Myha’la Herrol on smile confidence and how to be a slick queen

At just 28 years old, actress Myha’la Herrol has already appeared in a handful of millennial favorites such as Bodies Bodies Bodies, black mirror And Modern love. We recently caught up with her as she gears up for the highly anticipated third season of Industry, of which she is the star, to broadcast. In between shoots, she teamed up with Colgate for their My Smile is My Superpower campaign, so we talked teeth, confidence, sleek buns and more.

Have you always been confident in your smile?

“I certainly am now. I think the only time I ever felt insecure about my smile was when I was five years old, and my grandma said, “Smile!” And I smiled really big and tried to show all my teeth and let her know how happy I was and she said, ‘Not like a natural smile – just a nice closed-mouth smile,’ and I said, ‘But then You smiles, isn’t it true that the bigger the smile, the happier you are?’ And I was a very happy child. So I was always very eager and excited to smile big because I wanted people to know that I was happy.

As I got older my teeth developed and I was told I have two small teeth called peg laterals. They look like little teeth. They’re not my baby teeth, they’re my adult teeth, they’re just small. Throughout my life, a handful of doctors have unwelcomely handed me their cards and said, “If you’re ready to get your sight fixed.” I thought, ‘There’s nothing wrong with my teeth.’ I never really felt like I needed to get them fixed.

When I got a little older and went into the industry, I thought, ‘Oh, does that make me look too young? Should I have them covered?’ But then I realized that the reason people like me in the first place is because I look like me. I don’t want to look like anyone else. I don’t want to look at myself in the mirror and not recognize who that is. So there was a moment of, ‘Oh, it would be better for my career or whatever if I got my teeth fixed.’ That’s when I decided that what got me here in the first place was how I looked. So for the most part, I have always been very confident and very happy to share my smile with people.

Where does your confidence come from in general?

“I’m really confident that I can connect with people. I really try to listen to people. I really try to share joy with them and make them feel seen, heard or, in my work, represented. When I do that, I feel really confident, like I’ve done someone else a good service.

Sometimes I get confidence from my aesthetic. It’s not every day that I say, ‘Oh, I woke up like this today. I look and feel great.” But on those days when I don’t feel so confident, I talk to myself a lot aggressively and positively. I’m like, ‘You got this. You are great. Your feelings are temporary, and tomorrow you’ll be back on track, and you’ll feel great. You just have to persevere.”

I know you studied theater at Carnegie Mellon. As an ex-theater girl, I would like to know what your dream theater role would be.

“I always wanted to play Mimi Rent. That’s a big one for me.”

‘You can thank my stylist Cody for that; she is amazing. I actually only wear two things in my hair every day. I use an Olaplex moisturizer ($30) and a serum ($30) with a light hold and kind of a glossy finish.

I would say if you’re going for super sleek, put the products you want and then wrap it up, with a scarf or I wear a cloth or, for all my black girls out there, there’s something called wrapping paper that you wrap it into smooth hair so that it does not move away from the head as it dries. So I’d say if you’re going for as smooth as possible, wrap it up, wait for it to dry a bit, and then poof, smooth queen.

Your mother is a hairdresser. What was it like growing up in that space?

“I feel like I’m really spoiled because I’ve had my hair cut properly and for free all my life. But it was great. If you’ve ever seen the movie Beauty salon, it’s exactly like that. You have a built-in second family in the salon. I was there all the time, every day after school. When I was really young, I would mix drinks with all the produce and stuff, which, I’m sure, wasn’t economically nice of me to do as a kid, but I would do that kind of thing, or I would sweep around. the chairs, and the stylists wanted to give me a quarter.

I kind of felt like I had parents and family all around me, and I met a whole bunch of people and even more friends, because my mom had all kinds of customers and their kids would come in, so there were a lot of people around and a lot of creativity. It definitely felt like a very feminine, heavy space. So that was nice to have creative female role models to grow up with.”

You live in New York and also work a lot. How do you survive the chaos of the city and industry?

“Um, I can’t leave my apartment – just kidding! I am very disciplined and almost militant in my whole wellness routine. Like clockwork, I do my skin care twice a day, every day. I drink a lot of water. I like to create the space so that it feels quite luxurious in the bathroom with shower. I have eucalyptus in the shower and I have all kinds of great smelling or unscented products that are good for my sensitive skin. I am also a very aggressive person about my oral hygiene. I floss every day and brush twice a day, if not more than that. I like to be fresh and clean and nourish my microbiome with the right things.”

Speaking of dental hygiene, how did this collaboration with Colgate come about?

“I actually love dental health and care so much. I especially love this campaign to encourage people to embrace and care for their natural smiles. It’s been part of my journey embracing my natural smile, and I really want to keep all my teeth in my mouth for as long as possible. I have quite weak enamel and I am quite prone to cavities, so I would like people to know that oral care is very important. And how wonderful would it be for you to share so much uniqueness in your smile with all your natural teeth?

Right, and smiles are starting to look the same.

“I feel like people want to be accepted, they want to be liked, and they want to belong, and that’s great. I feel like what people are most attracted to about me are the things that make me different and unique. The things that make me special are the things that people are attracted to. So many people say, ‘I love your little teeth. Those are great. They make you special’, and in that way they enjoy my smile. So I was really excited to partner with Colgate on this because I really identify with it and I think it’s a really powerful message.”