Chaz Dean Has Rewritten the Rules of Beauty
By the time Chaz Dean hit his stride as a celebrity hairstylist, he had already rewritten the rules of beauty. In 2025, the trailblazing founder of WEN Hair & Body Care celebrates not one but two major milestones — 25 years since launching his revolutionary line, and 20 years as a QVC icon whose products have become a fixture in millions of households. Yet even with more than 100 million bottles sold, 700 products developed, and a trophy case of over 50 Customer Choice Beauty Awards, Dean’s journey is anything but typical.
“It started when I was 19,” he recalled. “I realized that lather was stripping hair. I kept asking myself — how can I cleanse hair without it?” That question sparked a decades-long mission that would eventually upend the beauty industry. Back then, Dean was already formulating conditioners for the salon chain where he trained, experimenting by mixing vegetable color into shampoos and conditioners. “I started using half on one side of my hair and half on the other,” he said. “For five years, I tested that way until I landed on what I wanted. I’m now 32 years without lather touching my hair or body.”
Dean’s instincts were as scientific as they were creative. As a child, he had already sworn off soap, preferring shampoo because it felt “less alkaline.” In his teens, he discovered photography and enrolled in beauty school only to enhance his images. “I wanted to learn hair and makeup so I didn’t have to rely on others to achieve my vision,” he said. “But once I started doing hair, I realized I loved the transformation — I could literally create what I saw in my head.”
That creative drive — part artist, part chemist — guided him from the camera to the salon floor and eventually into product innovation. In 1993, Dean opened his first namesake salon inside the Glen Center in Bel Air. “I had no money,” he said. “I borrowed from my grandfather and put everything on credit cards. I just wanted a place where I could do it my way.” Within months, the once-struggling space was buzzing. Hollywood noticed. Clients like Nicollette Sheridan, Tori Spelling, and Jennie Garth soon followed. Sheridan, Dean’s first celebrity client, was skeptical when he told her to stop using bleach and shampoo. “She looked at me like I had four heads,” he laughed. “But she trusted me — and her hair transformed.”
Those early transformations became the foundation for WEN, launched in 2000 as the first-ever “no-lather” cleansing conditioner — a 5-in-1 formula that cleanses, conditions, detangles, and treats hair without stripping it. “There was no category for it,” Dean said. “I had to make up the term ‘cleansing conditioner.’”
Five years later, in 2005, Dean brought his concept to QVC. “My clients kept telling me, ‘You should be on QVC,’” he recalled. “At first I thought, ‘No, that’s what my mom used to watch!’ But then I realized — I needed a platform to explain what a cleansing conditioner was. QVC let me reach millions.” His debut sold out instantly. Two decades later, WEN® remains one of QVC’s top-selling brands, with 22 wins for Best Shampoo alone.
Despite the empire he’s built, Dean still works behind the chair. “I can’t imagine not doing hair,” he said. “How can I create products if I’m not working on people?” He splits time between his flagship WEN Studio in Hollywood — a six-bungalow oasis fusing beauty, wellness, and creativity — and his second salon in New York’s West Village.
His career has also become a kind of living lab for innovation. At the 2024 Daytime Beauty Awards, his Brush Dryer Styling Tool took home The Innovation Award, just a year after he was honored for Outstanding Achievement in Color & Styling. A new vegan, GMO-free Home Glossing Kit is next — and he’s once again nominated for Best Styling Tool at the 2025 QVC Customer Choice Beauty Awards.
For Dean, creation never stops. “I don’t sleep much — maybe four to six hours a night,” he admitted. “My brain comes alive at midnight. That’s when I think of new ideas. The stillness makes room for creativity.”
That creativity extends beyond hair. A self-taught cook, gardener, and home designer, Dean envisions a future that blends beauty with lifestyle. “I could see myself doing home design or fashion,” he said. “I alter everything I wear. We’re not one-size-fits-all. I’ve even thought about creating my own line — flannels tied at the waist with pockets for your phone and wallet. It’s practical and balanced. That’s how my brain works — I see a problem and want to make it better.”
His success, though, has always been rooted in authenticity and empathy. “I can’t turn it off,” he said of his instinct to assess people’s hair. “I’ll see someone and think, ‘That color could be richer, that hair could be healthier.’ But I only say it with love. You just want people to be their best.”
Now vegan for over a decade and an advocate for animal welfare, Dean’s definition of beauty goes far deeper than surface. “Follow your heart. Follow your passion,” he said. “Everything I’ve done — photography, hair, product creation, even cooking — comes from that same place.”
As he marks 25 years of WEN and 20 years on QVC, Dean isn’t looking back — he’s looking forward. “It could be food, design, fashion, architecture,” he mused. “I just know I’ll be creating something.”
For the millions whose hair — and confidence — he’s transformed, it’s safe to say the world will keep watching what he dreams up next.