This Celeb Hairstylist Created “the Rachel”—Now, He’s Launching an Iconic Haircare Line

Chris McMillan has always loved the drama of a hair transformation. “I used to hang out with this girl. We used to go roller skating,” the celebrity hairstylist recounts with a laugh. “Her mom was a hairdresser, and she wore her hair like Farrah Fawcett—like all the girls did in high school. [After] Christmas vacation, she came back to school with a perm and had cut it into a bob. I was like, ‘My God, she’s hot. … Am I obsessed with her, or am I obsessed with the change?'” It was the first time he truly understood the power of hair and its connection to identity, self-expression, and even rebellion. The glamour of it all was satiating, and he was hungry. “Watching people get dramatic haircuts and having it be just as beautiful, if not more, I’ve always been drawn toward that,” he adds.

It’s perfectly fitting that, decades later, he’d be responsible for one of the most significant hair transformations in pop culture history: Jennifer Aniston’s “the Rachel.” Their meeting was organic and unexpected, orchestrated by talent manager Molly Madden, who saw McMillan’s previous work on Patricia Arquette during the actress’s True Romance press tour. “Molly was like, ‘I’ve got this girl. She’s on a pilot,’ and it was Jennifer Aniston,” he says. “She had just finished the [Friends] pilot, and they needed her hair tweaked.”

There was no brief and no specific direction, he tells me—just an image of Amber Valletta for Gucci by Tom Ford that wouldn’t leave his brain. “We cut it to clavicle-length. Then I gave her a blowout because there was that really smooth deep-side-part blowout on Amber, and it had hit the shoulder. … Then [Aniston’s] bangs grew out really fast, [so she had] a good blowout with that layered cut with the bangs grown out. Hence came the Rachel,” he says.

I likely don’t need to tell you how fiercely the face-framing lob captured the ’90s and remained relevant for years to come (McMillan says he frequently gives clients an updated version of the Rachel cut at his salon), beloved for its effortlessly tousled texture and ultra-flattering layers. But maintaining the Rachel? That’s an entirely different ball game. “Jennifer will be the first one to tell you she couldn’t style it herself,” McMillan says. “It was good if I did it, but left to her own devices, she couldn’t do it.”

It turns out this was a common gripe with his clients, regardless of their celebrity status. “I love my hair. How can I do this myself?” became the most frequently asked question in his salon, leading him to finally introduce his own line of products—which you can officially grab at Sephora starting today. The collection features seven haircare staples specifically designed to achieve “chair hair” at home: a smoothing blow-dry spray, a shine-inducing hair spray, a dry texturizing spray, a multitasking styling balm, an air-whipped mousse, a buildable and brushable hair gel, and an on-the-go styling wand. Armed with these essentials, McMillan swears you can re-create “anything that [he’s] done to your hair,” whether you’re sporty a modern Rachel or committing to the viral ‘do he created for Leslie Bibb’s character on season 3 of The White Lotus.

While those with different hair types may cocktail them differently, these stylers are meant to be forever classics, similar to how the Rachel will never fall out of favor despite the roller coaster of buzzy hair trends.