Guido Palau facts for kids
Guido Palau is a very famous British hair stylist. He is known for creating amazing hairstyles for fashion shows and magazines around the world. Many people in the fashion industry just call him Guido.
Guido's Early Life and Training
Guido Palau was born in Dorset, England. He grew up in Bournemouth with his three older brothers. After finishing school, he traveled for a bit. When he came back, he decided to become a hairdresser. He started his training at a well-known salon called Vidal Sassoon in Bournemouth.
One day, Guido played a prank at the salon. He filled the appointment book with names of famous people like Barbra Streisand. He was caught and fired. They even told him he would never be a good hairdresser! This made Guido think seriously about his future. He worked in many different salons. Soon, he realized his real passion was styling hair for photo shoots and fashion shows.
A Career in Fashion Hair Styling
A big moment in Guido's career was when he styled the hair for George Michael's "Freedom! '90" music video. This video featured many famous supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford.
In the early 1990s, the supermodel era was ending, and a new style called "grunge" was becoming popular. Guido started working with photographer David Sims. They created looks that caught the eye of designer Calvin Klein. Klein asked Guido and Sims to bring the messy, anti-fashion hair looks from London's streets to models like James King and Kate Moss. Guido then worked on Calvin Klein's important fall 1994 fashion show. This big endorsement helped Guido become known worldwide. More high-end jobs followed, like working on the Versace campaign in 1996 with famous photographer Richard Avedon.
Guido and his friend, makeup artist Diane Kendal, are seen as key people behind the grunge look of the mid-90s. This style often featured natural skin, smudged eyes, and messy, "bed-head" hair.
Today, British Vogue magazine calls Guido "The World's most in-demand hair stylist." He often works with fashion photographer Steven Meisel and continues to work closely with David Sims. His hairstyles are regularly featured in top fashion magazines like Italian, French, British, and American Vogue, Love, V, and W Magazine.
Each fashion season, Guido creates the hair looks for more than 30 fashion shows. He is one of the busiest runway stylists in the business. He helps create many major hair trends seen on the runways of famous fashion houses. These include Prada, Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Lanvin, Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren, and Alexander McQueen.
Books and Recognition
Guido has also shared his work in books:
- His first book, Heads: Hair by Guido, was published in 2000. It showed a decade of his unique hair styling work.
- In 2014, he released Hair: Guido. This book featured 70 artistic and daring hair looks created by him and photographed by David Sims.
In 2005, Guido joined Redken, a well-known hair product company, as their creative consultant.
In December 2009, Guido was named one of the 25 Most Powerful People in the Fashion Industry by the British Fashion Council. This list also included other famous names like Alexander McQueen, Nick Knight, John Galliano, Kate Moss, and Naomi Campbell.
