Here’s How Hilary Duff’s Hairstylist Takes Care Of Her Color-Treated Hair
Riawna Capri always has shiny and strong hair.
Have you ever looked at someone, be it a celebrity, influencer, or your childhood best friend, and wondered how they get such good hair? Here, we explore the different hair care routines of people with different hair types, textures, concerns, and goals, and break down what they do to achieve SUCH GOOD HAIR.
Name: Riawna Capri
Hair type: Straight, fine to medium hair
Hair concerns: Grays
Hair goals: Waves
We’re all familiar with big names such as Hilary Duff, Julianne Hough, Megan Rapinoe, and Selena Gomez—but a name you may not be familiar with, but should be, is Riawna Capri—the mastermind behind these A-listers’ ever-changing hair colors and styles. She’s known since she was a child that she wanted to be a hairstylist, or as she wrote in a journal as a kid, she wanted to be a “hairstylist for movie stars.” (Talk about manifestation!)
“I started cutting hair in my dad’s garage in high school,” she tells HelloGiggles over the phone. Back then, her clientele were high school boys who paid $5 per haircut, and when she moved on to college and started cutting the football team’s hair, she upped her price to $10. Eventually, she moved to Las Vegas to go to beauty school and jumpstart her professional career. “I got into a lot of trouble there,” she shares, saying that she wanted to give people Reese Witherspoon’s “Sweet Home Alabama” hairstyle while her teachers wanted her to do “old lady hair.”
Her forward thinking mindset and years of experience helped her land her first assisting job in Santa Monica where she met her soon-to-become partner in crime, Nikki Lee. Capri shares that they became instant best friends at an L.A. party when Run DMC’s “It’s Tricky” started playing and they both busted out the same cheer routine. “We knew at that moment we’d be best friends, and we have so much in common,” she says. Fast forward to 2021 and they’ve launched a wildly successful hair salon in Los Angeles, Nine Zero One, and haircare brand, IN COMMON.
Countless celebrities trust Capri with their hair color and haircuts, so HelloGiggles tapped the celebrity stylist to ask her how she takes care of her hair. “On day one of my wash day, I use our Clear Haze Shampoo, IN COMMON’s sulfate-free foaming mousse shampoo,” she says. Then, she’ll use the brand’s Mojave Rain Enhancer, followed by their Velvet Cloud Mask that she layers on top. Once the products have been worked in, she combs them through her hair to ensure all her hairs get nourished and then rinses them out. “If you’re not combing your mask through, you’re probably missing a few strands, which should never happen,” she says. Once a week, she’ll use IN COMMON’s Crystal Cashmere Treatment to add strength and softness to her hair.
The star of the show is IN COMMON’s Magic Myst. “It’s like vitamins for your hair,” she says, adding that in the same way that you wouldn’t go a day without your face lotion, you shouldn’t go a day without your Magic Myst. She applies the first round when her hair is damp, then when it’s 50 percent dry, and again when it’s completely dry. “I have straight hair but if I use Magic Myst and scrunch my hair after each application, I can get a wave.”
While she often does the scrunch-and-dry method, the one part of her hair she always dries immediately after showering is her bangs. “You can’t let them dry funky because then they’ll end up funky,” she explains. She uses T3’s Fit Compact Hair Dryer to style her bangs and, if she’s not air drying, the rest of her hair. “It’s so powerfully packed and I have so many fucking products under my sink—this hair dryer makes it so much easier to just sort underneath my sink and travel with it,” she says.
Capri loves having movement in her hair, and to achieve it she uses a one-inch curling iron to create eight curls on the top layer of her head. “The one-inch matches my slight wave texture that I can get with the Magic Myst, and on special days where I throw on a tousled wave, I’ll use my T3 Curl ID 1.25″ Smart Curling Iron.” (Editor note: The latter is a 2021 Beauty Crush Award winner!)
As a seasoned pro, Capri knows that haircare doesn’t end with traditional haircare products. Apart from her products and tools, she’s mindful of what she puts in her body, such as Nutrafol. “Within two to three months of use, I can see it in my clients’ hair on the outer corners, or what I call the cul de sac area, the hair gets so much thicker and stronger,” she says. “It’s a lot—four pills in one day—but it’s so worth it.”
In other non-traditional haircare products, Capri also swears by shower filters, silk pillowcases, and scrunchies. The first two she says are key for your hair and skin, explaining that a shower filter will help to prevent your hair from drying out and your color from fading. “Who knows when the last time your building pipes have been changed,” she says, explaining that the build-up of rust and minerals can make your hair look dull and brittle. Additionally, she says that velvet and silk scrunchies are “not only luckily back on-trend, but they’re so good for the hair as having that fabric around the elastic gives hair a gentle, soft protection.”
