04.23.2020

Jonathan Van Ness Gives Lockdown Coping Strategies

Jonathan Van Ness is part of the Fab Five on the hit Netflix show “Queer Eye.” More recently, he has also spoken out about living with HIV and being a recovering addict and survivor of sexual abuse. He joins the show from Austin, Texas to discuss grooming tips and coping strategies under lockdown.

Read Transcript EXPAND

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: What tips are you sending out for grooming? Because, four to five weeks in, people are beginning to worry.

(LAUGHTER)

JONATHAN VAN NESS, GROOMING EXPERT: Well, I think the more the part that I’m contributing is, I dance, usually in my skivvies, while making coffee every morning on my Insta-stories, and I show my cats, like, sprinting to their cat food bowls. And I did like this scenes…

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

VAN NESS: … like cat house, that all of my cats are, like, fake news reporters, and they’re doing their little TV thing.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN NESS: So, you know, I — yes, but, I mean, in all seriousness with, you know, how coronavirus is impacting, you know, self-care and hair maintenance and the beauty industry at large, it’s like, I definitely think that this is a time where it’s more about how we feel and how we’re taking care of ourselves vs. how we necessarily look. And so I think that, you know, right now, it’s about trying to use what we have at home. And, you know, if you have — if you’re lucky enough to have disposable income, and you want to order, you know, a new mask or something, or you want to incorporate some sort of self-care into your routine, obviously, we have a lot of time, you know, to do something like that. But I would also encourage you, if you do have the disposable income to get a facial mask right now, that you make sort of donation to someone in need. But, yes, I think that it’s really about trying to take care of our insides. And when it comes to the hairdressing, I have caught a little bit of flack for this for saying it, but it’s true. For me, it’s like four to six weeks, it’s like, no. Like, hair grows a quarter to a half-an-inch a month. So it’s like — and, also, I worry about us really messing up our hair and then like not having enough length for your hairdresser to work with when we’re able to get haircuts safely. And I want the beauty professionals to have work to do afterwards. So I’m like, don’t cut all your hair off. And unless you want to spend a lot of money, honey, like, don’t do at-home color, because that is expensive to fix.

About This Episode EXPAND

Chrisitane speaks with Ofer Shelah about how COVID-19 has affected politics in Israel; Audrey Azoulay about how cultural life around the world can still flourish; and Jonathan Van Ness about coping strategies under lockdown. Michel Martin speaks with Bakari Sellers about why the black community has been disproportionately affected by coronavirus.

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