My day with Miss Universe.

Often times I hear " Your so Lucky" from fellow artists who are just starting out in this industry. I think some have the perception that once you reach a certain level in your career its smooth sailing. Let me tell you nothing could be further from the truth. You have to always challenge yourself and set new career goals. Another thing you have to remember is no matter how good you think you are, there is always going to be someone that doesn't agree with what you might consider beautiful. What is important to remember is a situation like that doesn't make you any less talented ,nor should you ever feel defeated. Use situations like this to grow and learn,but at the same time eat a slice humble pie and never let them see you sweat.

With that said , Ill share this story.

My Agent called me to tell me that She booked me on a shoot with Riyo Mori, Miss Universe 2007 with the amazing photographer Fadil Berisha for Stiletto Magazine. As you can imagine I was excited to get to work with both. So I show up to the studio ready to go. The first person I meet is the super friendly Isabelle, she is the makeup artists. She works with Fadil all the time and has a great relationship with him . The next person I meet is Fadil himself and he was super nice too. Then Riyo came in and she was so lovely and friendly. The next person is the stylist / art director of the magazine , she was from France and spoke NO English. Her assistant did all the talking for her.

We started to talk about the vision of the story and all shared our ideas. When we thought we where all on the same page Isabelle took Miss Universe into makeup. I watched and studied her hair and face so that I could do my thing when it was my time. As I start to do her hair and Riyo looks at me and said "wow your really good" This is always a good thing to hear from the model . Then Isabelle chirps is with a " You Better wurk" So at this time I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. Then Fadil comes over and says." I want BIG hair,make it big" . Now rule of thumb is you always want to make the photographer happy . So big hair it is. As I put the finishing touches on the look . The french lady comes over with a look of Horror on her face and starts to whisper to her assistant. She never bothered to fill me in on what was whispered but I'm not thinking its anything I'm gonna want to hear. So we start to shoot and everything seems to be going well. I was happy with want I was seeing and assumes everyone else was too.

Fadil prints out a few swipes of some of the shots we did to get a idea of a layout and the French Lady comes over with a sharpie and starts to scribble all over the hair in the pictures , with a look on her face that said nothing but ''ewwwwwww''. She soon starts the whispers again and starts rubbing her hands from the top of her head down the sides of her face trying to spit out the word "Strait". What do you do when your being told two different things from two different people? Listen to the one who speaks English lol. I could have pulled a diva or panicked ,but I did neither . I tried to make them both happy. and I changed the hair often till everyone had a smile on their faces.

However I think the best picture is the one I posted. The one with the BIG hair.