When I think about Jennifer Lawrence playing Mystique in the X-Men movies, the high-maintenance transformation process is the first thing that comes to mind. I mean, she had to sit on a bicycle seat and be painted blue. However, it wasn’t just the makeup that was a lot to deal with, as the Oscar winner revealed another crazy detail about the process.
The Hunger Games star has been working towards the release of her hair care brand Mes° (pronounced “mess”) and has been adamant about creating safe products. I can only imagine this dedication comes from the blue era of her career, which had her hair changing colors sometimes two or three times in a year. The actor spoke with Nylon about her upcoming line, and when asked about the longest experience getting her hair done, she came up with an answer quickly:
One time for a screen test, they dyed my hair red, brown, black, and then platinum blond in the same day.
When she was asked if that was “four different times,” the actress confirmed it was, explaining:
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It was four different times. Blow it dry, see what it looks like, and be like, no, and then try again.
From 2011 to 2016, JLaw went between dying her hair red for four X-Men movies, dying it brown for four Hunger Games movies, and then the occasional blonde for movies like American Hustle (2013). These roles had a great impact on the action genre, but it came at quite the hairy cost. The strands of her hair would sizzle and even smoke whenever spray hit the straightening iron, which is as harmful as it sounds when it comes to hair health. It certainly didn’t help when she had her hair dyed four different colors just for an X-Men screen test.
Her hair was reportedly fried after shooting Catching Fire in 2013, and really, I can’t believe it took that long. This ultimately led to her donning a pixie that, at the time, she thought “looked dope,” but the constant changes in hair color would spark something else in the actor: a desire for better products.
This led her to Jasmina Aganovic, a biologist and beauty-industry vet, who takes a biology-first approach when it comes to developing products like the ones Lawrence wanted for her hair care line. Part of this new path came from a loss of control over her hair. She shares with The Cut that as a teenager, she just accepted whatever stylists wanted to do to ensure she was camera-ready:
When you are a new and upcoming actress, you can’t be like, ‘Don’t put that on my hair. You sit in the chair and you say ‘Thank you’ and you shut your mouth.’
Lawrence has definitely become more outspoken since then, and now possesses a lack of caring for what people think that’s envious. She went through a similar experience to Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique in the original X-Men trilogy, and whose return to the role came with less time in makeup.
Though I don’t know if this would inspire Lawrence to return to the Mystique hair regime. Now, while the actor has stepped away from the X-Men world, she is returning to another character (and potentially her brown hair). JLaw confirmed that she is reprising Katniss for Sunrise on the Reaping. Though she hasn’t given any details about her hair. My guess is she’ll be rocking a bunette wig. However, her return can be seen when the film hits the 2026 movie schedule in November.
Meanwhile, her “biodesigned haircare” launched October 27 with three products: a volumizing mist, a repair mask, and a restyling serum. Currently, they don’t have any dyes, but Lawrence is hoping that one day they’ll have a safe lavender color so she can finally live out her dreams.
Until then, this is for all you curly girlies out there in need of frizz control.
