I started dyeing my hair years ago to cover the grey and I’m not going to stop anytime soon. My grey was premature – I had grey streaks and grey around my temples in my 20s, and I really don’t want to think about how grey my hair has gotten at this point. I’ve only ever wanted to be my original hair color, a dark brown-black, so that’s the color I’m aiming for with the dye job. Jennifer Aniston’s original, born-with-it hair color was a medium-to-dark brown. In the ‘90s, she kept going lighter and lighter, and eventually she settled on a caramel blonde (I consider it “bronde”) which has become something of a “signature” for Jen. She’s had that caramel-bronde for literally decades now. And her colorist says that Jen is never going to change it.
Jennifer Aniston‘s hair is her signature, which is why she has no plans to switch it up anytime soon. Or ever.
“Jennifer has been Jennifer for more than 25 years without a lot of change,” her longtime colorist Michael Canalé told Page Six Style. “For some films, we’ve moved her more blond, but other than those momentary steps into different tones, Jennifer stays true to the original and I really don’t see her changing it up too radically. That’s not her — or me.”
The pair first met when the actress was filming the “Friends” pilot more than two decades ago: “Jennifer had medium brown hair, a little past shoulder length. I decided to switch her out from her natural brown to a caramelized blond with feather-thin highlights, a color that looked like she loved being on the beach,” he recalled. “Chris [McMillan] then cut it and made it easy for me to drop in those signature highlights around her face to bring out the cut and accent her eyes and face. This collaboration became known as ‘The Rachel.’ That was in 1994, and all these years later, her cut and color is really quite close to what we did back then. I saw her every five weeks after that, and still do today.”
To achieve her iconic look, “I pull the color from root to end to create a graduation of dark to light, and always keep the hairline freshly done. That really is my signature,” Canalé explained. “While most other celebrities have tried long and short and wildly different colors, Jennifer has become a style icon because she doesn’t go trendy. And she could. She’s so beautiful and has such an amazing bone structure and eyes; she could totally pull off something different. But she’s a classic, and she knows it. She skews toward the completely natural, sun-kissed look, and doesn’t force anything — it’s what I love about her.”
I mean… it’s weird that we’re still talking about Aniston’s hair like it’s STILL the most interesting thing about her, but that being said… of course I have some thoughts! I always have thoughts about Jen’s hair. One person’s “classic” is another person’s “dated.” I get that Jennifer loves that California-bronde look and I agree that it’s her signature color/cut and that it would be weird if she went with whatever seasonal trend is happening. That being said, is it weird that save for one dramatic chop 10 years ago, she’s had the same basic look for about 20 years? It’s the same thing as Gwyneth Paltrow’s center part, straw-blonde, pin-straight hair look – we just associate those hairstyles with the ‘90s, and it’s weird that neither woman has thought to switch things up a little bit. What kills me about Jennifer is that she would look really cute with a shaggy lob and darker hair. She really would.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
so boring
If the style is “blah”, then yes she’s nailing it.
Iconic blahness. Jens signature look.
Next.
Oh, thank God. I thought it was just me. How in the world is her current look considered iconic?
I’m not a super fan of her but I did use her as my inspiration for my blonde highlights look. It was her and JLo! The bronde makes you look younger and glowy! It’s addictive so I know why they don’t let it go.
I remember my mom trying and mostly succeeding at convincing me to get “the Rachel”. I ended up with like… a less layered version of it. I can’t even tell you how old I was at the time, probably between 11 and 14. I was also getting some highlights done then haha.
I keep toying with the idea of going lighter. My hair is about at the top of my bum right now, and it’s already partially lightened because I had (still have remnants of) blue ombre done last year that I kept up with until recently. I really SHOULD do something about it soon because it’s kind of got a few teal pieces here and there mixed with a kind of brassy blonde. And now that summer is in full swing the blonde is just so much more tempting.
Speaking of summer, Erinn are you in line for that massive heatwave that’s coming in the next few days? It looks like we in BC are missing most of it, although we have a couple of 32-33C days coming. It’s been raining for a week and it is wonderful. At this time last year, no one could breathe because of the forest fire smoke in the air. You could not make out the mountains there was so much smoke. I kept my cats inside for days. You could literally see tendrils of smoke wafting in front of you as you walked it was so bad.
