With over a decade of hair expertise to their name, Jonathan Van Ness is best known for two things: their witty political comebacks and, of course, their revered advice on the Emmy Award-winning series Queer Eye. Now, JVN is taking their haircare knowledge global with their own line JVN Hair,, which will be available in Space NK stores in the UK. The new product suits all hairstyles and boasts the wonder ingredient hemi-squalane – a sustainably sourced hero chemical that keeps your hair supple and hydrated.
Now, don’t worry, you won’t get bogged down with jargon and fancy chemical names but, instead, the Queer Eye star has created an accessible multi-disciplined line for all hair textures and types. Not only is JVN Hair, curated in environmentally considerate packaging, but it’s an ethos JVN wholeheartedly believes in. As the Queer Eye star put it, they want everyone to feel “gorgeous” inside and out.
Armed with a nifty interactive presentation, the actor debuted their four collections (Nurture, Undamage, Embody and Complete) for the JVN Hair product line. GAY TIMES caught up with the fabulous JVN at their haircare launch at Soho Hotel to find out more.
Hello Jonathan! So, what inspired the name behind JVN Hair?
Hi! I wanted to create a culture around our hair brand that was really inclusive. I feel like for so long, the beauty industry has been about ‘get this feeling, get this vibe’ and then you’ll feel whole, then you’ll be acceptable. I want people to know that the way that they are right now is enough. It’s beautiful. It’s worth celebrating. I just want everyone to come as they are because everyone is great the way they are.
From Queer Eye, a Netflix hit series, your own book to a new haircare line – you’ve been booked and busy! What else is on your creative agenda?
Launching JVN hair is such an all-encompassing job. Between the formulations, the packaging, the models, the marketing, the social media, there are so many areas of our company that I touch that take up so much of my time and my energy. I really want to keep setting it up for success and keep focusing on JVN hair. I want to focus on making more TV, I have a new book coming out in April. Writing and creating content, in the medium of television, is something that’s near and dear to my heart. I spent the last five years of my adult life learning and being immersed in it. I would really love to keep doing what I’m doing, which is TV writing and continuing to grow JVN Hair.
Can you tell us more about your new book?
It’s called Love That Story. It comes out in April and it’s an essay book. It’s got a memoir vibe, but there’s more research to it. I have a few essays where I’m exploring different issues that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. I’ve interviewed several experts ranging from the HIV social safety net, the history of white supremacy to the prohibition of marijuana, so there are a lot of issues that I’m exploring and asking questions about.
JVN Hair is all about feeling like your best self. What advice do you have for those that might find it difficult to dress up and feel great every day?
I think it’s really important to honour where you feel, and it is so hard. I think that if you’re struggling with depression, unable to get out of bed and get yourself going for the day, that’s a really tough place to be in. I’m just sending you so much love. I definitely don’t want to shame anyone or to bear it and deal with it. On that same note, I would say; not to compare depression to yoga, but the idea of sometimes just going to class is the hardest part. But then once you’re there, you’re like “Oh my god, this is amazing. What was I so scared of? what was so hard?” Even though it can seem really, really daunting. Only do your hair or take a little shower or even just brush your teeth. Start with one thing, because even getting yourself ready, that’s 15 things. Start anywhere. Take a little baby walk, anything, it doesn’t have to be everything. Anything is okay, too.
JVN Hair has been celebrated as a haircare line for everyone. What does this sentiment mean for you?
It’s not the focus for Black or white or anybody, it’s for all hair textures. For so long, all hair textures have been segregated. When in reality, whether you are a Southeast Asian, whether you are Asian, whether you are from the West, our hair is wildly more similar than what we’ve been made to feel that it is. It literally is all the same textures of hair. Hairdressers don’t even know why. I just did this episode of Getting Curious with his biological anthropologist. She was telling me about the reason why we historically thought what made hair straight and what made it wavy, curly, kinky, coil-y was the shape of the hair shaft. It turns out that in every texture of hair, all three of those shapes exist within the same textures. There’s circular kinky hair, flat kinky hair, oval wavy hair, circular wavy hair, there’s flat. The shape of the hair strand, they don’t even know! In my experience, being behind the chair, it either needs more moisture, more strength or it needs more body. If you’re wanting bigger, bulkier hair then try the Nurture range. If you’ve been highlighting the shit out of it, and he’s styling the shit out of it, and your ends are just cracking off when you look at them, then try the Undamaged range for sure.
From research to release, what was the biggest lesson you took away from the creation of Come As You Are?
One of the things that really surprised me was I was really determined to be plastic-free from the onset. I didn’t want to make any more waste in the world. Then I learned that we literally don’t have the technology to make it fully plastic-free – any bottle that has an enclosure has plastic. We literally don’t have the technology to make plastic-free bottles that close… The fuck? You could knock me over with a feather, I couldn’t believe it. Our goal is to be plastic-free by 2025, as close to plastic-free as we can be. That’s why we used aluminium and glass. It’s a lot more recyclable. But that was just an issue that I was like ‘God, really!’. That was one of the hardest things.
A lot of your work, research and activism have been geared towards the queer community. Given today’s climate, do you have a message you would like to share with our audience?
This is such a hard time for trans, gender non-conforming people; all queer people. We’ve had increasing hate crimes every single year in the US. I think that the statistics are similar in the United Kingdom. The queer community is under such oppression in Russia, and then what’s happening in Ukraine. I think that it’s a hard time to be LGBTQI+. One writer said it was the best of times was the worst of times. It depends on where you are. Privilege has so much to do with that. I think that we can be more in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and realising the intersectionality of that, means that we also stand more with everyone because there’s LGBTQI+ everybody’s from everywhere. To be more in solidarity with our community, and I think that is really beautiful.
I want people to celebrate the form in which they exist. Be able to celebrate that, no matter what your race, no matter what your hair texture, your age, or gender
I want everyone to know, no matter what their race is, they are part of what makes JVN Hair. That’s what it means to me. I want everyone to celebrate how they are and how they come. That sounded more sexual than I meant! I want people to celebrate the form in which they exist. Be able to celebrate that, no matter what your race, no matter what your hair texture, your age, or gender, whatever. I want people to feel proud of who they are, and how they came to find themselves in their bodies. If that means that JVN Hair comes to light, that’s even cooler because then I get to be part of it. I just want to celebrate the way that people are.
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