In its four seasons, Queer Eye has introduced us to heartwarming moments and makeovers, deep conversations, and a lovely cast. Although all members of our Fab Five stand out in their own unique ways, Jonathan proved a breakout star. Prior to being on Queer Eye, he was the host of Gay of Thrones, a Funny or Die Series that featured Jonathan giving his hair salon clients an entertaining breakdown of Game of Thrones. In addition, he has been the host of the popular podcast, Getting Curious.
On Queer Eye, Jonathan dishes out beauty and life tips, often in sync, to the many heroes who have let us, the viewers, into their lives over the past four seasons. Below are ten of his strongest and most doable beauty and life tips.
Show Your Appreciation To Teachers
Season 4 begins with the Fab Five going to Jonathan’s hometown of Quincy, Illinois. Jonathan has made it no secret that his life as a LGBTQ youth was challenging in Quincy, being constantly picked on in high school. Becoming a cheerleader and finding supportive and kind people helped him. One of those people who helped him (though she probably didn’t know that she did) was his music teacher, Ms. Dooley.
We learn how much Ms. Dooley puts into her work, even having a cot in her office to sleep in due to her long hours. As such, her fashion has stayed in the past. It is clear to see how much Ms. Dooley is admired by high school students and staff, and Jonathan shares in this love and admiration. At a particularly vulnerable moment, he tells her that her class made school more bearable for him, and that he appreciated that she treated him the same as she treated everyone else. He tells her that she helped save him.
Jonathan shows us how important it is to show our appreciation to the good teachers who have helped us out over the years. He also serves as an example to teachers, that what they do is important, and they may not even know how they helped someone until years later.
Take Three Minutes for Yourself
The Fab Five have met heroes that are strapped for time, dedicating their lives and days to others besides themselves. There have been multiple occasions where Jonathan urges the heroes to view their grooming as self-care time, as a way to have a few minutes to themselves. He tells them to carve out just three minutes by taking care of themselves in their beauty regimen or in other ways that they can center themselves like with yoga and meditation. One thing great about Jonathan is that he meets people where they are at, understanding that for some, three minutes is all they really can carve out for themselves.
Hair Care: How to Budget
We could do a full article on hair care tips from the Queen himself, but we are going to narrow it to a few main tips. 1.) You don’t need to wash your hair every day. The natural oils are good for your hair. Alternating days can help. 2.) Dry shampoo can be your friend. If you aren’t able to keep up washing, the dry shampoo keeps it clean by absorbing the grease. 3.) If you add an expense to your budget, like having highlights, you can maintain a low-fuss regiment by going to the salon three times a year. 4.) If you have family all using the same bathroom and need to budget, use a big bottle of shampoo that will work for the full family (one without sulfates), rather than each member’s individual one.
It’s great that Jonathan understands that not only one’s time budget (the three minutes for yourself rule) might be tight, but their actual budget may make it difficult to afford more hair care. By giving these details, he helps the heroes and the viewer on the road to better hair care management. We can only hope that in time, we will have a beautiful mane like Jonathan’s.
To Have Energy for Others, Slow Down and Nurture Yourself
In Season 3, Fab Five meets the Jones sisters, the owners and cooks of Jones Bar-B-Q. Both sisters value education and hard work, following in the legacy of their father. They later returned to the business to help Deborah’s daughter with her education. Both sisters have a hard time taking time off from the business to pamper themselves, but Jonathan first has them treated to a massage before he helps with their beauty grooming. He advocates for them (and all of us) to slow down and nurture ourselves so that we have more energy for others. Otherwise, we risk being depleted.
He also talks about this in reference to the firemen in Season 1, saying that since their job is high stress, they need to find time to nurture themselves. A practical tip he gives is about essential oils. If you put a couple drops of peppermint essential oil in your hands and breathe deeply for only a couple minutes, it helps you be present, calm, and focused.
How to Make Expensive Skincare Purchases Last
In an after show tip, Jonathan commiserates how one could feel bad for purchasing a skincare item that they may love, but feel guilty over the money spent. Rather than rubbing it on your palms before you put it on your face and neck, he advises to put a small amount on the back of your hand. From that, we can strategically put dots on our face and neck, rubbing it in only then, rather than losing some to our palms. This way, our expensive splurge will actually be a budget purchase, and we can make the purchase last a long time.
