Nikki Reed’s Beauty Past Involved Pink Hair and Glitter
Actress Nikki Reed has a fun beauty past. (Photo: Getty)
Before Twilight, before Thirteen, and before unnatural hair color was trendy, actress Nikki Reed had pink locks. In fact, she was rocking bold hair in Kindergarten. “My mom was a hairdresser, so I was the girl who had pink hair,” says Reed. “All the other kids and moms were freaking out about it. My mom always believed that those things were not super extreme. If I wanted to express myself in that way, it was temporary. It wouldn’t last forever.” Reed’s mother let her experiment with a ton of beauty looks, from texture to color. “I had a lot of freedom with my hair. I actually found a photo recently – I was getting my hair first permed when I was like six years old. I have a giant, crazy, curly afro and my mom let me dye it magenta….everyone was freaking out over it,” laughs Reed.
In her teens Reed moved onto a sparkly beauty obsession. “I specifically remember always asking my mom to buy more glitter. Even as a kid, I was mixing my own stuff. I remember mixing glitter into my lipbalm so I could have glittery lipbalm,” says Reed.
Today the talented 27-year-old is back to her natural gorgeous brown locks, and interested in more natural beauty. “I use a lot of coconut oil and olive oil and mix it together. I like to do it myself. I put avocado on my face. I put mayonnaise in my hair. I make my own scrubs,” reveals Reed. Her knowledge and interest in making her own beauty products stems back to years she spent as a child in Russia. “They did a lot of [using] coffee grounds or sugar or salt to make scrubs,” she explains.
Now living in California, Reed is all about being outdoors biking with her dogs or doing yoga, but she tries not to be obsessive about working out or her diet. “I’m not the girl who sits and thinks about how many calories I’ve eaten or what kind of workout I can do to get a six-pack. That to me is a means to an end. It’s short term. For me, it’s “What can I do to create a lifestyle shift?” That’s what I started six or seven years ago when I quit smoking.”
Up next, Reed will appear as a “sexy” version of the woman who made the first American flag, Betsy Ross, on TV’s third season of Sleepy Hollow. She has also just started a production company with her husband, heartthrob Ian Somerhalder. Reed is also writing a screenplay which she hopes will be her directorial debut. But it doesn’t stop there. Reed also makes time to take classes in environmental causes, and women’s studies. “I’m always taking courses – not for credit, not for any other reason than acquiring knowledge. I grew up with a father who was so encouraging in that area. Every activity was: let’s go to a museum – something that always involved learning. For me, the strongest woman is the most intelligent woman in the room.”
This Saturday, along with Barefoot Wine and the Surfrider Foundation, Nikki is hosting the Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Project in Santa Monica. The organization is responsible for cleaning more than 135 beaches – removing more than 14 tons of trash since 2007. “This weekend is all about getting out there and having fun, coming together and realizing how easy it is to make a big difference.”
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