Christina Applegate - Emmy Award Hair Style

Introduction

Christina Applegate was recently honored with a 2003 Emmy award for her special guest appearance as the lovely Rachel Green's (Jennifer Aniston) extremely high maintenance younger sister on the Friends 2002 Thanksgiving Special.

Christina did an amazing job of portraying a younger sister who was a total nightmare.

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.  

Continued below ↓

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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? 

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 he used the Phyto products because it produces 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 allowed 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.

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? 

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 Hollywood Hairdresser Ken Paves! 

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Original Publication Date:  10/16/2003 - Revised Publication Date:  6/20/2005

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• Hair Boutique Tips & Articles section.  Check out the over 10,000+ different hair care and styling tips at HairBoutique.com

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• Hair Tip - Christina Applegate:Tousled Curls

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• Jessica Simpson 18" Clip-In Wavy Extension HairDo option

• Phyto Selection Guide - Check out our Phyto selection guide to figure out which of these award winning products would work best for your hair type, texture and condition.