Haha, oh you bet, LadyD! I’m incredibly thankful that we have one of those split heating and cooling heatpump things in the living room. I don’t do with really hot. And when i checked on Tuesday it was giving 34 for Sunday with the humidity. I have to be way out in the woods at a camp for my nieces 4th bday that day. We have heat warnings in effect. I just checked again and it’s predicting 35 now haha. Surprisingly it was only 15 on my way to work this morning – last night was a really nice cool evening as far as summer goes.
I live about a 5-10 minute drive from a beach though, so I figure on the bad days I’ll just head out there. I’m lucky enough that I work in a climate controlled office… husband on the other hand is a plumber who is working on multiple new builds at once, I’m hoping he won’t be outside working for TOO much of it. Last year he and the apprentices were stuck working out in this kind of weather and they were practically falling over. He was mother ducking them because he’s 29 now, and they were probably 19 or 20 – just pushing water and sunscreen at them every hour. But even with all that, they still burned and took a few days just to not feel disgusting from over doing it.
I also have major BC envy. My god it’s gorgeous. I’ve never been, and I have a friend from college who’s doing her med residency over there and the photos she posts are just stunning. I can’t imagine how much smoke was involved to miss the mountains. I believe we’re currently in a burn ban.
When a very dated style is more important to an actor than being versatile, it makes me think less of them as actors. If she changed for roles and then went back to her habitual look, I’d be ok, but she seems to choose roles that fit her style and not the opposite. Also ‘sun-kissed hair’ and that fake tan screams wealthy lady with too much time on her hands, addicted to Goop products and merch.
So true! It’s one of the reasons I’ve never thought of her as a good actor, and why I thought it was ridiculous when there was Oscar-buzz around her role in The Good Girl. She was supposed to be a small-town, minimum-wage Walmart employee — but her hair looked like she’d just stepped out of a Hollywood salon. It’s a small, silly detail, but it distracted so much from the character, and made her (even more) unbelievable to me. Aniston has no desire to go deep or stretch herself in any formidable way, so she keeps playing the same character over and over because it suits both her style and her lifestyle.
Because she can’t act!
Sorry, sticking with the same style forever isn’t being a “style icon” it’s being stuck in a rut. There are ways to freshen things up if you don’t want to go drastically different. JA has a long face so a shorter cut would be flattering.
Her hair is fine, it fits her. It’s just a basic cut and there is nothing wrong with it. It’s not like she’s sporting an 80s minipli.
RIght, Allie? You’d think she was sporting a mullet lol!
Minx,I remember you commenting here once that your favorite Jen hair was her blunt bob on friends,it was my favorite of all of her styles and colorstoo,so much so that my daughter used a pic of it as inspiration for her own blunt bob a few months ago-it was darling.I have super thick hair and I tried the blunt bob a few years back and ended up with triangle hair.Jen should go back to that.
Spicecake, you have a good memory! She looked really cute in that ‘do.
I’m like JA where I’ve had the same basic cut and color for a really long time. My hairstyle is ‘longish layers’ with some blonder highlights added to my already medium blonde hair. Sometimes I think about switching it up, but there’s 3 things about me that make me not want to: 1. My hair grows very very slowly so if I cut it short it will take years to grow back out. 2. I am lazy and do not want to style my hair. I’m a wash and go kind of girl (I don’t even blow dry) and ‘longish layers’ instead of an actual style that takes time works for my laziness and my natural wave. 3. I also have a squarish face like JA and shorter hair does not compliment me.
Maybe Jen is the same way? I mean, if she likes it that way let her be.
Every time I see her, I wonder what she would look like if she weren’t a celebrity. It’s weird; I don’t do it with anyone else. I think it’s because she looks so much like my high school Spanish teacher, but with a nutritionist, a makeup team and a hairstylist.
I think she’s one of the few women who has kept the same look for a long time, but it actually really works for her. The color is youthful, not fried and try-hard (*cough* Goop). I can’t hate on her; her look really is iconic and synonymous with her.
she is a style icon, I agree.
To who though??? I guess to older rich white woman?
