The Rachel
The Rachel haircut, commonly known as simply "The Rachel", is an eponymous hairstyle popularized by American actress Jennifer Aniston. Named after Rachel Green, the character she played on the American sitcom Friends, Aniston debuted the haircut during the show's first season, and continued to wear it throughout its second season while the series was nearing peak popularity. Designed by Aniston's hairstylist Chris McMillan to repair her damaged hair and grow out her bangs, "The Rachel" is a voluminous shoulder-length haircut, with several distinct layers that frame and turn outwards from its wearer's face. It has been described as a variation on both the shag and bob haircuts.
Aniston first wore the hairstyle in the first-season episode "The One With the Evil Orthodontist", shortly after which it became a global trend and one of the most requested styles at hair salons throughout the decade. Although the style experienced peak ubiquity during the 1990s, it has experienced several revivals in the years since the show aired, notably following the advent of social media and airing of the television special Friends: The Reunion in 2021. The hairstyle itself has received mixed reviews from journalists, with some arguing that it flattered few apart from Aniston and several criticizing its difficulty to maintain.
"The Rachel" is widely considered to be one of the most famous hairstyles in history, having been constantly emulated by millions of women worldwide and remaining popular for over 20 years since its debut. Despite its popularity, Aniston has publicly stated that she dislikes the hairstyle due to its difficulty to maintain and replicate without McMillan's assistance.
History
Background and design
"The Rachel" was created by hairstylist Chris McMillan, and colored by Michael Canalé. Recommended to Aniston by her Friends co-star Courteney Cox, Aniston's manager first recruited McMillan to style the actress' hair for the Friends pilot. Aniston's manager was also managing actress Patricia Arquette, whose hair McMillan had been styling around the same time. Insisting that her client get her hair done urgently because she found it to be in poor condition and "a terrible length", the manager suggested that Aniston visit McMillan's salon for the first time. McMillan was determined to convince Aniston, whose hair was very long and frizzy at the time, to attempt a different hairstyle that included a shorter length and highlights. McMillan drew inspiration from several sources, including male surfers from his Manhattan Beach hometown, model Beri Smither's bob cut, and model Amber Valletta's blowouts styled by hairstylist Garren. McMillan insists that he did not intentionally create the hairstyle for Aniston, admitting that he had also given a similar haircut to actress Cameron Diaz. According to McMillan, the hairstyle was created to grow out Aniston's bangs, which he achieved by bringing "up the length to make the bangs seem longer" before pulling "the hair over so she didn't look like she had bangs", from which "the layers started falling forward". Having known Aniston prior to the pilot, Canalé had already been coloring her hair before the haircut itself occurred, adding "highlights from roots to ends" to "create the perfect canvas for" McMillan's cut. Canalé lightened Aniston's naturally medium-brown hair into a caramelized brown while using blonde highlights on the tips, which the colorist believes gave her hair the impression that it had been gradually faded by the Sun over time. After the cut, he incorporated additional "paper-thin highlights" for which the look has become known. Canalé has since continued to color Aniston's hair. At this time, McMillan was struggling with a drug addiction, and admitted to having been under the influence when he cut Aniston's hair into "The Rachel". Aniston and McMillan have since maintained a strong friendship, and she credits "The Rachel" with forcing her to pay attention to her own hair going forward."The Rachel" is described as an intricate, voluminous, feathered haircut that ends just shy of its wearer's collarbone, with "choppy layers, chunky blonde highlights, and a blown-out look". Comedian Dewayne Perkins identified layers, highlights and a "weird bang opening" as the hairstyle's defining characteristics. Accentuated with a side-parted fringe, the hairstyle has alternately been referred to as a shag or bob cut, In addition to framing the face, the haircut is styled to "flick outwards" to increase movement. Describing its original color as "caramelized blonde with natural roots that blended out to her ends", Canalé said the cut is distinguishable by its "signature colour pop around the front, and a little colour exaggerated in the tips". Before "The Rachel", Aniston typically wore her hair on Friends in a longer, wavier style. Aniston debuted the hairstyle in the first-season Friends episode "The One With the Evil Orthodontist", which premiered in 1995. Eventually becoming her character's signature hairdo, she continued to wear it throughout the show's first and second seasons. Although the style remained at the beginning of season three, the haircut began to grow into a longer, more "more full-bodied" version of itself by 1996, with Aniston having decided to grow it out after only eight months. The actress abandoned "The Rachel" altogether by season four, replacing it with a longer layered look that she preferred.
