Jonathan Van Ness On Humidity-Proof Hair and Self Love

Since 2018, Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness has used his platform for a world of good. In addition to illustrating the power of a professional haircut time and time again, both on-screen and off (including during their Hot & Healed Tour and in their new book, Let Them Stare), the 38-year-old encourages people everywhere to lean into self-care, embrace a confident mindset, and foster self-love. 

A fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and a seriously good hair day, Van Ness was the perfect choice for The Dupont Circle Hotel’s WorldPride partnership with Sephora. After performing a live JVN Hair masterclass on Sunday, June 29—in which she created the most jaw-dropping bouncy curls (and taught the audience the importance of only applying air-dry products on super wet hair if you want them to work as intended)—Van Ness popped up to the hotel’s most stunning penthouse suite to chat with Byrdie about hair, life, and the intersection of the two. 

His Hair Philosophy

“Overall, my hair philosophy is that hair is expression, hair can be fun, and we get to celebrate our hair and our expression however we want to.”

Their Wash Day Routine

“For a wash day, I would [start with] Pre-Wash Scalp Oil. Then, if I was going out and I was going to do a blow-dry, I would use the Embody Volumizing Shampoo and Conditioner. Then, I would get out of the shower and use the Leave-In Conditioning Mist to detangle. I would do maybe, like, some Shu Uemura foam on my roots, or I might do Volumizing Tonic by Aveda—something to lift my roots a little. Sometimes I don’t do that, but if I really want, like, a bitchy blow-dry, I’ll put a little volume on my root. (I would have used our Embody Foam, but we’re redoing the packaging, so we don’t have it anymore, which I’m sad about because I love that. And I used the last of what I had, so I’m officially Embody Foam-less.)

Then I would use my Dyson. Sometimes I like to use the Dyson brush extension so it’s smoother on the bottom, and then I’ll round brush around my face, and clip up [the hair]. That creates a stronger shape with movement around my face, and it increases the length by making the bottom smooth, [with movement concentrated around the face]. So I like that. And I’ll do that for, like, a night out, where I want kind of, like, a slinky [style].”

The Style He Falls Back On When Short on Time

“If I didn’t have time to do all of that, then I would just wear my hair naturally curly, and I would scrunch Air Dry Cream into wet, detangled hair—you want to keep it really, really wet—and just give Sarah Jessica Parker, beachy, gorgeous natural texture.”

The Brushes and Combs She Swears By

“My favorite round brushes have always been Olivia Garden, for personal and for my clients. I also love the Wet Brush for detangling my hair and my clients’ hair; I think Wet Brush is probably my most comfortable. I just love it. I’ve been using it for so long on my hair and my clients’ hair that it just feels like an extension of my hand. For personal, I do love a Mason Pearson. I used to use them on my clients, but then I was like, ‘I’m not made of money like this to, like, keep melting these brushes.’ So I like it on my own hair.

Comb-wise, I’m obsessed with YS Park Combs. They’re really strong, and I love them for hair-cutting, but I also love them to get more lift at the root. You can blow dry with the comb and—I saw it on Japanese HairTok—it really gets you lift at the root.”

His Vacation Mane Motto

“If it’s really hot and humid outside, I will probably do more of my natural texture. If it’s drier and colder, then I’ll probably do more blown-out smooth. Whether I’m on vacation or filming, I feel like it’s just about the climate. I love fashion and beauty, but I’m also such a creature of comfort. Like, I need to be comfortable; I cannot even be myself if I’m really uncomfortable. So if it’s really, really hot out and I’ve blown my hair straight, and I’m sweating my roots out—especially if I’m filming—then I’m not having as much fun, and I’m not as present. So I feel like I’m usually trying to embrace the elements and my texture so that [my hairstyle] is longest-lasting.”

Their Secret Hair Weapon For Summer Heat and Humidity

“It’s really my Air Dry Cream—not to be that girl, but I think my Air Dry Cream in the summer repels frizz, and it really locks in the shape of my natural waves. If I want to increase my natural wave—by really scrunching it, doing some finger coils, or clipping some sections up—it really emphasizes my texture and keeps the frizz at bay. And I love [that] if I spend a little bit more time on my natural curls on day one, Air Dry Cream allows my curls to last like three days, four days, five days. It’s amazing. I mean, day five, full transparency: It’s probably going to be in like a half-up, half-down, or maybe like a little curly pony. I’m really going through a curly high pony phase right now; It makes you feel like a choreographer from the ’80s or something. But yeah, it’s just Air Dry Cream.

Another one is Conditioning Mist. I like leave-in conditioners to reactivate natural curls on day two and day three; they’re really nice. I obviously love our Conditioning Mist, but so many people have leave-ins or detanglers.”

The Worst Hair Crime He’s Ever Committed

“This one time in hair school, I had an asymmetrical faux hawk with a swoopy fringe and a rat tail, and the swoopy fringe went this way, and the rat tail went back this way with like an asymmetrical faux hawk. And it was amazing—we bleached the middle of it, and made it all these tropical fish colors before anyone was doing [that] because it was like 2006, and it was major. But then, when I graduated hair school, my mom was like, ‘If your grandma sees your hair like that and she’s not dead already, that hair will kill her, so you have to make it brown. It’s bad enough that it’s [a] crazy haircut, but it has to be brown or she will have a breakdown.’ So I made it brown, and then after she left, I was like, ‘I gotta bring these colors back.’ So we tried to bleach it back. But my curly hair wouldn’t do that because I just colored it, you know? It was so light, then dark, then it just got stuck at orange.

So then we were like, ‘Okay, we’ll just do like a little copper highlight.’ So then that night, I had my little copper highlights—I was like, ‘It’s not tropical fish; it’s not that bright, but we’ll live.’ And at the time, I smoked cigarettes—and this is why you shouldn’t smoke cigarettes. So, I bent down over the stove to light a cigarette off my gas stove. I was 19 in Minneapolis. In 2006. And this flame randomly jumped up from the stove up to my asymmetrical fringe, and it burnt off, like, all of my highlighted hair. It looked like I had escaped a near-death situation. It was just crazy looking.

And I think that was my worst hair crime: Lighting my hair on fire from overprocessing it and trying to light a cigarette off of the stove when I was 19. I never have [overprocessed] since. Like, literally. My hair’s been so healthy ever since.”

The Best Hair Advice He’s Ever Received

“Don’t go more than two shades lighter or darker than your natural color all over your head—not highlights, not talking dimension, talking base color. When you go two shades lighter or darker than your natural color all over, that’s where most people end up getting into a world of hurt that’s really expensive, time-consuming, and annoying to grow out or change.”

Their Favorite Piece of Life Advice (That Also Applies to Beauty)

“I would say [a quote by] Diane Von Furstenberg. I say this in, like, all my interviews; I gotta come up with a different answer for this, but it is just so true, and I feel really strongly about it: ‘Your relationship with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have.’ And I think that’s so true, even with beauty… the more compassionate you can be with yourself, the better outcomes you’ll have in your life. Because if we’re coming from a place of shame or anger with how we treat ourselves, it comes out the wrong way, in other places, on other people. And that isn’t good. So I think that your relationship with yourself and how you treat yourself is the most important thing.”