You Are Beautiful, A Beauty Guide for Real Women by Ken Paves

 KEN PAVES’ YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL

Ken Paves, hairdresser to the stars – and to countless real women – wants to change the way we define beauty. His feel-good/look-good book, You are Beautiful, A Beauty Guide for Real Women, (Sterling Publishing Co., June 2013) reads like a combination of a great beauty and fashion magazine, notes from a super stylist’s personal playbook and a gabfest with your best friend. It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s filled with tips for looking your best, feeling your best and being your best.

Ken Paves has styled the hair of some of Hollywood’s most beautiful stars but his journey to super-stylist stardom wasn’t always easy. After graduating from cosmetology school in Michigan where he grew up, Paves’s goal was to work for Oribe, one of the biggest hair stylists in the country who was based in Miami. The low level job didn’t pay much but Paves parlayed it into a career doing hair for local fashion shows and editorial layouts. Paves moved to New York where he continued to style hair for fashion shows and magazine shoots and his determination, perseverance, belief in himself and, of course, his talent eventually made him a household name. I won’t divulge too much more of his journey to stylist stardom. It’s a fun read and you should have the pleasure yourselves.

I will say though that the story of Paves’s first interview at Oribe is touching, relatable and quite funny. And the entire book reads like that. Paves gives you insights into his personal life and, of course, it’s loaded with professional tips for hair care, hair styling, makeup and fashion. He dishes a little about some of the famous names he’s worked with – Victoria Beckham, Eva Longoria who wrote the Forward for You Are Beautiful, Celine, Oprah, on whose show he was a regular guest; and, of course, Jessica Simpson with whom he teamed up with to launch Hairdo, a line of hair extensions and hair pieces. (Jessica Simpson has since stepped away from her involvement in the line.)  And that’s just a partial list of some of the famous names he writes about.

But the raison d’etre of his book is for every reader to appreciate her own unique beauty. Paves doesn’t subscribe to the often-accepted and strict idea of ideal beauty. He offers great tips – how to blow dry your hair, how to cut your own bangs, the best conditioner for your hair and many, many more – but he’s never dictatorial nor judgmental with his advice. This book inspires every woman – regardless of age, social status, ethnicity, economic status, weight or any other defining description that serves to make us feel different or not quite good enough – to believe she is beautiful.

Interspersed throughout You Are Beautiful, Paves includes photographs and stories about real women in their own words. The stories and quotes are inspirational and informative, sometimes touching and always reinforce the fact that this is a book for real women who don’t have the benefit of a staff of beauty makers tending to them on a daily basis. But the information imparted in You Are Beautiful may just make you feel as if you do. Even I, a beauty writer for decades, learned a number of tricks and techniques. (I have been applying product to my hair incorrectly all these years and I now know just what to tell my hair stylist to make my cheekbones and eyes pop when I get my hair cut next. And that’s not all – but I won’t give away all of Paves’s many tips.)

I was a fan of Ken Paves’s talent before reading You Are Beautiful. Now, I’m a fan of Ken Paves, the man.

For more information on Ken Paves, visit his website at http://www.kenpaves.com.

About Ken Paves

Dubbed the “hottest hairdresser in Hollywood,” Ken Paves has created award-winning styles for celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Eva Longoria, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, and Victoria Beckham, who says, “Ken has the most amazing gift to make women feel beautiful inside and out.”  His work has appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Marie Claire, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, O The Oprah Magazine, Vanity Fair,Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, GQ, and In Style.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of You Are Beautiful, A Beauty Guide for Real Women by Ken Paves, which in no way influenced my opinions stated in my review. The book is a keeper, one I will refer to often and, frankly, one that I won’t lend out. But if you want to get your own copy, click the link:

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