Move Over Kylie, Rihanna, Et Al.: Timeless, All-Ages Icon Jennifer Aniston Throws Her Hat Into the Hair Care Ring with LolaVie

Friends, Brad, her wellness glow, the ageless figure: Jennifer Aniston is known for many things, but from Rachel bob to beach waves, her marvellous mane may be chief among them. This month, in addition to starring in the second season of her hit Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, the 52-year-old launched her own hair care line with a single genius product — and more to come.

Aniston’s hair care line follows in the footsteps of actresses like 48-year-old Tracee Ellis Ross — fashion darling, daughter of Diana and star of Blackish, who capitalized on the natural hair movement and her own enviable curls with her line Pattern Beauty.

Women, meanwhile, have coveted Aniston’s hair since the 90s, when her breakout role on Friends launched a million ‘Rachel’ hairdos — a layered cut that, conversely, she hated. 

“I was not a fan. That was kind of cringe-y for me. I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed [my hairstylist] Chris [McMillan] attached to my hip. Left to my own devices, I am not skilled with a hairbrush and blow-dryer.” 

What she did love, and still loves, are the “long natural beachy waves” she’s become equally famous for. “That,” she has said, “feels most me.”

With her girl next-door good looks and best friend cred, Aniston has always been a dream brand ambassador. Customers trust that she believes in the products she endorses and companies pay big bucks for that loyalty.

In 2018, Forbes editor Natalie Robehmed estimated Aniston’s annual income from endorsements alone at US$10 million, and she’s hawked a range of on-brand beauty and wellness products: Smart Water, Aveeno skin care, a line of signature fragrances, even eye drops. She also serves as Chief Creative Officer for the collagen line Vital Proteins. 

But Aniston’s most obvious product alignment has always been her gorgeous mane — despite which, her initial haircare run with Living Proof (a line she’d been introduced to by her long-time hairdresser, and in which she also owned a stake) lasted just four years, from 2012 to 2016. 

Though short-lived (she ditched her shares and her affiliation when the brand was acquired by Unilever), Aniston found she relished her involvement in product development. “[The lab] being willing and able to hear you and get in there and create all sorts of new products, it’s kind of a dream.” 

Five years on, she’s back with a new hair care collection,  LolaVie. Launched in September 2021 with a glossing detangler (CAD$32), it’s a line Aniston began conceiving the minute she was out of the Unilever door. 

“We’ve been in development for almost five years,” she told Allure. “I’d been involved in another hair company years ago, and that’s where I got the bug of getting to go behind the scenes of how you choose ingredients and the process of development and marketing and all that.”

This time out, products are super clean and Aniston took to Instagram to tout LolaVie’s 100% vegan and cruelty-free status and products that contain zero parabens, silicones, sulfates, phthalates or gluten. This is Aniston World, after all, one of animal love, all-natural health and wellness, thick hair and thin thighs — not even your hair can absorb gluten. 

Offsetting any eco-issues, a major bane of the beauty industry, LolaVie’s chic minimalist packaging is recyclable (“wherever possible”) and products are conservation minded; blended with “bamboo essence” instead of “common” water for maximum sustainability. 

Debuting with just one product, the brand is slated to expand into a full range that Aniston describes as “bulletproof” with a series of “special launches” and “little rollouts here and there.” While details on upcoming releases from the brand are sparse, Page Six reported on an application filed to trademark the name LolaVie in the areas of face and body lotion, shower gel, candles, and hair care. 

If the gloss item is any example, the line looks well conceived. As a lady with Aniston’s type of hair (pardon the humble brag …), the glossing detangler is exactly what I need. Fortified with chia (damage preventing), bamboo essence (thermal shield), lemon extract (shine), pea peptides (scalp health), ginger root and sugar cane (optimal penetration), plus a hair softening super-fruit complex, the organic active ingredients are commendable. Moreover, it’s one product you comb through freshly washed hair, instead of several. Shiny yet weightless, being the forever goal of long hair, the detangler is efficient and — in replacing the usual array of post-shampoo conditioners, serums, smoothing balms and anti-frizz products — economical. 

Tested on a wide range of hair types, lengths, and textures — from afros to colour-damaged and men’s hair — the research and development-obsessed Aniston told Allure that she’d also relied on feedback from friends. “It was really fun to get reports back from my one girlfriend that has kinky hair, and my other girlfriend who has got stick-straight hair.” 

While the brand’s name and promotional copy smacks of over-focus grouped marketing claptrap — “Who is Lola?” the website inquires. “Someone who owns who they are, believes in themselves, and does things their own way. They live the Lola life. LolaVie, Naturally You.” — like most, I’m pretty sure the products themselves are top-notch. Otherwise, Aniston wouldn’t put her name on them.

Which, along with her magnificent mane, is the real magic of Jennifer Aniston.

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