The profession of a makeup artist: a course for prestige

The article was first published in the magazine “Makeup&YOU Professional” and is intended for professional makeup artists. Having received an offer to write an article, I thought for a long time about what I would like to talk to you about, my dear colleagues. An old family story came to mind. When I worked in the profession for three years and, in my opinion, I had already achieved a lot: I had regular clients, victories in championships, my first students. My husband has an elderly aunt, a very educated person, whose opinion I have always listened to. My daughter, about six years old at the time, was also drawn to her. One day they spent the whole day together, walked around the city, went on excursions, and in the evening, at home, the little girl said: “Mom, I won’t go anywhere with Lyusya tomorrow, she’s talking bad about you.” Which surprised me very much, because this was a person close to me. It turned out that the conversation turned to what Masha will be when she grows up. Our aunt authoritatively said that it is necessary to think about education now if Masha does not want to be like her mother all her life... a hairdresser. This offended me greatly at the time. And now, many years later, suddenly an understanding has come: we devalue ourselves, our profession, our work. Our profession as such simply does not exist. It exists in words, but is not even listed among the registered professions. But there are a huge number of courses, schools and even academies that give diplomas for 5-10 classes attended, which are often taught by masters who have completed the same course. After all, it’s impossible to get a diploma as an architect, doctor, engineer or economist by completing a two-week course?! By agreeing to such training, we ourselves provoke attitudes towards us, towards our profession, towards our importance. I have two complete higher educations and, having started doing makeup as a hobby, I came to the conclusion that this is the profession in which I want to be forever. And what I write is intended for those who also came into it not by chance. Our first problem is poor quality basic training, may my colleagues forgive me. The basic course, in my opinion, is the main full-fledged program, which not only gives an idea of how to perform this or that type of makeup, but also gives the future specialist the opportunity to develop “in depth.” Here is a far from complete list of academic disciplines that I would consider mandatory in this course: anatomy, coloristics, basics of academic drawing, stylistics, art history, basics of composition, imageology, basics of photography, psychology of relationships, materials science, chemistry, basics of hygiene, basics of makeup . Knowledge of these disciplines will provide the opportunity for in-depth analysis and a competent approach not only to working with clients, but also the opportunity to develop in a large number of related specialties, where the knowledge and practical skills of our masters are very much required. Our schools need not only a solid and carefully thought-out core curriculum, but also in-depth versions for narrower specializations. We need knowledge of the methods of teaching a lesson, our own textbooks, in a word, everything that is present in any serious educational institution. How can you treat a specialist if he doesn’t know who Gustav Klimt is, doesn’t understand light and shadow drawing, and doesn’t understand the textures of the products he works with? A lax attitude towards learning leads to the same attitude towards us, my dear colleagues. I have a wonderful example - our partner school YNASTYLE (Riga, Latvia). 15 years ago, its director, Una Bernatovicha, not only changed the structure of her school, but also headed the methodological center, which today is developing unified programs and uniform requirements for the specialty and which has achieved recognition of the profession by the state. The minimum period of training for the profession is 2 years (technical school), 4 years (higher). Agree, the picture is very different from what is happening here. So a situation arises when they say about us: “She doesn’t work anywhere,” “What you are doing is not serious,” “First get a higher education, and then do whatever you want.” If it were otherwise, wouldn't you want your child to follow in your footsteps? Shouldn’t we change so that the profession goes from being just a bread profession to a prestigious one?! Colleagues, let's start small - look at our training programs, at the composition of teachers, at ourselves and begin to gradually change our attitude towards the profession, which is so important for each of us. Let's close paper academies and open full-fledged schools, let's finally do something for ourselves and our future. And one more thing... Let's not wait another year to change something, let's start today!