She’s the athlete everyone’s rooting for. She’s also poised to break Olympic records in Paris. But it seems Simone Biles is just as dedicated to her pre-Olympics beauty prep as she is to her floor, vault and beam work.
Unsurprisingly, Simone has a massive following on TikTok. Her 1.5 million followers can’t get enough of her candid behind-the-scenes videos about her practice sessions, her marriage to Jonathan Owens and her beauty routine.
In a recent TikTok, which accrued over 650,000 likes, she reveals her “girls version of GTL” in the run up to the Games. For the uninitiated, GTL is an acronym for ‘gym, tan, laundry’, a man’s daily ritual that first featured on the TV show Jersey Shore.
TikTok content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
In the video, captioned “a girls version of GTL, hahahaha hair, nails, wax & lashes… for obvious reasons I didn’t film my wax appt & I do my own lashes so there’s that. ❤️ #paris #olympics”, Simone talks through her pre-Paris prep.
Her first stop is with “my girl Jaz”—a.k.a Simone’s long-time professional hairstylist, Jazmine Johnson—and we see Simone having her hair washed before her tape-in extensions are refreshed. “It just has a little more versatility so I can pull it up in a bun whenever needed so when I’m flippin’ around, nothing is out of place,” Simone says. “Well, hopefully,” she adds.
She then switches to a shot of the finished result: shiny, long, chest-length strands. “I love when it’s bone straight,” she says with a playful smile to camera.
Next on the schedule is an appointment with her nail artist Jasmine, who creates a short, oval nail shape featuring embellished French tips and a tiny sparkling silver crystal at the base.
While Simone reveals that she does her own lashes, she doesn’t go into any more detail in this TikTok. But in a previous “GRWM Olympic Trials” video, she shared her contour technique, as well as a close-up of her fanned-out, fluttery lash extensions before declaring, “I’m going to try winged eyeliner,” which added subtle definition to the overall look.
TikTok content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
In the Netflix documentary Simone Biles Rising, she talked candidly about struggling to conform to gymnastic’s Eurocentric beauty standards. Simone recounts negative comments she has received about her appearance, including one remark that her hair looked ‘crunchy’, and admits, “I think the beauty standard, everything, is just too much.”
If anything, Simone Biles has shown that she’s doing beauty—as well as gymnastics—on her own terms. And she’s winning at both. Simone is the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport and we can’t wait to see the silver on her nails turn to gold on the medals podium.
This post was originally published in Glamour UK.
