Beauty is Pain

Tonight I took some young students from USF on a tour of the haunted Downtown Tampa.  The weather was gorgeous!  There were points in the tour when my guests were shivering both from the wind and the creepy tales I shared.

With my favorite time of the year in play, I was feeling rather spritely and decided to mix things up a little.  In place of my fabulous steampunk hat, I chose to adorn myself with a sassy black wig and vamp up my face.
(See below)

The process of getting ready was very  tedious but I feel the end justified the means.  I lost count of the number of bobby pins it took to ensnare my hair under that wig.  Those pins are not forgiving and I succumbed to many scalp stabbings trying to get each twisted bunch of hair in place.  You wouldn't know to look at it but the wig lining is smeared with my blood.  The process of vamping continues: 

Pins- check.
Pin curls- check.
Cursing at the pins for making my scalp bleed- check.
Tetanus shot- check
Wig cap made out of old panty hose stockings- check.
And finally, wig- check!

Once the wig was in place I could move on to the easy stuff- make-up!  Character and fantasy make-up is a great passion of mine and I love face painting.  The tour was great, the weather was perfect and my wig was a big hit.  Then the adrenaline wore off and the pain set in.  My scalp was throbbing and I could feel every single pin pulling at my hair and tearing at my tender scalp.

If putting pins in hurts, pulling them out of twisted, knotted hair is even more painful.  Removing the pins was not a happy event.  (See below)

So much for the vamp goddess.  Any woman can testify that the things we do for beauty can cause great pain.  Any artist can confirm that the things we do for art can cause us to suffer.  Pain.  Suffering.  Tetanus.  Such is the life of a girl who sings for her supper. 


Until next time,

~Story Siren