Jamie Colby spent the last 10 months on the road, traversing some 38 states for the fourth season of her primetime show Strange Inheritance. The FOX Business host possesses grit and perseverance that few have. After all, even performing artists on cross-country tours rarely spend so much time away from home, year after year.
Aside from her professional acumen and tenacity, Colby, who worked at CNN and CBS before joining FOX, also flaunts time-tested knowledge of how to take care of the body and mind when on the road. Only hours before the debut of the latest installment of Strange Inheritance, we caught up with her to talk about beauty and wellness in a hectic 300-day schedule – and, of course, the astounding inheritances she has come across.
What can you tell us about the premiere tonight of the fourth season of Strange Inheritance?
I think this season more than any [other], our travels were worth it. We were on the road for 10 months in different environments, different climates, different situations, not always so fancy. Mostly not.
We now have this culmination of having met 26 families. I think 11 or so wrote us, inviting us to come see what they had. Now, we get to show people where we have been and what we have been up to. I think it is the best storytelling we have ever had the chance to do and I am just so proud of the product. We have two new episodes airing tonight, two airing tomorrow. And then, every Monday, we will have two new shows.
Are there any inheritance pieces that have been quite surprising this season?
Everything. They just get, you know, more and more bizarre, more unbelievable. We always leave going, "You cannot make this up." The families are very generous to let us know about what they have but we do not really show just stuff. There has to be an incredible background and an incredible family story behind it that we can tell. There is not a lot of long-form programming going on right now that talks about this kind of things – very engaging, suspenseful, and educational. There is a great part of history to our show.
Tonight, we have one family – three brothers – who had absolutely no idea that they had a long-lost priceless Rembrandt in their basement, buried under a ping-pong table. When they finally decided to clean it up, they took it to an auctioneer and they were told they would get about $500 for it. It broke a record. It is one of the original paintings Rembrandt painted when he was 17 years old and it was part of a set of five, The Allegory to the Senses. This paining and one more of the five senses have been missing. Three are in a very famous collection called the Leiden Collection. Their painting is of smell. It was auctioned off for over $1 million, and no one knew still whether it really was a Rembrandt. Somebody oversees bought it, thinking it was. As it turned out, when they cleaned it up, they found the signature. It was authenticated and it has been resold for close to $4 million, we are told.
The other episode tonight is also historically significant. It is about Nat Turner, who led the slave rebellion and carried this Bible with him. It ended up in the hands of a white Southern family from Virginia, who lost relatives in that rebellion. They would not sell it, even though it was worth millions. They donated it to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is really a signature piece at that museum. It is so significant on a day like today, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to talk about freedom and unity and kindness and forgiveness. These episodes hit on a lot of these notes.
You travel a lot for the show. How do you protect your skin and hair from all sorts of harm on the road?
I found an incredible talented artist who does both hair and makeup and is now styling for me. Her name is Christina Johnson. So the first thing I said to Christina was, "I am prone to skin cancer. We have to be careful." She brought onboard IT Cosmetics. I truly believe it has made my skin better, more hydrated. We use that and in HD, it passes the test. On top of that, I am drinking a lot of water.
A problem for me, with my hair, has been that in every town we go to the water is different – sometimes it is hard, sometimes it is treated. I really have to vary the products that I use and take extra special care of my hair because it can get so damaged and dry. We really are not doing the kind of heat that we used to. We are not blow-drying or flat-ironing. We are not using Velcro. My look is definitely more natural and it is purposeful to try to protect what I have because 10 months is a very long shooting season.
What are your must-have products that you always take with you?
I swear by Peter Thomas Roth Un-Wrinkle. That is for face and neck and it is brilliant. It works without a doubt. I also swear by rosehip oil. That is something that Christina handed my one day. It costs about $10. She can get it at most Whole Foods Markets. I bought it at Target. I put that stuff on my neck, my chest, my hands, my hair. If I am at the Holiday Inn Express, so what if I [smear the] pillow. Not my problem. I wake up hydrated. (Laughs) I really love that.
I use a lot of Kenra products [for my hair]. I think [they are] very good and sometimes when I have been in a place with bad water, I would use their clarifying shampoo.
Body moisturizer is really, really important. As well as facial masks. Peter Thomas Roth has this gold face mask that is so lush and I always throw those in my suitcase.
My mom swears by La Mer. I wasn't sure but I hosted an event called "Look Good, Feel Better," which helps women going through chemo and radiation. They suffer a lot of changes in their hair and their skin. They give these women products; they have programs all over the US and one of my colleagues, Jennifer Griffin, who had breast cancer, had participated in the program. So I said, "Jenn, what is it all about?" She goes, "It is a life saver. They really make you feel so much better during treatment." So when I went to their gala, in the goody bag – I usually do not take those – was La Mer. And I told them, "I do not know. My mum swears by it. But is this like $500 for a jar?" They said, "Just try it." And there were some Clarins daytime and nighttime moisturizers and an eye cream that had a little metal paddle on the end like when you used to put cold spoons on your eyes when they were swollen.
I used those three products and guess what – they really have some properties in them that I think are very helpful. It is not in everyone's budget and Peter Thomas Roth is more in my budget and those will always be my mainstays but sometimes when you are away from home, you need to splurge on yourself. It is really important to remember that you are important too. And I have a son and take care of people in my family but when I am on the road, I try to use these products and they make me feel much better.
Expect part II of our conversation with Colby about staying healthy on the road tomorrow, Jan 16.
Season four of Strange Inheritance premieres tonight, Jan 15, at 9pm EST on FOX Business.
Images courtesy of FOX Business
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