Jonathan Van Ness Wants Us All To Finally Love Our Hair
The comedian, author and founder talks their early love of hairstyling, the birth of their namesake brand, practicing self-love and more.
Jonathan Van Ness’ life-long love affair with hair started early—and with an unlikely trio of muses: Kelly Kapowski (iconic Saved by the Bell bombshell), Vanessa Williams and, yes, Janet Reno.
For me, an elder millennial, Kapowski’s signature mall bangs and the former Miss America’s voluminous curls make perfect sense. But Reno? That one comes with a story. Van Ness has a very clear memory to back this up. “Picture it: It’s 1991, and a four-year-old JVN walks into this local breakfast place and there’s this hostess in a big-shoulder-padded red blazer with big red buttons, a matching skirt and the same haircut as Janet Reno—she was a dead ringer,” they proclaim animatedly during a Zoom call. (Van Ness is also a stand-up comedian, currently on a hotly anticipated world tour, so, clearly, they’re an entertaining storyteller.)
Van Ness remembers waiting patiently for the perfect moment and then convincing their mom they needed the bathroom—just so they could make a beeline for the hostess. “I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, your haircut is amazing,’” they say. “‘I love how this is feathered, and how did you get this swoop?’”
What started as a childhood fascination with hair grew into a full-fledged career—and cultural footprint. Today, Van Ness is an Emmy-winning television personality (thanks to their role as the beauty and self-care expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye, which aired its 10th and final season this winter), a New York Times bestselling author, a podcaster, the founder of JVN Hair and, let’s be honest, a bona fide hair icon.
They didn’t start out as the bubbliest, funniest person in the room with the greatest head of hair, though. Growing up in a small town in the Midwest U.S. in the ’90s, they were bullied mercilessly, a trauma detailed in their 2019 memoir, Over the Top. In the book, Van Ness also writes candidly about surviving childhood sexual trauma and living with HIV—experiences that shaped both their resilience and sense of self.
As a kid, Van Ness quickly found refuge in the salon frequented by their mom. With its hum of dryers, stack of magazines and bottomless bowl of candies, it became a sanctuary for a child who felt out of place basically everywhere else. “I felt so at home,” Van Ness recalls. “The salon was always a welcoming place with nice ladies who let you be yourself.” Salons continued to be a safe space for them in adulthood, too. “Whatever has happened in my life and career, having the salon world as a North Star has really gotten me through a lot,” they say.
In 2005, they attended the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis, and eventually life led them to New York and L.A. and a job at a Sally Hershberger salon during an era where the client list included Meg Ryan, Megan Fox and Jane Fonda. Van Ness credits these events as being formative learning experiences for work in hairdressing and for life. “One thing I learned from assisting [at] that has held me in good stead is that it’s fine to ask a question, but we often waste time asking questions we already know the answers to,” they note. “Usually, that wisdom is in you, to be your own teacher.”
This trust-your-gut mentality came in handy when the COVID-19 lockdowns hit and Van Ness ended up in a rented house in Austin, Tex., with their then-boyfriend, now-husband. Fresh off a cross-country drive from New York City with their four cats to begin filming season six of Queer Eye—which was quickly put on indefinite hold—they suddenly had time and space to think differently about their future.
Van Ness had been circling an idea of a hair-care brand focused on goals instead of hair types. “One teacher I had always used to say that whether it’s fine hair or dense, coily hair, all hair is hair.” Ultimately, they dreamed of a line that would be totally inclusive and work for everyone.
Perhaps serendipitously, around the same time, Van Ness became an ambassador for Biossance, a skincare brand famous for its use of sugar-cane-derived squalane, and started using its face oil on their hair. During a chat with the brand’s chemist, they learned that it contained hemisqualane—a half-size version of squalane—which helped explain why it absorbed so beautifully.
The discovery sparked a light-bulb moment and the starting point of what grew into their eponymous brand. By the end of August 2021, JVN Hair, an 11-product line, was hitting the shelves at Sephora. “I can’t believe we’re turning five this year—my baby is going to kindergarten!”
But it hasn’t all been great hair days and, as they put it, “big, bitchy blowouts.” There have been some rough patches in recent years. In 2023, JVN Hair’s parent company went bankrupt and fell into administration. Windsong Global later bought the brand for less than $1.7 million at auction. Then, in 2024, Rolling Stone did an exposé on the cast of Queer Eye that labelled Van Ness as emotionally “abusive” and having “rage issues.” The fallout on all fronts was intense.
In practice, self-love looks surprisingly simple. For Van Ness, it often starts with hair. During our chat, they’re casual in their home office—coffee in hand, cat in lap—having just returned from a workout. “You can’t tell now because I just went to Barry’s and had my hair in a high pony, but I blew my hair out yesterday, just for fun, and was listening to Rosalía’s album and having a soothing afternoon,” they say. Looking after your hair is part of looking after yourself; it can be an act of self-care.
That philosophy now shapes the next chapter of JVN Hair. The brand is rolling out a new tag line and mission statement: It’s time to love your hair. “I’m sick of people finding every reason to diminish it and talk badly about themselves,” says Van Ness. “Whether you have alopecia or you have so much freakin’ hair you don’t know what to do with it, it is time,” they say. “It’s time to love ourselves.”
TOOL BOX
Jonathan Van Ness’ tried-and-true beauty must-haves.
This article first appeared in FASHION’s April 2026 issue. Read more stories from FASHION’s April 2026 issue here and subscribe to the print issue here.
Karen Robock is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting on beauty, health and wellness for nearly two decades. She has written about everything from manicure trends to birth trauma and been published in dozens of magazines and newspapers in Canada and the U.S., including Canadian Living and Prevention. Between writing assignments, she makes time for her two kids, two dogs, and a dedicated skincare routine. You can see more of her work at karenrobock.com.
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