Jessica Alba Says Her First Haircut Was 'The Rachel' from Friends at Age 12 - and She Loved It
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Turns out Jessica Alba rocked “The Rachel” haircut before Jennifer Aniston made it famous on Friends.
In a new interview with Women's Health, the actress and Honest Company founder, 39, said that her "first real haircut" as a kid was the iconic cut that celebrity hairstylist Chris McMillan went on to create for Aniston's character Rachel Green during the early seasons of the beloved NBC sitcom.
"My first real haircut was Chris McMillan cut my hair. I was 12, almost 13," Alba recalled. "It was after I met him for an audition for Milla Jovovich's music video to play a younger Milla Jovovich."
The L.A.'s Finest star said that before she was hired for the music video, she was told to go to a salon and get a haircut. There, McMillan gave her the very first iteration of the hair-do that eventually became known as "The Rachel."
"Chris McMillan gave me the Friends cut, and I got home and my hair was like to here and had those massive layers," Alba said. "I was dying, I was like, 'oh my god this is so amazing,' I loved it so much."
Arnold Jerocki/WireImage; Inset: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Jessica Alba
However, not everyone was thrilled about Alba's new hairstyle at the time.
"My dad was like, 'you're grounded. I didn't tell you you could cut your hair,' " Alba recalled of her father Mark's reaction. "Like, 'Mom was with me, mom let me do it. This is for work.' I blamed it on being for work, meanwhile I was like cut it off please."
"And then Chris McMillan became the biggest thing ever, and I was one of the first to get that Friends cut," she added. "And it got me a lot of catalog work."
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Jessica Alba
McMillan rose to fame as the creator of "The Rachel" haircut which defined style in the 1990's. He still works with Aniston, 51, today, and notably styled her hair for the world premiere of her Apple TV+ series The Morning Show last year.
In October 2018, Aniston reflected on her character’s wildly popular haircut while presenting McMillan with the Hairstylist of the Year Award at the InStyle Awards.
“I got that haircut and was like, ‘Wow this is amazing,’ and then I was totally left with this frizzy mop on my head, because I had no idea how to do what he did,” the actress joked of the iconic ‘do. “Nobody seems to know how to do what Chris does. And I figured out that’s called creating job security.”
Jennifer Aniston/Instagram Jennifer Aniston and Chris McMillan
RELATED: Jennifer Aniston Shares Throwback Friends Photo to Honor Longtime Stylist Chris McMillan
Aniston went on to say that a haircut with McMillan has never been “just a cut and a dry,” but rather, “something kind of miraculous."
“I sometimes wonder if Chris is more of an undercover healer than a hairdresser,” she said at the awards ceremony. “He just makes everyone feel better as much as look better.”
