Kyan Douglas was born in Miami, Florida on May 5, 1970. Douglas initially planned to take a career in acting but a personal tragedy made him change course, and he moved to New York City. He worked for cosmetics giant Aveda, and helped establish the Aveda Institute, a school for hairstyling and grooming. He published a book called Beautified, a manual for women's grooming. Douglas is now living with his life partner Gregory Durham and plans to wed in 2007. Douglas is the grooming expert on Bravo's hit reality series Queer Eye.