I think there’s only so much change you can do with long hair. Pretty much everyone with long hair sort of looks like they’ve had the same hair for a long time, even though that probably isn’t the case. I do think people like Aniston have hair that won’t look bad when you look at the photograph decades from now though. People who had 80s hair look strange now, no matter how good- looking they were.
especially if her hair is naturally straight like that. there just isn’t much that type of hair can do when it’s long.
Style icon? Oh
Completely natural? Oh. No.
Her stylist is loyal, I’ll give him that.
Jennifer Aniston’s colorist: “Jennifer has become a style icon because she doesn’t go trendy.”
Me: Sure, Jan.
She is known for being JEN. It sells and its who she is. Why should she have to change it?
That’s what I came here to say. It suits her, she likes it, she’s confident with it – why should she change it because people think it’s boring? I’ve had the same balayage style/color for the last 3 years, and if it’s not that then I’m the same boring chocolate brown. Same hair length and cut for at least the last ten years. It works for me, I like it, I’m cool with it. Who cares if it isn’t on trend.
I loved her long layered locks and more honey blond color on friends, that was literally “goals” for me. I have long dark hair and hoping my hair one day looks as long and healthy as her did. I never liked the Rachel cut.
Add loads of extensions. The golden back then was more flattering to her artificial tan, but the strands, That was her secret in Friends. She has a lot of hair, but she used them a lot. They are noticeable.
Ha…good! Now I don’t feel so bad that mine looks like a birds nest sometimes
What was that? Is this guy’s contract about to be up or something? He shouldn’t worry, this woman has the same hair, Cabo, chicken salad life for life, he’s set.
They are still trying to make The Rachel this amazing moment in hair but if you go back and watch the early seasons both Monica and Phoebe had better hair.
The fact that Jennifer Aniston refuses to change up her hair even a little bums me out. If I had her face/bone structure I’d try every cut under the sun.
@Chimney
But the “Rachel” was a big moment in hair. It was everywhere.
I agree. i’m not american and not even a die hard fan of Friends, but I always knew Jennifer as “that one with nice hair”. It was/is her trade mark, relevant or not.
Also it is the most she has had going for her beside the Triangle lol
Courteney’s hair looked amazing in seasons 7 & 8. Totally nailed the cut and colour.
As for Jen’s hair, I’m with Minx,. She really rocked the bob in season 7. It really suits her shorter:. https://www.short-haircut.co/27-jennifer-aniston-short-hairstyles/
Side note:. I want Mona’s hair.
You can’t even compare the style of the three of them – they all fit a different category of looks. All three looked great, but totally different and incomparable.
I think her hair is her best feature really. Like most women her age she would look better with it a ‘little’ shorter but really, not much shorter. Her hair doesn’t bug me like JLO with her overtly blond looks like a Hispanic woman who doesn’t know a more natural look is more flattering than trying to hide it. And GP who with her bone structure should go back to the short less pale blonde style she had during the brad Pitt years. It was so flattering!
So disagree on JLo, her blonde suits her perfectly!
As poorly as John Mayer comes across, him saying Jen wishes it was 1998 again really rings true to me which IMO explains her refusing to change her hair. Trying to remain young looking only makes you look old IMO
I also have a feeling Jen is quite dull in real life as opposed to life of the party full of personality like other famous people can be, her friends character was funny but Jen wears black to nearly every event and as this article points out, the same hair too. I remember after Brad cheated with Angie wanting Jen to look amazing at events really showing off how great she can look but she stuck with the same old black dress with the same hair. She’s inflexible in that way which can be boring. We want her to try new things and I just don’t think that’s her, as well as her hair and her constant black dresses to events she vacations to the same place constantly too, all of those things put together makes me wonder if she may have some security abandonment issues.
My hair color is similar to her natural color, and I too get the blonder highlights…probably for almost as long as she has, though my length and cut has varied more.
It’s what works for me, and what works for her, so I don’t know why people are always yelling at her to change it. Most people I know don’t hugely change their look that much.
That said, she did dark hair for a movie a while back, and I think it looked good on her.
She likes to keep it simple. Why not? She’s gorgeous.
A true style icon takes trends and works them into their fashion choices in a way that reflects their own personal style.
Michelle Obama, Jackie O, Audrey, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Zendaya, etc.
Even Gwyneth, tired hair not withstanding does a better job at this than Jennifer Anniston.
