Celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton is stepping into a new spotlight: publishing.
The Color Wow Global Creative Director and social media sensation gets candid in his upcoming memoir, Your Roots Don’t Define You: Transform Your Life. Create Your Comeback, slated for publication in early 2026.
Appleton, 42, made a name for himself as the stylist behind not only some of the biggest names in pop culture, but some of the most unforgettable hair trends as well — Ariana Grande’s high ponytail; Kim Kardashian’s sleek glass hair.
He built a glamorous empire from the salon chair to the red carpet, but his story began far from the limelight. Raised in Leicester, England, he started styling hair as a teen.
Now, after building a career that brought him to Los Angeles and into the lives of major stars, Appleton is ready to share the less public sides of his.
That includes opening up about the challenges he faced coming out as gay, and how it impacted his relationship with his now-adult children, son Billy and daughter Kitty-Blu.
“For years, I hid behind an image — playing it safe, playing it straight, trying to be what everyone else expected,” Appleton shared on Instagram along with a pre-order link to the book.
“But behind closed doors, I was crumbling under the pressure of pretending to be someone I wasn’t.”
Some hard-learned insights Appleton includes in his memoir are “How to Silence Your Inner Critic” and “The Formula to Becoming Unapologetically You.”
Appleton says his book is for people who have ever felt like they had to hide, “like I did for so long.”