Chloe Fineman on the $4 Conditioner That ‘Saves’ Her Hair and the Makeup Palette Everyone’s Using Backstage at SNL

She’s known for her hilariously accurate celebrity impersonations on a little show called Saturday Night Live, but 33-year-old Chloe Fineman is making a name for herself off-screen too. The comedian’s latest feat: a partnership with Pantene. Ahead, all about Fineman’s hair-care prep, artistic process, which performance she’s most proud of, and some seriously good backstage intel. (Hint: Celebrities love Pat McGrath.)

Why this partnership with Pantene?

“Growing up, I was definitely a Pantene girl. When I got to the age where I could pick out my shampoo and conditioner in a grocery store or at a Target, I found it very fancy and it just truly makes your hair buttery smooth. And, you know, I’m a 90s kid, so I grew up with all those iconic Pantene commercials. So this partnership is truly a dream come true.”

I’m sure you’ve lost count of how many wigs you’ve worn in your career. How do you keep your hair so healthy?

“Truly, Pantene conditioner saves my hair. On Sundays, I lather and then I use their Moisturizing Conditioner. It really helps it. And then I kind of try and let it be throughout the week and look like a busted crazy lady [laughs]. I kind of let [my hair] go. It usually gets insanely tangled and crazy. And then I’m big fan of a big old hair clip. I don’t use hair ties anymore. It’s a lot of the silk scrunchies or the big hair clip just because my hair is on the thinner side and it just tangles like crazy with all the like hairspray and wigs. And then you’ll often see me in a beanie hiding what’s going on underneath.”

How do you get into character when you’re impersonating someone? I’m sure prep must be pretty intense.

“I think I was lucky and had access to the brilliant women who came before me on SNL and I learned from them that we all watch YouTube videos for 100 hours and we’re definitely big fans of long interviews. So it’s a lot of maniacally watching stuff. Even for an Anna Delvey recently, I probably watched Inventing Anna for an embarrassing amount of hours.”

Is there one impersonation you’ve done that stands out as a favorite? 

“I think that I have a pattern of thinking the latest is the greatest, so I’m definitely very happy with how my Julia Garner-Anna Delvey hybrid turned out. I met her in the bathroom at the Met Gala, which is a psychotic braggy sentence [laughs]. It was her and Ella Emhoff. And she coyly was like, ‘Where’s my impression?’ And that was months ago. So that was very like special to be like, ‘Tada!’

I also feel like Drew lives inside of me. I come from hippy-doodles, so it’s my inner flower child, and I just love her and that was kind of easy to do. And people are very like, ‘Oh my God.’ Yeah, I’ll do it on my deathbed probably.”

Do you often hear from the celebrities you’re impersonating? I’m sure they’re all good sports.

“I think that’s what makes it so scary! I think pre-SNL it would be shocking if anyone knew I had done them or knew who I was. And I think now with SNL you’re sort of like, ‘Oh, God.’ I remember doing Miley Cyrus and a producer on the show was like, ‘I texted Miley, she loved it!’”

No pressure. Have you picked up on any beauty secrets backstage? I’m sure you’ve mastered the art of the quick change.

“I think because of how fast SNL is, especially when we have quick changes, we’re definitely fans of the Pat McGrath eyeshadow palette—it is all. It becomes a highlighter and a blush, or sometimes we’ll make it shimmery for your lip if you’re playing, I don’t know, a party girl. So that’s really fun and interesting. And I definitely moisturize like crazy big. I kind of got sucked into the Augustinus Bader land. So I’ve been throwing all my money away at that, but it’s amazing. And a big old game changer.”

How do you wind down and recenter after a long night of filming?

“Horrifying true crime or like con-artist documentaries. I’m watching like Jeffrey Epstein. I don’t know. It’s bad. My boyfriend hates that. He’s like, ‘Why are you watching this?’ He watches cartoons. And for me it’s all about the creepiest, darkest, most disturbing stuff.”

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