Lockdown Updates!

Hello!

So it’s been a while since I last created a post. Things have been somewhat up and down in the last few weeks and trying to navigate the ever changing Coronavirus/lockdown guidelines has been difficult to say the least! There is some light at the end of the tunnel as restrictions are easing up for some industries but unfortunately, at the time of writing, the beauty industry is still at a halt. I am lucky that throughout all of this uncertainty I still have a part time retail job and fall under the national furlough scheme which does take some of the pressure off.

That said, when we can all get back into studios and film sets things are going to be very different. Hygiene will be more important than ever before, our practices will be heavily scrutinised and so they should be! Disposable masks, gloves and visors may become standard practices from now on. We will have to think about out costings and change them to offset the cost of any necessary PPE - but how to do so without a huge impact on clients in a time when everyone is in the same, tightly-squeezed financial situation? No doubt it’s going to be strange when we can all get back to it.

Long running soaps such as Emmerdale and Coronation Street have gone back to shooting (with social distancing in place of course) but the actors are having to undertake their own hair and makeup! Which begs the question; if actors can do it themselves, will these big studios even bother to hire MUA’s again? We as a community or artists do so much more than just throw on some makeup! We have to be able to out ourselves into a characters mindset to enable us to create the desired look - much like how an actor will portray a character, we have to find the minute details that bring something to life. Also in my experience, I have been called on to do much more than just apply makeup; I’ve held light reflectors, sourced props, held boom mics, gone on food runs, to name just a few things on top of everything else like touch ups, continuity, changes etc.

It certainly all feels a bit bleak at the moment and for me, trying to be creative has been challenging. I’ve had to learn that it’s ok to not be posting new looks on instagram every other day, that creativity doesn’t need to be forced when there’s no pressure to meet deadlines. It’s also ok to not have learned a new skill, there were so many free online courses and tutorials and whilst I have taken advantage of a great many, I still didn’t feel like I was achieving ‘enough’. We don’t all have the capacity to cope with such massive changes to daily life and come out the other side having learnt Russian, dropped 5 stone of weight and posted 100 days of makeup! Coming to terms with the fact that I am not that kind of person was a learning curve. I haven’t been sat wallowing the whole time though, lockdown has given me the chance to dust off my ventilating (wig knotting) skills and finish a project that was on the back burner for over 2 years!

I have created a handful of looks whilst in lockdown that I have been pretty proud of, its been so refreshing to just go with the flow and not have to worry about meeting a brief and just being inspired by the materials in front of me. I’ve also created some pretty rubbish looks too but I try not to get too hung on them!

This lockdown will end sooner or later and business will return. Stay safe out there people!

Fern xx