Blake Lively on Her <i>Gossip Girl</i> Hair, Bedazzling, and the Art of the Ponytail

Blake Lively’s hair is full of secrets, and she’s ready to share them in real time. She’ll start with a confession about butter. “With how much I love butter, I’m honestly surprised there isn’t a butter scent in these products,” she says. With the launch of her hair care brand Blake Brown, Lively has already shared some hair secrets with the world, including the idea of replacing traditional conditioners (her line has none) with moisturizing hair masks.

But today she has more hair lore to share, even if it’s not a butter-scented hair mist (but who knows, maybe next time). She’ll do it with a live hot rollers tutorial on her niece, Kate, for a group of beauty editors. To prepare, she hands Kate the rings that she is wearing on almost each finger for safekeeping. A set of 30 hot rollers is warmed up and waiting for her in the corner. She applies a generous amount (about two palmfuls) of Blake Brown mousse to Kate’s wet hair, while blowing it dry with a pink Mason Pearson brush. Her niece’s strawberry blonde hair impressively doubles in size.

Over the course of the next hour, Lively wraps Kate’s head in rollers with the assuredness of someone who has done this many times, teases and fluffs her hair up until it has the texture of cotton candy, and wraps the room in a visible, sweet-smelling haze of berry and vanilla scent, from their newest product, Blake Brown Classic Hairspray. I lose count of the number of sprays somewhere after 37.

“I was once on a shoot and the hairdresser used three full cans of hairspray in one day. Three!” she says, describing how the liberal application had given her an all-day long, Veronica Lake-esque hairstyle. Her experience in working with some of the greatest hairstylists in the world inspired her to create a hairspray that is buildable, flexible, and not sticky. In the final unveiling of the look, Kate has the bouncy, smooth curls of a Hollywood actress, crafted by one herself. After the demo, ELLE talked to Lively one-on-one about putting to rest an internet rumor, her love for bedazzling, and why she thinks her Gossip Girl hairstyle became The Rachel of the 2000s.

Someone asked me, “Who is shaving in the background?” But no, it’s someone painting their toenails.

I didn’t grow up knowing the smell of black currant, but in my late teens or early 20s, the candles that I was most drawn to were that scent. Votivo did beautiful ones, and they also had a red currant one that they were well known for. It’s a smell that is nostalgic to me. Layering in vanilla and woodsiness modernizes the scent a bit. I always like when things have a bit of femininity and masculinity. This does that beautifully, and smells really great with the other formulas, too.

My bad hair days are usually when I have done a lot to my hair. On a movie, you can be doing many different looks and time periods. It’s not a normal thing to go through six distinct hair looks in one day. I’m lucky because I do have people who take good care of my hair, but I [still] notice the difference. It’s rough when the job is over and it’s summertime, and you’re left with the aftermath. I’ve learned that when putting my hair through something intense, even if it’s just a few days of press, I have to give back to it.

If I am doing my own hair, then it’s when I use hot rollers. It’s so plumping and it quadruples [the size of] my hair. I work with such incredible hairdressers and sit in their chairs. Jennifer Yepez does this curl pattern with an iron that is so beautiful. She’s like, I learned this from one of the greats. It’s not a normal twist. It’s long and spirally, so my hair becomes like a princess or a mermaid.

To be compared to “The Rachel” is the highest compliment. Our hairdresser [on Gossip Girl], Jennifer Johnson, is amazing. She’s one of my best friends still, and so cool. We had so many looks, and we would do maybe 18 different ones in an episode, and we also did 20 to 27 episodes a year.

As with “The Rachel,” part of the reason for its popularity may be that there was a familiarity and ease from being in someone’s home every week. You get to know a person, character, style, and look. It was also aspirational, because [in real life], people don’t get dressed [like that] and do their hair every day. I surely don’t do my hair every day. [Today I just] got in the shower and came here.

For years and years, we did a curling iron. There was a period where I was trying to help my hair because it had been through a lot. I had dyed it red and then had to redye it to go back to blonde. We were like, Let’s try to achieve as much as possible with this little impact. We did lots of braids and things like the bun that didn’t require heat. It gave a nice, smooth wave. But I did not only have air-dried hair during Gossip Girl. We were shooting in New York City, in the heat.

Sometimes that is the intent. You wear a ponytail to pull your face back. People will put braids right [around the temples], which anchor and pull your face back. I’ve never done those braids before. Usually, when I do a tight bun or ponytail, my face can go back a little. But sometimes you want a really great hair look that pulls your hair back, and then you see your face later and you’re like, Oh my gosh, it totally changed the shape of my face.

I went to the Golden Globes with my husband right after I gave birth to my daughter, [around] 2017. I remember seeing the pictures, and I was like, Oh, my face looks different because my hair was pulled so tight. But day-to-day, I usually wear ponytails to restore my hair. It’s like my “day off” look. I used the Pre-Shampoo last weekend and did a ponytail and a braid.

Oh, thank you, I think it’s a brand called Emi-Jay. I got some other ones on Etsy that were really cute, and they fell apart right away, which is very sad. Then I went to Hobby Lobby, and I saw all the details that were on the Etsy ones, and I was like, That’s where they get them from!

I used to bedazzle my phone in high school and my iPod. Then it got stolen. I was sad, but I didn’t blame them either because I understood—it was so pretty. It was coral but iridescent.

I like a sparkle. I know I’m supposed to grow out of that. There was a period where I thought, Okay, I’m a New Yorker. I’m meant to grow up and modernize. Then you get old enough to really think, No, I want to have the things that make me happy—which is pink glitter tape from Hobby Lobby all over my car, which is so tacky and terrible. It’s just bedazzled dashboard tape. It’s 99 cents. I can’t tell if my kids love it or are embarrassed.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.