Make-up artists offer chance to look as good as Heidi Klum By Sandra Cantzler


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday January 10, 2007

By Sandra Cantzler, Munich- There are times when a hair dryer can't do a thing to improve a hairstyle and neither curling irons and hairspray can prevent the strands of hair hanging down like limp spinach. And it can be even worse when a favourite shade of eye shadow is suddenly as mismatched as a new lipstick. Sometimes nothing goes right, and things seems much more likely to go wrong when the occasion is big, such as a wedding or formal banquet.

But there are professionals offering top-notch services to prevent such frustrations arising. They are beauty experts whose typical clients are fashion models, but who have started branching out to offer their expertise to the general public. And for many customers the small luxury is well worth the price.

The array of services offered has become extensive. They run from special services for brides offered by the hairdresser around the corner to make-up artists whose work otherwise is preparing fashion models for photo shoots.

"We are booked for all sorts of occasions at which women want to look good," said Nadja Kaiser, a make-up artist at Topteam, a Munich styling agency. "That includes weddings, balls and official occasions."

But weddings remain the biggest occasions for make-up artists and hairdressers. For many women, professional hair styling simply belongs to the preparation process when it comes to weddings even if they ordinarily don't spend much time doing themselves up.

"We currently are experiencing a boom in our wedding services," said Beatrice Korff, make-up artist at a Berlin makeup and hair styling shop. Every type of woman is represented among the shop's clientele from women with very little money to well-off aristocrats.

The Style Club is another Berlin operation that also has a variety of customers. Young women on their way to bachelorette parties or birthday parties and teenagers - all of whom want to make themselves look chic.

"We've had them all here," said employee Miyabi Kawai. The Style Club is open only on Friday and Saturday evenings and serves as a place where make-up artists and stylists who recently completed their degree at the Makeup and Hairstyling Academy can practice. Customers are offered a girls-night-out atmosphere complete with sparkling wine and lounge music as they are being styled.

Stylists all require a test run through the styling before the actual event. The bride and anyone else who is to be styled for a wedding should have it done about six months beforehand, recommends Stefanie Koehn, a hairstylist and style consultant.

"The chemistry between the participants has to be right," said Olaf Zieseniss, who runs a mobile cosmetic institute called Beauty at Home in Frankfurt. The customers should feel well and the hairdresser, make-up artist or cosmetologist should know the customer well enough that no mistakes occur during styling.

All small preparations such as nail painting and eyebrow plucking should be done the day before to lower stress levels and the possibility that something could go wrong. Beauty experts typically charge a minimum of two hours for the actual appointment, and they travel with all their equipment to the customer's home or to the event venue.

Anyone shopping for these exclusive services should have a fat wallet. The price of professional styling varies greatly among service providers depending on how much is asked. The freshly minted stylists working at the Style Club in Berlin charge 20 euros for hairstyling and makeup. But everywhere else, the price starts at around 120 euros (158 dollars) and there's barely an upper limit on what can be spent, said Koehn.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency