Jessi Draper’s life between filming, business and motherhood

Draper owns JZ Styles, which includes a salon, a hair-extension and hair-care company, and a styling academy. She opened the salon in 2016 and started the academy in 2022, writing its nine-month curriculum. A director now handles most of the program. Draper no longer takes salon clients, focusing instead on the businesses’ behind-the-scenes work and checking in with staff and students when her schedule allows.

On filming days, production sets the pace, and Draper may not know her plans until the night before. She said filming this season was especially difficult because she was going through a divorce; at times, she received news from her lawyer while shooting. When she has her children, a 6-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, mornings include getting them ready for school by 8:30 a.m. Their commute playlist alternates between each child’s choice.

Lunch is usually DoorDash—often chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese or a turkey sandwich—and work continues through emails, texts and marketing approvals. From about 5:30 p.m., she focuses on the children, with dinner around 6:30 and bedtime by 8. Meals are often Little Spoon food or DoorDash pasta; Draper says she can cook only tater-tot casserole.

Coffee is her morning constant, but dirty sodas—soda mixed with creamer or syrup—keep her going later. The salon has a soda bar, where she may have as many as four a day, often Dr Pepper with vanilla cream and English toffee syrup. On child-free evenings, she unwinds with a bath, podcasts and television. She deleted social media from her personal phone about a month ago, saying chatter and negativity around the show had made it easy to spiral. Before bed, she checks Google Calendar and aims to be asleep by 11 p.m.