A model for the day

Post-make-over: looking very different!

This weekend I had the opportunity to model for my teacher's sister-in-law who is training to be a make-up artist. I had never done anything of the sort, aside from a couple of 'photo shoots' that my mum took my sister and I to do a few years ago. I am also not a girl that wears a lot of make up and I knew my face was in for a complete transformation, as Omani women are generally not stingy when it comes to special-occasion make up!

Some of the other girls from the Arabic centre came along to get their photos taken too, making it a fun, girly day out, and a much-needed excuse to get out of our apartments and the surrounding area. We all squished into our teacher's car and headed for a town in the mountains, listening to Arabic music (along with a little Zumba music for some reason). When we arrived at the salon we were told to wait in one of the rooms for a little while before everything was set up. But Omanis won't leave you for too long without food, so after a short while we were bombarded with crisps, sandwiches, desserts, and drinks.

Once everything was ready, it was time for the first girl to get her make-up done, and we awaited eagerly to see the transformation. Special-occasion make up in Oman is colourful, daring, and can completely change the way you look (which was the case for me). Kathreen, my housemate, who was the first to undergo the make-over, looked great when she got up from the chair, and I was excited to see what mine would look like. And I didn't have to wait long, as I was up next.

As I said before, I don't wear make-up often, mainly because it's a lot of effort, and I'm not a morning person. When the make-up artist said that she'd like to use pink for my eyes I was a little hesitant, because even when I do wear make-up it's never colourful, let alone pink... But, pink would go with my outfit, so I said yes. There was a lot of different pink and brown eye shadows used, various eye-liners, and pink lip-gloss. In addition to that, in true Khaleeji style, thick, dark eyebrows were painted on top of my own. That was probably the weirdest thing to get used to, as eyebrows change the way you look more than you'd imagine. The next thing that made a big difference was the use of long fake eyelashes, which I've never tried before. When she put them on, my eyelids felt heavy and I could see them in front of me, but I must admit that I liked them! When I looked in the mirror my face looked like that of a different person. But, without my hair done, the make-up was overpowering, so I made sure that I was next for the hairdressing.

The lady who did my hair worked in silence for the first part, unaware that I could speak Arabic (she doesn't know English). But when I finally spoke to her, she started chatting away. She told me about her family and asked me questions about various things, and I was happy to practice some Arabic and also to make the hairdressing experience less of a prolonged awkward silence. She used two yarns of wool at the back of my head in order to create volume that my hair otherwise couldn't achieve, and until the balls of yarn were covered with my own hair, it looked really funny. I also had rollers in the front of my hair to add to the comic effect. However, once she had finished working her magic, it looked very elegant, and when I walked back into the room with all the other girls I was told it should be my wedding day and we were in need of a groom!

Finally, my make up was balanced out by my oh-so-voluminous hairdo! 

It turns out that they had ordered KFC whilst I was getting my hair done, and I was so ready for food! All of us girls ate fried chicken with full faces of make-up, and some with rollers in their hair; it was a funny sight to behold!

After a long wait, it was finally time for the photo shoot, the reason for all the make-up, hair, and fried chicken. The photos were taken by two guys with a great sense of humour, and we all had fun posing and pretending to be qualified models. I don't have the official photos yet but I will post them when I do. To top off a fun-filled day out, one of the models (a nursery teacher of the make-up artist's son) was celebrating her birthday that day, and we all surprised her with cake and sang Happy Birthday during her photo shoot!  

Just another day in Oman...