When you have ever watched one in every of Workforce USA’s inventive swimming routines—which embrace flips, dives, handstands, and dramatic splashing by means of the water all with a full face of glam and hair—you will have seemingly questioned how the purple lipstick and cat eyeliner keep in place. “Competitors make-up isn’t a giant secret like folks might imagine!” swimmer and two-time Olympian Anita Alvarez jokes. “We simply search for waterproof make-up.”
Weeks earlier than they departed for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vogue caught up with teammates Keana Hunter, Daniella Ramirez, and Alvarez to speak magnificence… which did include a giant secret in any case.
Whereas the make-up will be the query on all people’s lips, it is the inventive swimmer hair routine that’s far more specialised to the game. In contrast to pace swimmers, polo gamers, or divers who all put on swim caps, inventive swimmers go away their hair uncovered to the water as a part of the aesthetic. What comes together with this sacrifice is a “massive secret”: Hunter reveals that Knox Gelatine (sure, you could acknowledge the packaging out of your grocery retailer) is the ultimate product that provides that ultra-shiny, helmet-like end to their hair.
“Our signature hairstylist is a decent braided bun, which wants a variety of hair ties, bobby pins, and hairnets,” Hunter says. As soon as styled into place, it is time for the gelatin end. “It is normally combed into our hair scorching when it is the consistency of honey. Put a number of layers to assist it keep so long as attainable.” From there, anticipate it to dry.
“It hardens like a helmet and we bobby pin a ‘headpiece’ on prime to match our swimsuit,” Alvarez provides. “There are extra detailed steps and particular methods that every particular person has, however that’s the gist!” Hunter provides that their coach, Andrea Fuentes, has made a particular model for the workforce that is each stronger and smells higher than the grocery retailer selection.
To get it out, a very scorching bathe is required. That, mixed with on common 6 hours in an outside, chlorinated pool, additionally actually dries out the workforce’s pores and skin and hair. “My pores and skin is all the time dry and delicate once I go away the pool,” Ramirez says, including that post-shower Cerave is vital to conserving her pores and skin calm.
Total, Alvarez says, magnificence is a large a part of inventive swimming and it must make an impression. “Because the judges and viewers are so far-off, we love to do a daring black eyeliner with a pleasant purple lipstick,” she says, including that Make-up Without end is her go-to. “We’re searching for one thing that can maintain up within the water, by means of completely happy tears when celebrating on the rostrum, and every little thing in between.”
