Guido Palau, (commonly referred to by his first name only) is a British-born hairstylist, known as a leading trend setter in the fashion industry. He was born in February 1967.
Guido grew up in an Anglo-Spanish family in Dorset, England. Growing up in the countryside south-west of London, he was the fourth son of a Spanish father and an English mother. He toured Europe after high school, and then returned to London to work at the Vidal Sassoon Salon. However, his career in the salon was not long lived because apparently one day, he filled the appointment sheet with famous names, like Barbra Streisand. Eventually his boss found out and he fired him. This setback caused him to re-evaluate his career, and take his occupation more seriously. After working in numerous hair salons, he decided that his passion was session hair styling for photographic shoots and fashion shows.
Palau has made his mark on the world of fashion by taking traditional styles and giving them a rebellious twist. Guido’s creative eye is highly sought after by designers and editors alike; and his collaborations with renowned photographers such as Steven Meisel and David Sims over the past 20 years have resulted in some of fashion’s most iconic images.
Guido’s creations appear regularly in the pages of Italian, French, British and American Vogue, Love, Interview and W Magazines. He is equally omnipresent on the runways of New York, London, Paris, and Milan, where he executes his vision for diverse fashion houses such as Prada, Givenchy, Dior, Valentino, Marc Jacobs, Lanvin, Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein, Versace, Ralph Lauren and Alexander McQueen among others.
Guido’s elevation of hairstyling into an art form was more apparent than ever before in 2011, when he was asked to design the head treatments for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”.
To date, this is the Met’s most viewed fashion exhibition. This exhibition travelled to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2015, where Guido designed new head treatments for a portion of the exhibition along with his archived treatments from 2011. In 2012, the Metropolitan Museum of Art engaged Guido’s services again to create masks for their Costume Institute exhibition Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. He was commissioned again in 2013 by the MET to design treatments in an array of vibrant colors for the Costumes Institute’s Punk: Chaos to Couture.
Today one can view Guido’s hair designs on exhibit in print at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in the Beauty- Design Triennial. This is the museum’s fifth installment focusing on popular contemporary design, featuring recent work from the most outstanding voices in the global design scene.
His first book, Heads: Hair by Guido, was published to much acclaim in 2000 and features a decade of stunning head shots, a testament to hair as style’s most defining signature. His second book, Hair, published in 2014 is certainly a collectors item with 70 unique, avant-garde hair designs in demand worldwide.
In 2021, Guido published #HAIRTESTS, further documenting his prolific and sculptural approach to hair.
He is represented by Art + Commerce and you can find his portfolio HERE
