The coffee table book of the year comes from an unlikely source - a hairstylist.

It’s not often that a beauty book is so avant garde and revolutionary in its approach that it transcends the realm of beauty into a class of its own.

The Alchemy of Beauty, by incendiary hairstylist Bob Recine reveals the inner workings of a visionary artist whose work has featured on the covers of high-fashion magazines world-wide. The highlight for us, is not only that Recine has powered life into hairstyling, giving it the art-form recognition it deserves, but also that he’s constructed a human Giacometti-esque figure made of 60lbs of hairpins. For this, he should be both applauded and admired.

See pictures from the book below.