Chris McMillan on his first hair products and working with Jennifer Aniston

In 1994, hairstylist Chris McMillan was working at an LA salon when he was introduced to a little-known actress named Jennifer Aniston, who’d recently been cast in a show called “Friends” and needed a new look. McMillan chopped her locks into a layered, highlighted, shoulder-length cut — which would come to be known as “The Rachel” — and the rest, as they say, is hair history.

“I was obsessed with Amber Valletta in Tom Ford’s Gucci campaigns,” McMillan tells Page Six Style of the inspiration behind the now-iconic ‘do. “She had this really cool shag haircut, and I just loved it.”

And while he “had no idea” the style would become an overnight sensation, he’s not surprised women rushed to copy Aniston’s cut.

“The beauty about Jennifer is that she’s so relatable. She’s just so cute and sexy, and people relate to that,” McMillan says.

Three decades later, McMillan’s still Aniston’s mane man, and describes their relationship as “like brother and sister.” Over the years, he’s styled her hair in everything from braids and waves to, most recently, something he’s dubbed “The Everything Cut.”

“Because it does everything!” he explains. “You can slick it back, you can part it in the middle or on the side, it has face-framing layers … you’re not stuck with one look. It’s versatile.”

And versatility and ease are at the heart of McMillan’s new haircare line, which launched at Sephora Tuesday. The initial drop’s comprised of seven multitasking stylers, since the expert calls styling his “superpower.”

“I love a good sexy, messy hairstyle — I’m not a big ‘glamour hair’ doer,” he explains. “The red carpet? That’s only 10% of the night. You gotta live in that hair. I want to make sure you can pee in the dress you’re in, and that your hair’s all sexy and messy for all the afterparties you’re going to go to.”

And given that Aniston’s far from McMillan’s only famous client — in fact, her “Friends” castmate-turned-BFF Courteney Cox actually worked with him first — he’s prepped his fair share of stars for parties over the years.

The hair pro broke into Hollywood in the early ’90s working with Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette on their “True Romance” press tour, and has since styled the strands of Michelle Williams, Miley Cyrus — “I got rid of Hannah Montana,” he quips of her shocking 2012 pixie cut — and Leslie Bibb, whose so-called “c—ty little bob” from Season 3 of “The White Lotus” went viral earlier this year.

“Her very precise character aligned with that very precise cut; they just went hand in hand,” McMillan says of Bibb’s super-blunt ‘do, which he left slightly longer in the front.

Now, four decades (and many headline-making celebrity cuts) into his career, McMillan’s ready to “bring in-the-chair hair to the people” with his debut products, all part of his “go-to kit” at his Beverly Hills salon.

Below, the mane maestro walks us through each staple, from a modern mousse to the styling wand that can tame both flyaways and eyebrows.

“This cuts your blow dry [time] in half, and it’s got heat protection up to 450 degrees, of course — because we don’t want to fry our hair! Evenly distributing the product throughout the hair is important; a wide-tooth comb is your best friend.”

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“It’s lighter than a paste, it’s not greasy like an oil, and it’s great as a leave-in treatment [as well as for styling].”

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“If you just want to leave your hair natural — you don’t want to blow out it — and you have curls, you can use this as an air-drying product rather than a cream. It’s light, it’s really fluffy and really conditioning and it cuts down on frizz. Your curls will have a little bit of crunch when it dries — just barely. I want to help people lean into their natural texture.”

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“It’s like a dry shampoo and a texture spray in one. I don’t like the powder [feeling] of a dry shampoo, but I like that it absorbs the oil and helps give a blowout a couple of extra days. And I like texture; I like it when hair looks not so perfect and a little messy. We all want clean hair, but we always like the way our hair looks the next day. ‘Day-old hair, same day,’ is what I call it.”

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“Hairspray is so important, and [this one’s] a multitasker. I use hairspray as a heat protectant before hot tools — I’ll spray it before a pass of a flat iron or curling iron — and I use it in the root when I’m doing blow dries.”

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“Gel and mousse were big, important products that we used back in the day, and I really played with innovation when it came to [creating my modern versions]. I wanted to reinvent the classics. Old-school gel dried really hard and when you brushed it out, it was all flaky. I didn’t know there was another option, until I went into the labs and started playing.”

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“This tames down the flyaways without taking out the volume. It’s also great for detail work on slicked-back styles. The little details really make a big difference. I learned how to use it on my eyebrows, by the way — and it’s great for brows, too!”

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“We made all the products in minis, too, so people can try them without committing to the full-size ones. They’re travel sizes, but I like the word ‘mini’ because they’re so cute!”

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Why Trust Page Six Style Shopping

This article was written by Elana Fishman, founding editor of Page Six Style. Elana applies her celebrity fashion and beauty expertise to shoppable content for fellow fans as the host of video series including Style Trial, Heart to Cart and Beauty Scoop — and by tracking down every Taylor Swift-worn style so you can shop it, too. Elana consults celebrity stylists on the latest street style and red carpet trends, researches which celebrity-backed brands and products are worth it, and chats with the stars themselves for beauty and fashion recommendations. Prior to Page Six Style’s inception in 2018, Elana covered celebrity fashion at Vox Media, Lucky, Marie Claire and Teen Vogue.

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