Diana Carroll is used to lying on a massage table in a film-thin, mostly see-through body suit while a pitchman rolls a fancy vacuum over her body and tells crowds that he’s massaging away most of her cellulite.
“I’ve been doing trade shows for a while now,” Carroll said Sunday, as she flipped over onto her back to let sales rep Pete Smith roll the LPG Cellu-M6, over her thighs and hips. “I like to watch the looks on people’s faces.”
There was plenty of interest Sunday in the $40,000 machine, which Carroll was helping demonstrate, that claims to reduce cellulite by sucking and rolling skin at the same time. There was also a lot of interest in the nail polish that changes colors when a woman’s body temperature rises, as well as the hairstyles that wove hair through silver tubes that looked like ductwork.
Crowds at the Chicago Midwest Beauty Show gathered around stages where men in black T-shirts and headset microphones walked everyone through the latest hairstyles as they trimmed away at models’ heads. Everywhere one turned there were models in heels, shampoo sample packs, blow-dryer displays and men saying, “Fabulous!”
Show organizers said they had 60,000 hairdressers, makeup artists and other salon professionals at the Rosemont Convention Center for the three-day convention that runs through Monday. It could have been a great culture clash, with a purple hair and leopard-print-pants crowd versus a blue hair and leopard-print-blouse crowd. But whether tastes were urban chic or main street, the thousands of visitors seemed to be finding what they needed.
“What’s good about it is that you get to see so many aspects of the industry without traveling all over the country, whether it’s computers or nail polish that changes colors,” said hair salon owner Grace Scalia, who caters to a well-heeled suburban crowd at her Bloomfield Hills, Mich., salon.
Even the really far out stuff was useful, said Jeremy Gibson, a Louisville hairstylist whose personal taste ran to eyeliner, lipstick and a leopard print band around his neck.
After watching the hair-styling show by the Schwarzkopf company that included the futuristic hair-through-ductwork style, Gibson said that while it gave him some ideas, he would have to find a way of “adapting it to everyday life. It’s not very practical but it’s very artistic.”
And how was the Schwarzkopf show?
“Fabulous,” said Gibson’s companion, Adrian Montgomery, a Louisville makeup stylist.
Not everyone was impressed with the latest styles.
“`Some of this stuff is really bizarre,” said Oak Park hairdresser Mary Lou Fera. “Most hairdressers are looking for things you can do in a basic salon.”
Most of the salon owners were making sure they were up on the latest trends. New hairstyles tend to be created in Europe, New York or Los Angeles, where stylists come up with new looks for the stars, Gibson said. Those looks trickle into other markets through the media and through shows such as the convention in Rosemont, stylists say.
“Like the `Friends’ cut,” Fera said, referring to a style that swept the country after women on the sitcom started wearing it. “They had that haircut and then everybody had it. People are looking for styles that everyone can have because it’s easy.”
While local professionals were looking for new ideas, exhibitors were looking for customers.
Entrepreneur John Himelstein brought his mood nail polish company, Moodmania to Chicago from Los Angeles to look for new markets. He was pleased with the response.
“It works just like the mood ring,” said Maureen Mathias, displaying a hand full of long multicolored fingernails. Wielding a blow dryer in the other hand, she turned the hot stream of air on her nails, which quickly turned from dark to light.
Himelstein said had expected teenage girls to make up most of his market for the $7 bottles of polish, but was surprised to find women of all ages interested at the Chicago show.
“We’ve done shows in New York and L.A., but this has been good,” he said. “People are here to buy, not look.”
