2012 AMOS HAIR IN TREND

Tuesday November 22, 2011 and I was on the subway at 6am heading to Sejong University. Seriously 6am. Anyways I had to go in bright and early at 7:30 to get hair and make-up done for a show that was to start at 5:30pm. Up until 2 years ago, I hadn’t really taken any heavy interest in make-up or fashion; partly because I was a broke university student and partly because I was a dance major and practically lived in sweats or anything comfortable to move in. When I moved to Korea that all changed since fashion and cosmetics are really a big part of the culture. It’s practically impossible not to get drawn in eventually. But even with my 2 years of “transformation” I wasn’t ready for what my day had in store for me.

AMOS is a professional hair and beauty company and they were holding their annual fashion show for their 2012 collection. There were two segments of the show: the entertainment portion and the runway portion. The first section consisted of 4 dance groups: modern dance, all girls popping, all boys popping and k-pop (my section). Since the show was showcasing 4 different themes each dance group had it’s own: Raw Simplicity, InErgy, Future Classic and New Ethnic. All the designs and colors were bold, unique and absolutely amazing. It was truly a visual feast.

Our group had the New Ethnic theme. I’ll admit, it was a bit strange to me a first. The world of high fashion was a whole new experience for me. The wigs looked light and feathery like some kind of exotic bird tail, but was actually like strapping a baby to my head. It was extremely painful to wear and to make sure that it wouldn’t come off during the dance, it had to be pinned, hair sprayed and strapped to my head. After 2 hours in hair I moved on to make-up which took about another 2 hours, covering my eyes in glitter and beads. Next was wardrobe, tight black dresses, over he knee heeled boots and sequenced bra. Finally it was time to run through the show. Balancing the extra weight of my head and face on those thin heels was no easy feat, but after about 4 run throughs it got a lil’ easier. Then adjustments and touchups had to be made to well… everything. Then finally… SHOWTIME!

Backstage is always a hectic mess, people are nervous, tired and excited. It’s really an amazing feeling and I never get tired of it. The designers took amazingly good care of their models. We were all catered to with constant food, snacks, drinks and even shoulder massages. My hair designer was particularly attentive and was constantly apologizing for the weight of the wig. She was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Everyone was just really amazing and gave their one hundred ten percent to the show. The models looked stunning, the performers were eye capturing, the crew and designers were all organized and the packed house was incredibly responsive. The smoke, and stage lighting were really captivating and for me the icing on the cake was the music which was provided by DJ Koo, former member of Clon (old school K-pop group). It was a true success and I was so glad to have been apart of it.