The way Jonathan cares about budget shows that he is very aware that his viewers (like us) also share the same worry.
Face Masks Are Fun and Can Be Inexpensive
Following the budget concerns for grooming and beauty care, Jonathan says that while he loves a good face mask, he knows that they can be expensive. Lucky for us, he gives us some inexpensive face mask recipes that we can make at home!
One such recipe is very simple. He grinds up oats in a food processor and mixes it with manuka honey. Not only is it tasty (if it accidentally gets in your mouth), but it makes your skin glow. Afterwards, you can shave, rather than before. Your skin will be better for it. Another recipe he teaches us is an egg white and peach recipe where you blend them together like a pudding and then put it on. We appreciate these natural and cheap DIY face masks, showing us that you can easily make a face mask from what you have in your pantry.
Parents, Get Involved With Your Kid’s Sports
In Season 4, a young daughter asks for the Fab Five to help her father, someone who appears stuck and hasn’t been fully showing up. Her father is fun, but it seems that often she is the one taking care of him. When Jonathan learns that the 10 year old is doing figure skating, he is over the moon because he loves figure skating.
In this episode, Jonathan takes it upon himself to work with the father, beyond the grooming. He wants to get the father, a sports fan who knows little about figure skating, involved. First though, the father needs to learn the vocabulary. The father proves an apt student, and his daughter smiles and glows, knowing that her father is watching. Jonathan tells him that the more involved he is with her in this sport, the longer she will probably be with it.
Above All Else, Be Confident
In the very first episode, our hero tells the Fab Five that you can’t fix ugly. Jonathan later tells him that we work with what nature gave us, but that we can be confident. He adds that confidence is very attractive and sexy. Additionally, in this very first episode he teaches the hero and us that green sticks help reduce redness and that cold reduces puffiness. All of this and more, helps change our hero’s stride. Although Jonathan’s biggest message here is to be confident.
Later, in another season, he also discusses confidence but more in terms of society’s idea of beauty. He urges the hero in Season 3 to not “subscribe to society’s ideas of beauty.” Our hero is able to embrace her look, cut her hair short, and feel great in embracing it. On top of this, he adds practical tips like to keep a wide tooth comb in your shower to comb in the conditioner and to use curling lotion for hair.
You Can Change Your Look
Many of the heroes that the Fab Five meet are stuck in a look that may have worked for them once, but it no longer does. Jonathan works with them to embrace change, but only the change that they are ready for. He tells them that the grooming won’t take them ten football fields away from where their style is, but rather ten yards, meaning that they are almost there. They can have fun with their looks.
In addition, he advises them that as they age, the texture of their hair and the shape of their face may change. This means that the look that works best for them may change as well, that they have to, “flow like a river.”
Grief Doesn’t Fit in Boxes
During a practically tender episode where Elrod, a grieving widow, talks to Jonathan about loss, we receive some of the most sincere and deep advice/tips from Jonathan. First off, Elrod almost apologizes for grieving, asking how can you be sad with kids around (namely, his sons). Jonathan comes across as one of the most understanding of the Fab Five in this episode when he tells Elrod, “You experienced a loss, and that’s the part we have to love on a bit cause two years is not very much time, especially when you’re raising kids.”
This was something that Elrod needed to hear, almost to have permission to grieve. They go on to talk about how sometimes we think that there is a time to grieve, and then we move on. Jonathan says it eloquently when he says that people like to put things in boxes with bows, but there are no boxes and bows for grief. It is a life-long adjustment. Jonathan speaks from experience after having lost his stepdad and then finding out his mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer.
Bringing this back to grooming, Jonathan says that wants Elrod to be present when he shampoos his hair and other beauty rituals, to be “out of head and into body.” Jonathan presents this as a way to “heal the nervous system,” and, “to quiet down and connect with self.”
All of these tips and more (like using beard oil) are reasons why we love Jonathan. We look forward to more of his tips and insight.
