Leslie Bibb’s bob in Season 3 of “The White Lotus” took over the internet earlier this year, and now, TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager is getting one of her own.
Bibb co-hosted TODAY with Jenna & Friends on June 16 and brought her hairstylist, Chris McMillan, along to give Jenna a brand new hairstyle live on air.
“Bobs are like spring cleaning,” McMillan told Jenna as he prepared her for the cut. “There’s sometimes some bad damage, bad layers. It sort of evens it up.”
Bibb stood next to Jenna rooting her on. “This is so exciting!” the actor exclaimed throughout the cut.
Tune into TODAY on Tuesday to see Jenna’s final look!
Secrets to the style
Before the big TV moment, McMillan spoke to TODAY.com about the “intent” behind Jenna’s new style.
McMillan explains working with Jenna is “really easy” since she knew she wanted a bob, inspired by Bibb’s viral style, and he plans to keep Jenna’s look “a little more modern and sexy.”
McMillan also “100%” takes a client’s face shape into account and compares the dimensions of Jenna’s face to one of his most famous clients.
“Jenna has a lot of face from here to here,” McMillan says, gesturing to the jawline, “and a small forehead, very similar to Jennifer Aniston’s face shape.”
McMillan, who is also the mastermind behind “The Rachel,” Aniston’s iconic hairstyle on “Friends,” was the creator of Bibb’s “White Lotus” character’s hairstyle in the most recent season of the hit HBO series.
“No bangs is always a really good idea,” McMillan adds. “So as long as you keep that front long, it’s going to be awesome.”
He also admires Jenna’s “really thick head of hair” and says the simplicity of cutting an A-line bob on the fourth hour co-host will be really cool and sexy.
“You can slick it behind your ears, like do the tuck,” he says, adding the hair can also be worn down on one side of the face and tucked behind the ear on the other.
“You can wear it natural, you can wear it wavy,” he says, citing Charlize Theron’s hair that’s “flicky” on the ends as an example.
“I love a little flick,” McMillan says. “Not a flip, but a flick.” He told Jenna that if you cut longer than the shoulders, the hair will flip, so keeping it shorter than that point is important.
How Bibb’s viral haircut got its name
Bibb previously told TODAY.com about how the cut got its vulgar nickname, with a little help from her co-star Aimee Lou Wood.
“Aimee Lou is British. Aimee Lou is like my sister. So we’re very close, so we talk a lot, and do voice memos to each other,” Bibb said. “I think it was maybe the first episode or something, and she sent, ‘My friend wanted me to tell you that he’s f—— loving you and your c—- little bob.”
While McMillan was the stylist behind the cut, he wasn’t aware of the nickname for it until Bibb went to get a haircut after Season 3 started airing earlier this year.
During the appointment, Bibb said she told him: “Oh, there’s ‘The Rachel,’ which is a nice name, and then there’s the c—- little bob.”
“It made him laugh so hard, so I didn’t really think anything of it, right?” she added.
Turns out McMillan was filming the moment, and he put together “this amazing video,” she said. McMillan posted it to Instagram, and the moment quickly went viral.
“It really took off,” she said, referring to the name of her signature bob.
“But I like that everyone’s not being so precious about that word,” she added. “I am not that precious around that word. I look at it like the British folk do, and yeah, it is really a perfect description of that bob.”
“I think Chris cut it a little shorter in the back, but a little A-line so it’s not so heavy,” Bibb said. “OK that’s the scoop! That’s the secret, not so heavy!”
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