Helena Christensen’s Hair Routine Is Full Of Back-To-Nature Recipes

In TZR’s Face Time, celebrities and tastemakers share the nitty-gritty details of their beauty and wellness routines — from holy-grail products to non-negotiable treatments.

Legendary supermodel Helena Christensen has been walking runways, covering magazines, and partnering with some of the biggest brands across the planet since the ‘90s, which makes her one of the most qualified people to ever talk beauty products. To say that she’s seen it all would be an understatement — she’s worked with the industry’s best professionals both on-set and in her personal life, with access to the most top-of-the-line treatments and products the world has to offer. If you’re lucky enough to hear even a bit of Christensen’s beauty routine, it’d seriously behoove you to bust out the Notes App and pay close attention.

Born in Denmark, Christensen is the rare star who can seamlessly flit between dark, dramatic editorial campaigns, overly glamorous deals with brands like Victoria’s Secret (she’s an original Angel), and acting in movies and music videos — she’s even an accomplished photographer in her own right. But that wide-ranging talent means she’s seen every facet of the industry and how much innovation its seen in the beauty space since she first hit it big in the 1980s. Now, she’s focused on projects that feel at once totally organic and personally fulfilling, like her new ambassador role with Hårklinikken. She was a fan long before going into business with the brand, making the transition into professional partnership feel truly seamless.

Ahead, TZR goes deep with Christensen to discuss her current favorite products and go-to tips for supermodel-level hair, makeup, and skin.

Her Morning & Evening Skin Care Routines

“I’m very basic mostly, but also in a fortunate position where I do get quite a few products [sent to try]. I prefer to sleep in and get up last minute, so I'll set my alarm clock to half an hour before I’ve have to be out the door for work, and then I will just do it all super fast. But then again, if my job that day is to turn up in a studio for a photoshoot, I don't really need to do much — I'll come in and there'll be some amazing makeup artists who have ton of products with them, and they’ll apply them, give me a mask and sometimes even do lymphatic drainage.”

“If I'm upstate, I will go down to the river and scrub my whole body with either a sugar or salt scrub, then get into the cold river water. I’ll grab a big handful of mud from the river, put it all over my body. I’ll sit in the sun and feel it or the wind, listen to the birds — that's my kind of meditation. Once the mud is dry, I’ll get back in the water, rinse it off, and then put coconut oil all over my body. That's more or less the only thing I use, you know, when I'm in nature. I don't really bother so much about a ton of products [out there].”

“In the evening, if it’s winter time, I love taking a bath with a face mask on — but not a full bath, just really low water. Sit in it with your feet, your hands, and you’ll feel like you’re in the 19th century. My skin really loves anything that it can absorb. I think all the years of flying so much [gave me] dry skin. So in the evening, if I have time and I'm at home, I’ll do a mask, but then also face wash, mist, serum, oils, some kind of good hydrating night cream, eye cream — more or less normal stuff that you would use for bedtime. And sometimes I sleep with a night mask which is not good for your pillow, but it’s good for your skin.”

Her Complete Hair Routine

“I have, thankfully, a lot of hair, and it grows fast. It's curly, it's messy, it's all different kinds of things — it’s unruly, like the texture is sort of not easy. But again, it has been great for my job because you can really work with it, and there's a lot to work with. In my own life, I'm always in the search for good hair products, especially the conditioning and mask parts that leave my hair feeling soft and manageable. I started using Hårklinikken products many years ago, and didn’t even realize that it was a [Danish company]. Because I was someone who had naturally been using it for a long, long time and continue to use it, [working together as partners] makes sense. So Hårklinikken products are the ones that I am using — the shampoo, the conditioner, the serum, the hair mask.”

“Besides that, [I like] very, very natural products, such as clay, mud, coconut oil. I use them so much that I just get a jar, go to the river, and take a handful of the mud up, and I will incorporate that into my daily routine. I buy honey make my own little sort of concoctions. I used to put a mix of vodka and lemon juice in my head — it worked very well, actually, because the sun really catches on to it and gives you a little bit of a highlight over the summer, even when you have dark hair like me. A then you just make a cocktail out of the rest of it.”

Her Makeup Must-Haves

“My number one must-have throughout my life is always a beautiful red lip, because you can use that [everywhere]. You can dab a little bit on your fingertip and use as a blush, you can put a little bit over your on your eyelid — just a really thin layer making it a sheen of red — and then add a Vaseline or any sort of gloss or balm on top. It’s such an easy way to elevate your look subtly. And then, of course, it's so great on everybody on the lips, but it's not everyone who can, for lack of a better word, dare wear it. They're like, ‘You can wear it, but I could never.’ And I'm like, ‘What? Why don't you think so? Just try it.”

“I definitely have quite a few favorites, but that's because I'm obsessed with red lipstick, so I'm always on the search for more. Lisa Eldridge has one called Velvet Ribbon that has such a high content of the red in it that it just becomes [truly] velvety.

Her Skin Treatment & Wellness Essentials

“I’ve been going to Joanna Vargas for many years. First of all, I love her. She’s just someone that you immediately relate to and laugh, with best sense of humor, and then she gives best treatments as well — beautiful, beautiful treatments. For the Oscars, she did this beautiful gold treatment on my face that was so amazing. It looks so cool and it really makes a difference. Fabricio Ormonde is [an esthetician] that I've been seeing regularly. He’s also another lovely person. You look forward to seeing these people because it's a very personal, intimate experience, lying with your faces so close. It's lovely when you can get away and catch up or tell funny stories while you're being treated. I have an amazing dermatologist, Dr. Anetta Reszko, whom I go to for if I need a laser for sunspots or freckles. I love freckles, but sometimes they end up sort of merging, and then it's not the little sprinkle of freckles — it's more like one big spot. So I'll go maybe once a year, just to even out my skin a little bit, and she's really good at that. She's an actual, very professional, hardcore dermatologist where she gets very specific with checking your skin and things that are very, very needed. Please, please, please, everybody, everybody, at least once a year, get your skin checked.”

“Water is so, so important to me, all year. Cold water, either swimming or just plunging, is one of the most amazing and exciting things that I discovered for myself and kept up with over the years. Through ice, through snow, I'll do it. I'll get in any waterhole I have. I have this deep yearning to immerse myself in water, and it doesn't matter where I am. I try to go to bed a little earlier because I like staying up late, but I realized how the importance of getting those hours of sleep — that's when your body resets. Also eating healthy, you know. I love food so much that I eat everything, but that's why I started the most intense workout I could find in my mid-30s, and that was boxing. That's what I've been doing ever since.”