The Rachel
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.
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.
"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.
[12] Insisting that her client get her hair done urgently because she found it to be in poor condition and "a terrible length",[13] the manager suggested that Aniston visit McMillan's salon for the first time.
[11] 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.
[13] "The Rachel" is described as an intricate,[24] voluminous,[25][26] feathered haircut that ends just shy of its wearer's collarbone, with "choppy layers, chunky blonde highlights, and a blown-out look".
[3] Accentuated with a side-parted fringe,[27][28] the hairstyle has alternately been referred to as a shag or bob cut,[1][16][24][27][29] In addition to framing the face, the haircut is styled to "flick outwards" to increase movement.
[48] Shortly after "The One With the Evil Orthodontist" premiered in April 1995,[49] Aniston's haircut became an international phenomenon during the mid-1990s,[11][50] inciting a global trend by becoming one of the time's most sought-after hairstyles among fans and celebrities alike.
[52] Reaching peak popularity around its third year,[18] it inspired millions of women to receive similar haircuts during the 1990s,[53] in turn helping to establish Aniston as the show's breakout star.
[1] 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.
[32] 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.
[62] Singer Selena Gomez wore a longer version of the haircut on The Kelly Clarkson Show,[63] inspired by a combination of Aniston's layers and actress Goldie Hawn's curtain bangs.
[17] In the wake of Friends: The Reunion in July 2021,[68] "The Rachel" drastically resurged in popularity due to revived interest in several of the sitcom's fashion trends as a result of the television special.
[69] Beauty retailer Just My Look reported that demand for the haircut had surged by 179%, with salons noticing a dramatic increase in customers requesting a "modern version" of the cut.
[26] TikTok users attempted to achieve the look using curling irons and hair rollers, in turn suffering far less heat damaged than the original style.
[71] Dubbed the "Modern Rachel" by the media,[26] the revived rendition was notably slightly longer, softer and allowed for more movement, while retaining "the face-framing flick from its predecessor".
[82] The Guardian fashion journalist Jess Cartner-Morley said that, despite convincing "an entire generation of women to have a layered mid-length shag cut ... not a single example of that haircut looking good on anyone except Rachel".
Although McMillan did not create the haircut with the intention of garnering attention,[74] Serafino believes its impact was inevitable in hindsight, citing Friends' strong viewership and Aniston's status as the show's breakout star among factors that contributed to the cut's popularity.
[17] Hairstylist Luke Hersheson believes "The Rachel" succeeded because audiences who had grown weary of grunge fashion that had previously dominated the decade gravitated towards it, observing that the haircut represented the opposite of what people had become accustomed to.
[25] According to Hannah Morrill of Today, "The Rachel" appeared as though one could achieve it by raking a brush through it after getting out of bed, in stark contrast to the over-the-top "curled, primed, teased and overdone" hairstyles which "looked like they took a lot of time to get right" that had been the norm.
[86] Hersheson theorized that the cut was particularly popular among members of Generation Z due to their fascination with the 1990s,[25] while Taylor credits its resurgence in the 2020s to middle-aged people longing for the decade's youth.
[49] In 2017, Canalé suggested the haircut will be making a comeback because customers whose hair suffers from "aggressive coloring techniques" often turn towards collarbone-length styles, to repair damaged ends.
[95] By as early as 2004, the year Friends ended, "The Rachel" had been voted the most influential haircut of all time by 2000 women polled by Morphy Richards, ahead of Fawcett, Princess Diana, Mary Quant and Marilyn Monroe.
[96] Best Life's Emerald Catron reported that the haircut was well known to the point where virtually any salon client could request it solely by name,[97] while Evoke.ie's Laura Bermingham declared it "the 90s most famous hairstyle".
[26] The Daily Telegraph's Sian Ranscombe called it "one of the most famous haircuts of the 1990s... if not 20th century",[23] whereas Refinery29's Megan Decker dubbed it arguably "the most-requested cut of all time".
[81] Mental Floss writer Jason Serafino declared that Friends "reached its cultural zenith when it managed to transform a simple hairstyle into a global talking point, as untold millions of women in the '90s flocked to salons all wanting one thing".
Style's Joanna Douglas, Aniston arguably possessed "the most famous head of hair in Hollywood" at the time of "The Rachel",[102] which in turn bolstered her fame.
[11] Mary Rector-Gable of BehindTheChair.com observed that "even though Chris was already an established celebrity and editorial hairdresser in Southern California, the disruptive result of Jen Aniston and her layered haircut propelled him to a new stratosphere".
