. If you look at her hair, it looks like it grew out of her head like that—it doesn't look like a curling iron touched it. We never use curling irons or flatirons on her hair. We always try to work with her natural texture and use round brushes to give a soft curl. The modern sleek look can be good for photo shoots, but when Jen's walking the red carpet or doing press, she feels more comfortable with natural-looking hair.
When it comes to red carpet updos, what sorts of hairstyles does Jennifer like?
She likes ponytails or really quick natural-looking buns—ones that look like she did them herself. And, you never see this, but off the red carpet she really likes wearing low, loose braids on both sides of her head. She's a real down-to-earth girl—she loves the beach, loves nature, and loves animals.
