| Helen Paves - The Woman Behind Celebrity Hairdresser Ken Paves! |
| Karen Marie Shelton |
| Date: 7/31/06 - Original Publication Date: 06/29/2006 |
Introduction
 |
|
Helen (Mom)
Paves &
Ken Paves
2006 |
|
Courtesy of Ken
Paves -
All Rights Reserved |
From the very first moment when I met
Ken Paves (pronounced PAY-ves) he mentioned his mom.
Within minutes of telling me how he got into the hair
biz, he entertained me with fascinating stories about
his "best friend and most wonderful women in the world",
his mom, Helen.
In case you haven't heard the stories
before, Ken and his mom Helen shared a passion for hair
from the time Kenney was able to play with a comb and
brush.
Since necessity is the mother of
invention and Ken was the youngest of three kids - all
boys - his mother was his built-in hair model.
While growing up Ken and his mom
experimented with all sorts of different hair techniques
including applying the famous Ogilvie Home Perm to his
beloved mom's tresses after she had first applied them
to his hair.
After hearing so many stories about
Helen Paves and how she was responsible - along with
his dad Gary Paves - for helping Ken find his
true life's passion in the hair trade - I was thrilled
to meet her over the phone four years ago. Helen
Paves is a charming woman who is bursting with energy
and enthusiasm. She is also very proud of her now
famous son and supports him - along with her husband -
in any way possible.
Meeting Helen Paves In Person
 |
|
Helen (Mom)
Paves &
Ken Paves
2006 |
|
Courtesy of Ken
Paves -
All Rights Reserved |
After a few years of getting to know
Helen through Ken and snippets of short phone
conversations, I had the chance to finally met her in
person when I was in Los Angeles several weeks ago.
My first reaction was total shock at how incredibly
beautiful and youthful Helen is. After all, when I
think of someone's mom, I think of someone that is
mom-like.
While Helen could win the Mother Of The
Year award for her incredible 24/7 support of her son,
she is a hair and business star in her own right.
A fiery and brilliant Aries with boundless wit and
fun packed into her 4'11" Filipino-Portuguese frame, she
instantly made me feel nutured and part of the family.
Welcoming me with a big hug, this glamorous yet
down-to-earth woman could seriously be on the cover of
More magazine. Indeed, she should be. There
is no way she could be Ken's mom based on her picture
perfect unlined skin, trim figure and shimmering tresses
without a hit of gray. Instead, she could be his
sister or best friend or even one of his beautiful hair
models.
I already really liked Helen from our
previous chats and all the great stories that Ken has
shared about his mom, but meeting her made me like her
even more. She is the type of person you instantly
want as a lifelong friend.
Helen has accomplished so much for her
family and for Ken that this short article does not
provide nearly enough space to extol her endless
virtues. Hopefully it will provide a good overview
of this fascinating woman.
Master Of The Hurry-Up-And-Wait Game
 |
|
Helen (Mom)
Paves &
Ken Paves
2006 |
|
Courtesy of Ken
Paves -
All Rights Reserved |
I personally have spent a total of four
full days on two different photo shoots with Kenney over
the past four years. It's true what they say about
photo shoots - they are endless periods of hurry up and
wait. The endless waiting starts to slowly gnaw at
your bones as you shift back and forth trying to find a
comfortable place to sit or stand. After eight
hours of hurry-up-and-wait, exhaustion begins to cover
your weary bones and you just want to escape to a hot
shower and soft bed.
Helen is a hurry-up-and-wait champion.
She has accompanied Kenney on a mind boggling array of
serial photo shoots over the years and has mastered the
waiting game with ease. I watched her over the
course of two days know exactly what to do to help
soothe frazzled nerves, make sure that Ken and his crew
had everything that they needed while skillfully
remaining on the fringes in the background.
Another important part of a photo shoot
is knowing when to fade into the background so as to not
distract any of the models or the crew. Helen is
brilliant at knowing when to fade in for a round of
helpful comments and suggestions and when to fade out
into silence.
On Call Mom
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|
Ken Paves |
|
Courtesy Ken Paves - All rights
reserved. |
Ken's life as a famous celebrity
hairdresser requires him to constantly drop everything
and fly from coast to coast with barely enough time to
grab his bag of hair tools. At times he has so
many responsibilities to handle for his star clients
that he needs help. On those occasions Ken knows
that he can call Helen and she will literally hop on a
plane at all hours of the day to meet him for a major
event.
When those events arise, Helen switches
hats from loving mom to personal assistant. She
does every and anything from making absolutely sure that
Ken has his mandatory daily java and Red Bull to helping
all of Ken's hair and make-up assistants with whatever
they might need.
When Helen is not jetting around the
world to assist her son or support her other two sons
and their families, she co-manages (with her husband)
Ken's Clinton Township Pav salon (near Detroit), which
she helped her son decorate into a posh hair palace.
She is directly responsible for making visitors to the
bustling, always busy, salon feel welcome and completely
pampered.
Helen, who has a fabulous eye for
selecting exquisite antiques and other fine furnishings
has also been helping Kenney personally decorate his new
Beverly Hills Salon. Needless to say, her
boundless energy, contagious enthusiasm and brilliant
eye for beauty have helped transform the new salon into
a work of art.
Summary
Behind every great man is a woman.
In the case of Ken Paves it is his gorgeous, talented,
fiercely loyal mom - Helen Paves who has encouraged,
nudged and cheered Ken on throughout every minute of his
career in hair. While Helen is incredibly proud of
Ken's amazing accomplishments, truth be told, she would
be just as proud if her son was simply working behind
the chair in a salon somewhere. That is, as long
as he was happy and following his dreams.
While Helen certainly isn't perfect,
after all she is human, she is definitely pretty darn
close. One thing is certain, she is a world class
five star mom.
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