| Christina Applegate - Emmy Award Style |
| Karen Marie Shelton |
| Date: 10/16/2003, Revised 6/20/2005 |
Introduction
 Christina
Applegate was recently honored with a 2003 Emmy award for her special
guest appearance as Rachel Green's (Jennifer Aniston) high maintenance
younger sister on the
Friends
2002 Thanksgiving Special. (Image of Christina Applegate
from Friends Thanksgiving episode photographed with Jennifer Aniston - 2002 - all
rights reserved).
Making an eye popping, jaw dropping red carpet appearance at the
recent Emmy Awards (see below), Christina captured even more rave
reviews from the fashionistas for her spectacular
21stCentury-Meets-Roaring20s Valentino gown and matching hair, done by her long
time celebrity hairstylist, Ken Paves.
 The
good news? Ken is my all time favorite celebrity stylist and he is
always willing to share his hair wizardry with me. The bad
news? He also happens to be a study in perpetual frenzied
motion. To get the juicy details on how Ken created
Christina's stunning style I literally stalked him via cell phone
for three days. (Christina Applegate on the Red Carpet at the
2003 Emmy Awards - Wire Image - all rights reserved).
I finally snagged Ken in the mobile twilight zone somewhere between Chicago
and his namesake
Pave
salon/spa right outside of Detroit in Clinton Township, Michigan. He gave me a few rushed
snippets of info about Christina's spectacular strand scoop and
started to explain how he softened the look by massive brushing when I experienced Paves
Interruptus and poof, he was gone. Click.... dial tone.
Knowing how crazy busy that Ken is, I continued tracking him,
determined to get the blow by blow of Christina's do. I caught
him a few days later at his Los Angeles home where he unraveled more
of his Flapper inspired Emmy hair techniques.
 So
how did Ken come up with the ultimate style that graced Ms.
Applegate's gorgeous blonde locks? (Christina Applegate on the
Red Carpet at the 2003 Emmy Awards - Wire Image - all rights
reserved).
As you can imagine, Christina's look was not a last minute
thing. It was carefully designed and executed.
Her fabulous hairstyle all started with an advance planning session
where
Ken and
Christina, who have a special long term hair inspired relationship,
discussed a multitude of creative styling options. Christina
gave Ken a sneak peek at her gorgeous gown and together they
brainstormed different strand looks to compliment her heavenly couture
creation.
 Ken
explained that while he and Christina ultimately agreed to "go
with a Roaring 20s hair revival", he wanted to "update the
traditional flapper helmet head style to project a sexier look that
was softer, less studied and matched the image that Christina wanted
to portray". Ken reminded me that "the traditional
finger waves from the actual 1920s were overly stiff with a harder
edge." He also pointed out "while Christina wanted to
have a classic look, she didn't want to appear to be in
character".
The challenge for Ken, was to morph the best of Flapper tresses
into a uniquely sassy 2003s style that truly represented the
sensationally sensual Christina.
Softness & Movement
Magnified
 On
the night of the Emmy awards Ken met an already shampooed and
towel-dried Christina at her home. In keeping with the goal of a
soft set, Ken applied "tons and tons of
Phytovolume
Actif (available through
HairBoutique.com)
to Christina's damp, medium to fine, textured hair". He
explained that he used the Actif product because it products lots of
great volume and shine without stiffness or stickiness.
Using his famous red blow dryer, Ken used his "fingers to
tousle dry Christina's hair. Once her hair was completely dry,
Ken then used his medium-size barreled curling iron on individual
strands to create pin curls that he formed into a classic S
shape". Working from side to side Ken completely
curled Christina's entire head in S shaped finger curls. He let
the curls cool completely.
To create "lots of great shine, flow and sexy movement"
he whipped out his "favorite
Mason Pearson Popular Mix brush (available at
HairBoutique.com)
and started vigorously brushing" to "break up the curl
patterns".
Laughing, Ken told me he "brushed and brushed and brushed some
more until he thought his arm would fall off". I could
almost envision him wildly brushing since I have seen him do this in
the past.
 After
he had brushed out all the stiff curls, with his arm still intact in
its socket, he went back completely around Christina's head and
created soft S shaped pseudo finger waves that had minimal definition
but lots of shine and super softness.
He clipped each wave into place with a traditional metal duckbill
clip that was separated from direct exposure to the bare strands with
soft tissue paper. The purpose of the tissue was to make sure
that the duckbill clips did not leave any dings or dents in Christina
perfectly silky smooth style.
Once the waves and curls were carefully arranged and clipped to
suit Ken's eagle eye, he sprayed tons of
Phytolaque
Soie (available through
HairBoutique.com)
onto the clipped hair to help set the final soft waves.
Phytolaque
Soie (in the famous red bottle) is designed specifically for fine
to medium textured hair like Christina's. While it provides a
wonderful hold, it will not weigh hair down or make it sticky.
Ken is a huge fan of the
Phytolaque
Soie and uses it on many of his celebrity clients for great hold
with movement and softness.
After he completely sprayed Christina's Emmy style with
Phytolaque
Soie, he left the clips in place until right before she was ready
to leave the house in her limo. The clips were carefully removed
at the very last minute and Ken used his fingers to softly arrange the
final style into place. One last sweeping blast with the
Phytolaque
Soie and Christina was a magnificent shimmering hair
goddess.
Summary
 The
results of Ken's frenzied curling, brushing and spraying were unveiled
later in the evening as the breathtakingly beautiful Christina floated
down the red carpet towards the Emmy Ceremonies where she was greeted
by deafening choruses of admiring oohs and aahs for her sumptuously
stellar style. (Image of Ken Paves courtesy of Ken Paves - all
rights reserved).
And was the brilliant hair wizard, Ken Paves, there in person at
the Emmys to see the wild, crowd and media reaction, to his
spectacular work? Nah, Ken admitted to me that he was "so
pooped from rushing around to get to Christina's house and all that
world class curling, brushing, clipping and spraying, that he went
home and nestled into his comfy bed for a good night's
rest".
Such typical, but modest behavior, for the Ken that I have come to
know and respect so much. This man doesn't care about fame and
fortunate, he lives to create spectacular hair creations for his
beloved clients, famous or not.
And the 2003 Emmy for best red carpet hair goes to Ken Paves!
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