Paul Mitchell Founder Bullish on Denver Hair Market

DENVER--The hair-product maven John Paul DeJoria, dressed in a black suit with a black T-shirt underneath, was assessing the hair of Denver during a luncheon hosted by the Creative Coalition this afternoon at Panzano, the downtown restaurant.

“The people of Denver have the nice looking hair,” said Mr. DeJoria, who is the co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair-care products. “I wish they would grow it a little bit longer. I think this is an excellent market for Paul Mitchell.”

Denver isn't such an easy city to get around, especially when the Pepsi Center belches forth its thousands into a relatively small network of streets to fight for cabs. Perhaps that explains why the celebrity wattage seems to go up for midday events—in this case, the “Luncheon on Working together to Help Diabetes Patients.”

Featuring speaker Kris Freeman, the two-time Olympian competitor, the crowd included Hollywood fixtures like Matthew Modine, Anne Hathaway, Susan Sarandon, Tony Goldwyn and Josh Lucas. It was loud and packed at Panzano a little after 2 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

The booze starts flowing in Denver around 4 p.m., and there, Mr. DeJoria's market is secure. For the last few days, in his moonlighting capacity as a slinger of Patron tequila, he's been pumping up a bus that drives around town and hands out free booze.

“Look out for the Patron Bus!” he said.