Usually, people think about painters, photographers, or designers when they hear the word ‘artist’. However, people who enhance people’s facial features by putting on makeup and people who style people’s hair by changing the shapes and colors are also artists. 

Many people say it's hard to succeed as an artist now, so I decide to interview a makeup artist and hairstylist to find out more.

Makeup artist Ran Hong, who has been working in the industry for 20 years, is very talented that she has taken on the makeup of many celebrities including famous Korean actresses Um Junghwa, Hyesoo Kim, and Yeojung Yoon. Ran Hong said she was interested in makeup since 3rd grade of middle school because she found it revolutionary for her makeup can change people’s eyes and lip color and make them prettier. So she started to collect cosmetic products. One day she saw a job called makeup artist on TV and that was the day she decided to become a makeup artist.
She usually works at her shop, but working at events such as commercials, drama shoots, and concerts is also part of her job so she sometimes goes to the scene to help with makeup.

Ran Hong said that as a makeup artist, the advantages are that she acquires knowledge through conversations with various people, quickly gets close to kind people because she touches their face for a long time.

To do makeup on the spot for drama shoots, she needs to only focus on it for three to four months once the shoot starts. The main disadvantage is that it was difficult to wake up early every day. As makeup is the preparation part before filming, she barely has any time for herself and doesn’t have time to take care of health. 
In the case of drama shoots, they are very long, so Hong’s working hours were more than 16 hours a day and sometimes 18-19 hours. She said now she is more used to it and still enjoys makeup. 
She said "These days, there are many opportunities to get makeup products, methods, and contents through SNS, so ordinary people are as good as professionals. If you want to make makeup a job, there are more ways than before and it is fun, so I think you should try it without worrying."

Seungchul Park is a hairdresser who has been working as a hairdresser for 27 years. Since he was a student, he didn't want to live as an ordinary office worker and when his older brother's friend came home to play, he was impressed by his fashionable style and found out that his job was a hairdresser, so he decided to become a hairdresser.
According to him, one of the advantages of working as a hairdresser is that you quickly become very good at it over time. Because the more you work as a hairdresser, the faster your skills improve, and it's a job that can make others happy. Park Seung-chul is also able to experienced more economic opportunities because hairdressers are not divided into positions like companies and ordinary office workers. He said that if hairdressers work hard enough, they can earn high profits.

The disadvantage is that it takes a long time and difficult to acquire opportunities as anyone does at first and many people give up during that time. His advice to those who want to be a hairdresser is that people can overcome these challenges with effort even if they never learned about hairstyle before or don't have professional skills, but they should seriously consider whether it is a suitable profession for them or not. Seungchul Park said he is proud of this job because being a hairdresser has a high level of self-satisfaction and a lot of free time to manage himself so he can distribute good time to live a healthy life.

These two people's lives show that a lot of effort and love for their work have created great success. There may not be many people who can choose to do what they really like and remain successful for a long time. However, those who have led to such successes seem to be as happy as they know how to enjoy their work and have known what they really wanted.

Hayeon Shin
8th Grade
Saint Johnsbury Academy Jeju