At a Glance
- Celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton releases memoir Your Roots Don’t Define You on January 20
- The book details childhood bullying, coming out after fatherhood, and his public divorce from Lukas Gage
- Kris Jenner wrote the foreword; clients include Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Martha Stewart
- Why it matters: Appleton offers raw life lessons on self-worth, transformation, and starting over at any age
Chris Appleton, the stylist behind Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl hair and Kim Kardashian’s most viral looks, drops the polish in Your Roots Don’t Define You, a memoir that hit shelves January 20. In it, the 42-year-old trades red-carpet glamour for unfiltered stories of abandonment, resilience, and reinvention.
From Leicester to Lopez
Appleton ignored the first email asking him to do J.Lo’s hair, assuming it was spam. When a second message arrived, he realized the global superstar actually knew his name. “I’m just this guy from Leicester that is doing hair and fighting to survive,” he tells News Of Los Angeles.
Kris Jenner agreed within minutes to write the foreword. Appleton still pinches himself: “There’s still that little kid inside me who’s like, ‘Kris f—ing Jenner wrote the foreword.'”
Bullying, Dyslexia, and Abandoning Himself
Appleton describes daily childhood humiliation: being spat on, punched from behind, and ridiculed for loving hair. “You’re gay because you do hair,” classmates taunted before he even understood his sexuality. Teachers labeled him stupid because of his dyslexia. The result: “I abandoned myself at a very young age,” he writes.
That early self-rejection bled into adulthood. “I allowed things to come into my life that didn’t serve me,” he admits. Therapy later helped him revisit his younger self with a single message: “You are enough just as you are.”
Coming Out After Fatherhood
The stylist publicly came out after having two children, Billy and Kitty-Blu. He now teaches them boundary-setting and self-love, qualities he never practiced. “It doesn’t mean you’re selfish,” he says. “It means you’re healthy.”
Public Marriage, Public Split
Appleton’s marriage to actor Lukas Gage played out in headlines, as did their divorce. Rather than fire back at rumors, he stayed quiet. “I’ve taken accountability where I need to,” he explains, adding that alignment matters more than love alone. “Love isn’t enough,” he realized. “People don’t change that much.” He still hopes to marry again-on the condition that future partnerships are truly aligned.
Perfectionism and the Super Bowl Meltdown
Despite 20 years of iconic styles, Appleton calls Jennifer Lopez’s Super Bowl performance his worst moment. One stray strand stuck in her eyelash sent him home in tears. “It was probably one of the biggest moments of my career, and I went home and cried,” he confesses. He now battles OCD-driven perfectionism by accepting that “I can’t control every strand of hair.”
A Blueprint for Reinvention
The memoir structures transformation into bite-size tasks for readers stuck in dead-end jobs, stale marriages, or identity ruts. Appleton insists comebacks can start at any age-Kris Jenner is his proof. “Making your comeback can be done at any age,” he repeats.
What He Wants Readers to Know
Appleton brands his curated Instagram feed “a lie to an extent,” arguing everyone curates an incomplete truth. The book supplies the behind-the-scenes footage: fights, failures, financial panic, and eventual freedom. “If you’ve ever wondered if there’s more, this is for you,” he says.
Your Roots Don’t Define You is available now wherever books are sold.