Aniston has publicly stated on several occasions that she is not fond of "The Rachel", going as far as to say she would rather shave her head than wear it again, and calling it "the ugliest haircut I've ever seen". Her feelings towards it have fluctuated over time, eventually explaining she was frustrated that "It was all anyone ever wanted to know about, all Chris ever got asked to do". Aniston liked the haircut when it was first styled, identifying it as the first time her hair received compliments. However, she found it very difficult to maintain and replicate without McMillan's involvement, likening the unsuccessful results of styling it herself to a "frizzy mop". Despite being bemused by its popularity, Aniston has since described herself as having a love-hate relationship with the hairstyle, finding herself able to appreciate the history of its simplicity. Although he considers "The Rachel" to be "an easy cut" to provide, McMillan agreed that the style is high-maintenance, requiring regular trims, a blow dryer and a round brush to "define all those flicks", as well as three brushes and at times Velcro rollers. Aniston likened the process of styling the look to performing surgery.
Initial reaction and popularity
Shortly after "The One With the Evil Orthodontist" premiered in April 1995, Aniston's haircut became an international phenomenon during the mid-1990s, inciting a global trend by becoming one of the time's most sought-after hairstyles among fans and celebrities alike. E! Online's Alyssa Ray wrote that the haircut became popular to the point where it practically morphed into its own Friends character. McMillan recalled that several magazines and publications nicknamed it "The Rachel" soon after the haircut debuted, and began inviting him for interviews. Some fans of the show flew themselves to McMillan's salon in Los Angeles so he could give them the haircut personally, a service for which he only charged $60 at the time. In 1995, photographer Robert Trachtenberg photographed Aniston for an issue of Entertainment Weekly, at the time describing the look as having "a gigantic presence in pop culture". Conceived by Trachtenberg, the Entertainment Weekly image depicted Aniston's head surrounded by multiple wig heads as shown through the window of a wig store. The photo required Aniston to place her head in a wooden hole. Although she was physically uncomfortable during the photoshoot, she supported the idea of poking fun at the hairstyle, with Trachtenberg describing her as "a real trooper about it".The cut remained one of the most requested hairstyles throughout the decade, with Becky Hughes of Parade reporting that it was the most-requested haircut of the 1990s. Reaching peak popularity around its third year, it inspired millions of women to receive similar haircuts during the 1990s, in turn helping to establish Aniston as the show's breakout star. By the show's second and third seasons, newspapers and magazines reported that salons from Los Angeles to New York were being overwhelmed with female customers requesting Aniston's haircut. Some customers brought their own copies of magazines such as TV Guide for reference, while others recorded and played episodes of the series at the salon to ensure accuracy. In 1996, Alabama-based hair stylist Lisa Pressley claimed she was styling approximately four "Rachels" per week to women between the ages of 13 and 30, not including touch-ups and re-stylings. Another hairstylist estimated that "The Rachel" accounted for at least 40% of her business among female clients during this time.
Some television shows attempted to achieve the hairstyle's success on their own programs. Inspired by its popularity, producers suggested that Will & Grace star Debra Messing attempt to replicate the hairstyle on her own sitcom. Although McMillan himself styled the first cut, Messing recanted once they realized maintaining it without McMillan was impractical, with the show spending several hours trying to straighten her hair with little success. Singer Mariah Carey also attempted to do the hairstyle during the mid-1990s, which Carey retrospectively called a "sad attempt" but Aniston defended.
Friends hair stylist Richard Marin would sometimes receive fan mail lambasting him for changing Rachel's hair. Cox jokingly expressed that she envied the fact that her hairstyles did not experience the same widespread popularity as "The Rachel", which she found perplexing due to the fact that they shared the same hairdresser. McMillan said that, in retrospect, he regrets not taking advantage of the haircut's popularity by establishing a business deal or launching a "Rachel" product line, but maintains that his profession is more focused on establishing close relationships with clients than being a businessman. Although Aniston eventually grew out the haircut and adopted a more conventional hairstyle, "The Rachel" remained a popular choice among women into the early 2000s.