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When you’re known for creating “the Rachel” haircut, you really don’t need an introduction. While Chris McMillan may be known for inventing Jennifer Aniston’s iconic haircut, he’s venturing out to try something new: launching his first haircare line, Chris McMillan Hair.
McMillan realized that his clients were always asking how they could re-create his signature looks at home. “Every time I do someone’s hair in the salon, they’re like, “Oh my god, I love my hair. How can I do this myself?” McMillan said. “I just basically created the products that I use and or that I mix, and I created my core products.”
For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, McMillan tells Who What Wear’s senior beauty editor Jamie Schneider how he got his start, why he decided to launch his line, the products he can’t live without, and more.
For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
How did you first become interested in hair, and when did you realize it could be a career path?
I think I’ve always been drawn to hair. I remember watching my mom do her hair at bath time. I’d be sitting in the bathtub while my mom was doing her hair and makeup to go out.
This is probably like the early ’70s, and she would tease her hair, and then you would smooth it out, but I always liked it teased.
I would say, “Leave it like that. It looks really good.” Here I am, like four years old, having an opinion on how my mom should wear her hair.
How did you get that training? Were you watching people doing hair? How did you get to where you are today?
It was offered in school as an elective. My 10th-grade summer, my mom was like, “You should go to beauty school.” I was like, “They’re gay.” My mom was like, “Yeah, you should go to beauty school.” I was like, “Oh, okay, so I guess we got that conversation out of the way.”I just ended up spending the summer going to beauty school—my 10th grade summer.
Then, in 11th grade, I would go to school four periods a day, and then after lunch, go to beauty school. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had completed 1600 hours of beauty school.
I just needed to wait to turn 18, which was November 9, my senior year, and literally November 10, I went to the State Board of Cosmetology in Hollywood, and I took the test and I passed.
I’d love to talk product specifics. Can you walk me through each of the products and how they make your styling routine easier?
I have a drawer at my station, and it’s got, like, 50, maybe 60 products in it. I grab seven of those products on a daily basis.
Every time I do someone’s hair in the salon, they’re like, “Oh my god, I love my hair. How can I do this myself?” So I just basically created the products that I use and or that I mix together, and I created my core products.
In everyone’s hair, I use a blow-dry spray, which is sort of like a prep spray that I use. It cuts the blow-dry in half. It takes the frizziness out of the hair.
Chris McMillan
The Classics Hair Styling Minis Value Set
Chris McMillan
The Mini Glassy Smooth Blowdry Spray for Frizz
It adds a lot of shine. It also takes the frizz, keeps the humidity out.
After that, what I do is I put your head upside down after a great blowout, and I’ll put a little texture spray. It’s a dry shampoo meets a texture spray. It has the properties of a dry shampoo without the powdery residue.
Chris McMillan
The Dry Texture and Volume Spray
What I do after I do that is I take the balm, which is sort of a paste, and then a serum again. Then, I use that on the ends of the hair, just to kind of take the preciousness out of the ends of the hair and define the layers and define the texture of the ends of the hair.
Chris McMillan
The Hair Styling Balm for Light Hold
Then, of course, I use hair spray, because you gotta use hair spray. Because what hairdresser isn’t obsessed with hair spray?
Chris McMillan
The Mini Major Shine Hairspray for Buildable Hold
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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