Jennifer Lawrence launched a hair care brand, but all we want to talk about is her face.
The Oscar winner embarked on a press tour last week to promote his new understated line, called Mes, and has been making the rounds. She appeared on the cover of Cut, showing off her effortless hair. She did Alex Cooper’s Call her daddy podcast and lots of Q&As with beauty posts. She opened up about motherhood, her breast lift, and her anxiety about trying something completely new while launching her brand.
“For three years, I’ve been living in this sort of delusional bubble where I can’t let doubt in,” she said. the cut. “Now I have doubts.”
But the reaction to his announcement appears to be a collective shrug. Celebrity beauty brands have become almost ubiquitous, and not everyone can translate their personal brand from screen to store. For every huge hit like Hailey Bieber’s Rhode, there’s chess like Scarlett Johansson’s recently closed the beginningand fans raised an eyebrow at the idea of Lawrence being known for her hair. (Others questioned his brand namepronounced “mess,” highlighting the similarities to Drybar founder Alli Webb’s Messy hair care brand.)
To some, it all seemed a bit random; for others, it is more of an indicator of recession. But many felt they didn’t need to test the products to find out why the star was making this choice.
“I’m comfortable with established hair care and skin care brands that have a proven track record,” one person wrote on Reddit. “You may be good at singing and acting, but that doesn’t mean I have to buy your brand.”
They prefer to talk about Lawrence’s appearance. On social media sites like TikTok and Reddit, they branded the 36-year-old mother of two “unrecognizable,” with many commenters saying they had no idea who she was when they first saw her latest photos.
“She was so beautiful. She doesn’t look like herself at all,” one person wrote on Reddit. “I’ve been seeing more and more pictures of her lately and I had no idea it was her until I scrolled down enough to see someone saying it was her! Blown away.”
Many began to speculate that Lawrence had undergone at least an upper blepharoplasty, perhaps a facelift and, most likely, both. Never mind the fact that the star herself said she hasn’t had a facelift, even though she admitted she wants one. Ultimately and occasionally receives “baby Botox.” Speaking to The Cut, she highlighted the invisible work “low-maintenance” women do to appear cool but also extremely hot.
“I want to be a hot mom,” she said. “At filing time, I want to look like a woman who has her shit together even when I just woke up and I don’t have my shit together.”
Despite these revelations, women online felt like Lawrence was ignoring the elephant in the room: how much his face had changed. They began to denounce what they saw as a talented, popular and “cool” celebrity giving in to anti-aging culture.
“You can’t tell me patriarchy doesn’t exist when the culture we live in and the male gaze makes women’s bodies unrecognizable,” one person wrote on TikTok.
All this drama has overtaken media coverage of Mes, the only reason Lawrence opened up to the public in the first place, with tabloids describing online speculation as “rumors” about what she could have done.
“Jennifer Lawrence has probably had multiple plastic surgery procedures costing $30,000 for a ‘younger’ look,” one read. Title of page six. One second History of the New York Post lamented the “culture of plastic surgery” that has turned famous women into “bloated plastic clones.”
Why did Lawrence’s face arouse so much anger? For some, it’s less about what she did or didn’t do and more about the image she’s cultivated of herself and what that means for women at large.
Writer and brand consultant Natalie Reilly says this in a recent edition of her Substack newsletter I say this with love. “Could it also be that this outrage over Jen’s appearance and her foray into hair care really has to do with our semi-conscious desire to keep JLaw as our parasocial TomBoy, our best friend at home?” Reilly writes.
Lawrence always presented herself as a fun, light-hearted girl, the type you might want to have as a best friend. Even Mes’ stated goal of making your hair look great with minimal effort fits this same philosophy; its slogan is “less time doing hair, more time living”. If Lawrence can’t avoid the constant pressures of the plastic surgery industrial complex — with maintenance Botox in our 20s and deep facelifts in our 50s — what hope do we have for the rest of us?
But holding Lawrence to this impossible standard is unfair, Amanda M. Czerniawski, a sociologist and professor at Temple University, told me. Mainly because J.Law’s face and body are an integral part of her continued success.
“She’s an actress,” Czerniawski says. “She’s supposed to invest in her body and be extreme. As an audience, we’re like: Oh no, that’s what I should do too. But you’re not her. It’s not your job. But it’s all mixed up.”
Therefore, the overwhelming response to Lawrence’s “new face” is not about her at all, but a symptom of women’s general anxiety about the pressures they face. Sure, we expect the Kardashians and Instagram models to follow this or that procedure, but J.Law was supposed to be above all that. Any suggestion that she is not can feel like a personal betrayal.
“Is this now the new norm for the average 36-year-old woman? Like, yes, you should have cosmetic surgery and prevent the signs of aging, even though you probably don’t really have any wrinkles yet?” Czerniawski said. “It’s like the bar keeps moving.”
But there are also these women who refuse to take the bait. “Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t make me feel pressure on my eyes,” content creator Jennifer Latch said in a post TikTok denouncing the scrutiny the actor has received.
“Women can’t win,” Latch continued. “If we age, it’s bad. If we don’t age, it’s bad. If we do this, it’s bad. If we don’t. … Can we just stop talking about women’s bodies?”
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