CHAZ DEAN by Brent Lambert @FEELguide
Meet Chaz Dean, the renowned founder of WEN Hair & Body Care, celebrity hairstylist to Gwyneth Paltrow and many other superstars, and proud papa of three of the most beautiful dogs you have ever seen. BELLO was lucky enough to spend some time with Chaz at his stunning home in the Hills in February, just a few days before the spectacular Autism Speaks gala fundraiser in Beverly Hills, of which Chaz was a major supporter. We had a chance to talk about many things including: the nature of true beauty, the biggest misconceptions about the world of glamour, and the best sources of unconditional love.
I've been involved with autism with Holly Robinson Peete for almost 18 years now," Chaz tells us as he reflects on the very first autism fundraisers he participated in with Holly. "I think only the first year we were there it was for another illness -- Parkinson's Disease for her father, and sadly he has since passed. Then when her twins were born with autism she founded her foundation. So it's been 17 years I've been helping with her foundation." For his entire life, Chaz has been working hard to make the world a better place, and that definitely includes his building of a beauty empire which has helped countless women and men realize how they can be as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside. We asked him how satisfying it must feel each time he turns the chair around for the big reveal. "It is really rewarding, and that's why I love doing what I do," he says. "And it's ironic that you just asked me that, because earlier this morning for FOX we did a makeover. It was a Valentine's Day makeover for a very deserving mother of two who is super busy. She's trying to run her business, her pilates studio, and she works around the clock, and her husband works 12 hours a day -- so there's not much 'me' time for her." The unsuspecting mom was a newbie to the world of beauty and glamour. "In her whole life she had only colored her hair once, and it was with a box color. So we gave her
Bello
a great new color. And she was like a lot of my clients: sometimes they come in thinking they want something, and they explain it to me. That's when I tell them, 'OK, if you want me to do what I think is best for you, here's what I would do.' And they will usually tell me to go ahead and do it. I feel lucky that my clients trust me and respect me to do something that goes against their own intuition." So how many of his clients let Chaz run with his creative intuition? "I would say 99% let me do it, but the ones that don't let me run with my vision, well, the result ends up in a place they shouldn't be. It's the same thing with the makeover we just did. She thought she wanted to go lighter, and as soon as I saw her I knew we had to go darker. And I explained why -- I said her hair color is the same as her skin tone and it was making her look rundown. As soon as I speak the truth they understand the reasons. She said how she never thought she would have looked good in darker hair because she thought it would make her look older than she is. But it actually does the opposite." One of the biggest misconceptions about hairstyling is that going blonde is always a good choice. "A lot of the people who sit in my chair are blonde-a-holics. When I dig deeper with these clients I ask them: 'Are you intentionally blonde? How did this happen?' And
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