Ken Paves

Ken Paves was born in the Detroit suburb of New Baltimore, Michigan as the youngest of three children of Helen Paves (who is of Portuguese and Filipino descent) and Gary Paves who's of Romanian Jewish descent. Pavés credits his mother Helen for his entry into the world of hair and fashion, saying that when she dressed up "she turned almost into a superhero." He came out of the closet to his parents before going to school. He graduated in 1994 from a cosmetology school in St. Clair Shores. After school, he pleaded to be the assistant to star stylist Oribe in Miami — a job that paid USD$75 a week — and relocated there with longtime partner Fred Geiger. He would moonlight doing strippers' hair until 4 A.M. When these clients showed up in Oribe's shop during regular business hours, Oribe learned that Pavés could do "big, beautiful hair." Pavés studied hair design at Vidal Sassoon Academy and Toni & Guy Institute. He traveled with other celebrity hair stylists during tours of Europe where Pavés created hairstyles in conjunction with couture collections for Versace, Valentino and others. However, he met his most regular client, Jessica Simpson, in 1998 when she hired him as the stylist