[Série Les métiers de l’ombre en culture] Artists-make-up artists-hairdressers, a profession less superficial than it seems

They go almost unnoticed. They are, however, essential players in the cultural milieu. The duty offers a series of portraits of shadow trades, through the confidences of professionals who practice them or have already practiced them. Today: artists-make-up artists-hairdressers.

Carole Méthot and Laurie Deraps don’t stop for a minute. They are both renowned artists-make-up artists-hairdressers in Montreal and abroad. If they work a lot in the world of fashion (fashion week, magazines, photography, etc.), they also support artists. The first likes to follow the musicians over their trajectory and their music videos, like Emma Beko and Isabella Lovestory, but also Hubert Lenoir, whom she has made up since her debut.

“We share our creativity and our extravagance together, so I can afford a lot of things,” she says of Lenoir. Carole Méthot even considers that this collaboration is the impetus that gave a boost to her career. Since then, contracts have followed one another for her, from North America to Europe, which brings her a certain balance between the inventiveness of musicians and the specific demands of fashion. “The makeup I do is sometimes as simple as it can be crazy,” she enthuses. “I’m still learning, because each mission and each client turn out to be real experiments. »

For her part, Laurie Deraps, joined in Paris where she is currently for professional reasons, enjoys bringing to life the vision of the designers and artists with whom she works. In this regard, she believes that the creativity involved in make-up and hairdressing is comparable to that of painting and sculpture. “I did design work for the Éloize and Soleil circuses and I can say that I had a blast there! It’s great when the artistic directors trust us,” she confides.

Everything is political

For Laurie Deraps, it goes without saying to be able to make up and style all those who pass through her hands, without exception. “I’m not necessarily a political person, but it’s something that picks me up,” she says of diversity and inclusivity. “There are horror stories of black people coming on set and not being able to get their hair done because white hairdressers won’t touch their hair…so they have to do their own makeup and do their own hair. »

It is with this in mind that Laurie Deraps did not hesitate to follow the courses offered by Stéphanie Odia, then by the National Institute of Image and Sound for very tight curly hair. “It should be part of basic hairdressing training. I learned so much, and it gives me another vision. It is essential to be able to style all hair textures”, underlines the artist-make-up artist-hairdresser.

Even more, she is convinced that the hairstyle, more political than one might think, is the reflection of the moment. “It’s fascinating to see how the hair follows the current and the movements. The fluidity of the brushing of the 1970s freed women from the structure of rollers”, she illustrates, while drawing a parallel with the free love advocated by the sexual liberation of the time.

While some makeup and hairstyling professionals fear the rise of artificial intelligence in image creation technologies, embodied in particular by filters on social networks, Carole Méthot is optimistic about the future of her career. “I don’t think it will last,” she said. People will always want to see the tangible side of a makeup or hairstyle in real life. »

On the strength of their experiences, Carole Méthot and Laurie Deraps both believe that the very precise profession of artist-make-up artist-hairdresser is much more enriched through curiosity, desire and encounters than on school benches. .

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