Olan Prenatt, the 22-year-old actor who plays Fuckshit in Mid90s, has an unforgettable head of hair.
In one standout scene, his character glides through a house party in perfect groove with the hard bop of Herbie Hancock's “Watermelon Man,” ochre locks billowing their way into the pantheon of Great Moments in Hair film history — up there with Tommy Wiseau's untamable mane, Bo Derek's sandy cornrows, and Pam Grier's teflon ‘fro.
After weeks on the road screening Mid90s, we realized a veritable phenomenon was taking shape. City after city, a single thread of conversation would inevitably float to the top of post-screening lobby chatter: "Fuckshit's hair is so amazing," or, "I want that kid's hair!"
Desperate to know how he keeps those curls so enviable, we went straight to Olan himself. Read on for the details of a daily routine that includes, but is not limited to, silk pillowcases, Crest toothpaste, and multiple hairbrushes.
GROWING UP
I've always had long hair. I grew up in school with all the girls touching my hair and stuff and then I used to come back home and my hair would be super frizzy. My mom would be like, Don't let no girls ride on you. Don't let no girls play with your hair like that. I never really heard, You got that good hair. It was more so just people playing with my hair. You know?
In 1st grade, my great-grandmommy took me to get my hair cut without telling my mom. I had a tiny afro back in the day. You know, when your hair is short it doesn't drop as much? My mom was pretty mad because she wanted me to grow my hair out. Like all the way. I used to get my hair done by my mom's hairstylist, Dexter, but he moved to Atlanta like a year ago. My sister acts like she doesn't know how to braid anymore, so now I get one of my friends to braid my hair.
HAIR CARE
If I'm just keeping my hair healthy, my day-to-day routine is first, lathering with conditioner in the shower. I get my hair wet, put in my Aveda Curl Control, then comb that out. Once I get out the shower, I throw like a dime-sized amount of Mixed Chicks leave-in conditioner in my hand, then mix it with water. Then I get my edges so it can keep form. I use the full Mixed Chicks line. I don't wrap my hair up at all. I sleep on silk pillowcases, the kind that won’t pull my hair. You get them from the beauty supply store.
But if I haven't been taking care of my hair and feel like my curls are pretty straight, I end up braiding my hair into like, six, seven, eight braids, keep that in for like two, three days and then take it out. And then I just keep on combing my hair every single day to build the curls up. You'll notice over three days your curls get twirled in and curled up more than the first day. Sometimes if I wanna have my hair nice and voluminous, I'll comb it and then go skate because I feel like I sweat volume into my hair. Skating is the perfect air dry. You sweat a little, you know, get some moisture, and yeah.
When I get dirty from skating and falling a lot, I have to shampoo my hair that night cause, you know, a lot of stuff is on the ground. My mom says I have to do it more often cause I'm not black like her, I'm white so like I have the benefit of being able to shampoo my hair. But you know, I have both sides.
If I haven't combed my hair in a while, I condition it, comb it through and then just throw away that brush because it's super dirty. I always need two brushes. The brush that was used in the movie [Mid90s] that Stevie scratches his thigh with? I actually use that brush, the same exact color.
SKINCARE AND LOTION
Oh my god, I have to use lotion. I use this cocoa butter, I think it's by Vaseline, that just seeps into your skin. Oh, also Lush has bomb lotions, like they smell bomb. My girlfriend introduced me to Lush. They got this body wash called and also a fragrance called Rose Jam. So bomb.
I also like to use this thing that my mom put me on, this cologne Amen. I used to go to school and use her perfume that was called Angel and I really liked it and they ended up making a male fragrance and then she got me that for my birthday and that's the only thing that I use.
Also, this Vitamin C thing from this lady Dr. Barbara. I'm not completely sure what it's called. I have like the lightest case of Eczema and sometimes my face just gets flakey. I just wash my face with water, I don't use any soap. Just rinse it off with a towel, then rub Dr. Barbara's Vitamin C roller thing on my face.
WORKING WITH STYLISTS
I feel like if I pull up, and my hair is curly and popping — I don't know why a lot of stylists pull my hair apart and like to get it frizzy. They might just like to play with it, but I make sure I do my routine, like, "I'm not going to comb it today, but I'm going to sleep on silk and them I'm going to wake up and then volumize it where I need to and put the conditioner where I need to." I put a lot of effort into keeping my hair a certain way.
I might even go skateboarding before a photo shoot or something so it'll have some volume and then they just fuck it up. Once I went in for a photo shoot and the person thought I was a girl, I guess, so they curled my hair. And I didn't know what was going on because people put irons to my hair every now and then so I thought he knew what he was doing. But he ended up curling my hair, and I wasn't looking at myself, but like thirty minutes later I looked in the mirror. I had to tell him. I just told him, "I'm not a girl. I'm not sure if you know that or not. No disrespect." And then he just looked like a deer in headlights. There’s a lot of crazy stories.
DENTAL HYGIENE
I literally just brush my teeth day and night. When I was younger, like elementary school, I just didn't prioritize brushing. So when I got into middle school, I started to appreciate bomb ass breath, you know, and everything that comes with it. But now I just brush my teeth with Crest Two-Step Whitener.
You know the toothpicks with the hook at the end with the floss? My dad's addicted to those, he put me onto them. He has those all around the house.
– as told to A24
