Harvey Helms is the picture of exuberance with a ready smile, fast chatter and a face that twists pliably into mock horror or confusion, his eyebrows quizzically arching or frowning with deep concern.The beauty junkie and former national director of beauty at Revlon thrives on transformation - whether applying colorful cosmetics on a client or fashioning himself into her most trusted friend. He learned quickly as the first male (and gay) makeup artist in his North Carolina hometown department store that building a bouncy rapport with shoppers was the best way to their hearts and loyalty, if not their pocketbooks.Helms, who worked for Revlon during the 1980s and '90s, and later did stints at Donna Karan Beauty and Luxxotica eyewear, now splits his time between Silicon Valley and Grass Valley (Nevada County). He has embarked on the biggest makeover of his life - as an author - with his self-published "Blush: The Unbelievably Absurd Diary of a Gay Beauty Junkie" (Harvey Helms Enterprises, 398 pages).The wryly humorous autobiography, mildly fictionalized (names and dates have been changed to "avoid a Valium overdose by anyone mentioned in the book," he writes) is a diary with dialogue. For a swifter read, his 13 years at Revlon have been compressed into three. He chronicles the ups and downs he and his colleagues weathered; explores his complicated relationship with his mother, a sweet Southern belle with an acid tongue; and gives a peek into the darker side of growing up gay in the South. He was bullied as a youth and nearly beaten to death in college by homophobic classmates, he writes.To make a living while penning the book, he became a style consultant to Silicon Valley professionals, with more than three dozen doctors, lawyers and tech executives on his roster who find him indispensable as a lifestyle guru, of sorts.They include Kathi Lutton, a litigator at Menlo Park's Fish & Richardson, the nation's largest intellectual property law firm, whose wardrobe was whittled by 90 percent and replaced with streamlined, versatile pieces; Woodside pediatrician Janesta Noland, who said a trip to Marshall's and Nordstrom Rack with Helms power-shopping through the racks was akin to the way she looks in children's ears, " all information gathered in an instant"; and Palo Alto psychologist Diane Kay Eaton, who values Helms' perspective."Harvey likes to remind me of what Oscar Wilde said: Be yourself; everyone else is already taken," Eaton said. "He helps me be the best self possible, imperfections and all."Helms has more than enough to keep himself busy, but has more tales to tell. In the works are a prequel and a sequel to "Blush." He is also writing a screenplay for Hollywood with friend and TV producer Allison Kluger, who had a hand in developing the ABC TV talk show "The View.""I love a great story," Helms says over coffee at Mayfield Cafe in Palo Alto on a wintry morning. "The cosmetics counter is the best place to get them. Women tell me stuff they wouldn't tell their priest."Helms was inspired to write the book after watching the film "The Devil Wears Prada," which starred Meryl Streep as an Anna Wintour-like character, at a theater in Cincinnati.As Helms writes in the preface to his book"About halfway through the film, when Meryl's character, Miranda Priestly, starts continuously dumping those delicious coats and handbags on Andrea's desk, I realize that I'm laughing hysterically in places where no one else in the theater is laughing ... . I look over at my Ohio friend and ask, 'Why aren't people laughing?' He says with a mouth full of popcorn, 'Honey! This movie isn't believable. It's sickly funny but it's not real life.' After a sip of Diet Coke and swoosh of my hair a la Cher, I turn sharply and say, 'Oh yes it is!' My mind instantly does a flashback to she-dragons, man drama and lipstick. If this friend doesn't believe the crazy truth of the story, then other people outside of urban cities probably didn't, either. As I left the theater that fated evening, I knew immediately that I had to share my diary, blemishes and all."
A relative of the late and ultra-conservative North Carolina congressman Jesse Helms, Harvey Helms came out in 1974, when he was 11. He and his mom were standing in front of the refrigerator, he recalled, when she asked him, "Are you gay?" When he said he was, she told him, "You'll never be happy." He remembers shooting back, "Are you, Mother?"
He characterizes his story line as "fool triumphant," and notes, between sips of coffee, "If I were pitching Louis B. Mayer of MGM, I would say, 'Boy meets world. Boy gets bullied. Boy meets lipstick. Boy learns to survive.' "
Helms longed to be a fashion designer and at 19, in 1984, got a job selling clothes at the local department store. He was transferred to the Revlon cosmetics counter because he couldn't remember to remove the security sensors from the apparel and kept setting off the alarms.
He rose through the ranks at Revlon (as beauty adviser, national makeup artist, regional and national training manager), until he reached his dream job - national director of beauty. Revlon, once sold alongside Charles of the Ritz and Estee Lauder, was in the midst of change, however. The company downsized (the product is now sold in drugstores) and his job was eliminated.
Putting a fresh face forward in Palo Alto, Helms also became an online columnist at Betty Confidential in 2010. And if all goes his way, his reinvention act won't end there, but on the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
"I have a bucket list and I want to be impactful," he says with a smile. "I've never written a movie and I haven't won an Oscar. I'd regret it forever if I didn't try."
