Anne Hathaway appears on the 2026 Met Gala red carpet
Anne Hathaway walks the red carpet at the 2026 Met Gala.
Anne Hathaway is used to being criticized for her appearance. So in March, the Oscar-winning actress, 43, decided to finally share what people have been asking for: her secret to looking forever young.
No, it’s not a facelift. or other types of plastic surgery. It’s…two braids of hair.
“Okay, drumroll please,” Hathaway said as she geared up for her Oscar charm in an Instagram video that has garnered 1.4 million likes. “Show them our secrets.”
The actress then reveals two small braids around her temples, which she pulls back and ties at the back of her head, hiding them under the rest of her hair. result? “I feel like I’m a little more awake,” she says with a laugh.
Ever since Hathaway’s videos went viral, people have posted themselves performing her tricks, sometimes with shocking results. In an interview published on May 21, Elle magazine asked Hathaway if her videos were meant to sharply deny rumors that she had plastic surgery.
“I wouldn’t say it’s edgy, but we’re in an era where people are very confident in assuming that what they think is true, and sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re not,” she said. “My preference would be to not comment and just live in mystery and not draw attention to myself, but the speculation has gotten so great that I feel the truth needs to be revealed.”
Also, the truth is that Hathaway’s trick isn’t all that new. Dermatologists say people have been styling their hair in ways that deliberately lift the skin on their faces since time immemorial. They also say the technique has health risks, and overall they hope people don’t do it.
“It’s so funny that she posted that,” says dermatologist and surgeon Dr. Anthony Rossi. “I think she was joking, because people are accusing her of getting facelifts and eyebrow lifts, and maybe she does, but that trick of pulling back the corners of her hair like that, people have been doing it for a long time.”
Anne Hathaway’s Natural Facelift Hack Problem
Some of the videos of people trying Hathaway’s tricks are surprising. Pull your braids back around your temples and your face will look transformed in seconds.
Doctors say this is certainly not a long-term solution. And that’s not what they recommend either.
“You can actually develop traction alopecia, which is a type of hair breakage,” Rossi says. “As dermatologists, we see traction alopecia, especially in women who wear their hair in a ponytail all the time and are actually pulling on the ends. So this is not good for the hair, because it can actually break the hair.”
Traction alopecia can cause hair loss, fibrosis and scarring, Rossi added. Not to mention, dermatologist Dr. Brooke Jaffee says that pulling your hair back can often be uncomfortable.
“I went into the bathroom and tried to do this. It was like imitating this for myself,” she says. “It doesn’t really change that much. Personally, it doesn’t feel good to have that much traction.”
Instead, she recommends using skin care ingredients like sunscreen and retinol to protect collagen. Other than that, she says there’s really no way to keep your face lifted other than medical intervention.
“I definitely don’t think people should do this,” Jeffy says of Hathaway’s hair hack. “I don’t think the small benefit that comes from this is worth the risk.”
What Anne Hathaway’s hair hacks really mean
Perhaps it’s not Hathaway’s hair trick that says more about today’s beauty landscape, but the scrutiny that drove her to share it in the first place.
The actress told Elle that she still wonders if posting the video was the right decision. “I’ll probably always wonder, ‘Should I have posted that? Should I not have posted that? Should I just keep going and do something that makes me happy and makes me feel more confident on the red carpet?'” she said. “But I felt like the conversation was becoming more and more scattered.”
The dialogue is also much louder than Hathaway’s. In recent years, the internet has been abuzz with talk about the so-called “undetectable era” of plastic surgery. We live in a time when plastic surgery has advanced so much that it is often difficult to tell when you have had your surgery done.
Dermatologists and surgeons previously told USA TODAY that the undetectable era is indeed a reality, and there are pros and cons to it. On the other hand, more and more people are avoiding overdoing cosmetic procedures and looking for ones that complement and enhance their natural beauty, rather than ones that dramatically alter their beauty. At the same time, however, people have become more skeptical of celebrities who appear to be frozen in time.
Hathaway opened up to Elle about the assumptions people have about her.
“Also, by the way, these are major medical decisions that people are second-guessing,” she said. “No, I didn’t make any major medical decisions. I just wanted to show you that it’s two braids.”
Furthermore, she added: “By the way, the other thing about all of this is that I might get a facelift someday, too.”