Yep. Media (tabloids mostly, *cough* Huvane-CAA or “Collecting All A-“). And you failed if you think Zendaya, not even talking about Blanchett, is lessen 😀
Wut?
The most interesting thing about Jennifer Aniston is that she faked a marriage with Justin What’s His Face. (Trudeau?) Seriously, no one ever followed up on that. And I think the same thing about Demi/ Ashton.
What kind if follow up would you like?
You can’t prove a negative. It seems fruitless to pursue a story that has no end.
A marriage doesn’t validate or invalidate a relationship
Well, actually, the absence of a marriage license and divorce court papers would prove a lot.
And I personally don’t care if people get married, but when someone lies about it, get tons of press over it, just because an ex-husband married Angelina Jolie, I just think that’s an interesting story.
Ya. She was fake married to Justin Trudeau. You nailed it.
Better safe than sorry!
Agree, but tabloids don’t make story out of it!
Like myself, Jennifer has a long face, a large forehead and a prominent chin and jaw. Flat hair with a center parting does us no favours. She would look leagues better with literally any other style.
Exactly. It’s like SJP with the center part, not flattering.
Rachel, not Jennifer, is a style icon for teenagers and some young adults now that the 90s are in. She is mentioned as a reference in most videos and articles about 90s fashion. However, I’ve never heard about people wanting this hairstyle because of her, is that a thing? (I’m not talking about “The Rachel”, I mean her current style)
Give her credit, She looks good. It’s a flattering style for her. Why be trendy when this works well.
Bwaahahahahahaha
Aniston is as much a style icon as margarine is a delectable food.
I think her hair definitely works for her. I just can’t do an extreme change with my hair cut really, cause I know what looks good on me and what doesn’t. Some people’s face shape doesn’t lend itself to experimentation with their hair. I have a very round face so I know I can’t ever do a pixie cut or full on bangs, much as I’d like to. Not saying Jen has this shape, but a super short cut is not going to work for her. She knows what looks good on her and she sticks with it, with slight variations in color. Rt now, I just gotta be thankful I still have hair, cause hair thinning is really the scariest.
Just a little bit darker caramel color, tone down the yellow blonde, and about 1-2″ shorter and her hair would be much cuter.
She is in fabulous shape, but yes, I agree that she could use more colors in her wardrobe and still be so pretty.
I never liked The Rachel cut, I clearly recall Jen saying in interviews that she hated it.
So I am surprised she has stayed with the same hair colorist/stylist.
Now, as for Goop..her crayon yellow, dry straw like hair is awful. Heavy duty conditioning and better/more subtle color would be good for Goop-y.
What about Julia Roberts hair? I hate her current color. Not a well done color job, its too light for her skin tone, and it is neither red, or blonde, or an attractive shade of strawberry blonde, its just looks like she dumped a $15 box of color from Walmart on her head. Bad look.
Her hair is too long, too blonde and she’s really starting to look like her mother.
Her hair style suits her, but she looked stunning in Horrible Bosses with the brunette hair and bangs.
Lol. Notice it was her colorist who said this no other colorist would dare. When it’s all said and done JA will be known for three things in this order. Being married to Brad, being on a popular show and The Rachael hairstyle. Not bad, but come on that’s it. There’s nothing iconic or legendary about her. Kinda like Reese Witherspoon. JA fans/the media try to make her out to be much more than she is really. She is a bland Caucasian woman that doesn’t really stand out from the bunch. I know people want her to since we live in a Caucasian world but she just doesn’t. Peeps want us to believe she’s so cool and hip and of course she plays into it for fame and $$. But, It’s laughable b/c nothing she does is cool nor hip and no being friends w/ played out actors like George Clooney is not cool nor hip.
She’s so much better in video than photos. I sort of watched Murder Mystery (it’s the sort of film you can read the news while watching) and she has a great body and wore everything very well. She’s extremely diligent about her appearance in real life too, whereas even people like Goop look sloppy at times. I don’t find Jen to be a style icon and actually don’t look up to anyone as a style icon but she’s among the celebs/actors whose stories I’ll click through to see what they’re wearing for fashion inspiration.
Remember in season 2-3 (?) of Friends when she had red hair?
Beautiful hair, beautiful face, beautiful body, beautiful person – what else ?