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| Cedar Rapids Gazette March 15, 2000  Gazette staff writer The Grammys are a long way from Herculaneum, Mo., but this small town, 25 miles south of the Arch, is where Andrea Politte got her start. Politte, 36, is the master design specialist who for the second year in a row helped stars look their best at the Grammy Awards. Now living in Anamosa, she says her brush with stardom is due to faith, passion and a lot of hard work. “I say the Serenity prayer a lot I think it’s a lot of education, training, determination and pas-sion. And because of the passion it makes me want to learn more,” says Polite, who with her husband, Jeff, left Missouri four years ago to buy State Beauty Supply in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Making people look their best came naturally to Politte. She says she was one of those kids who wanted to cut hair as far back as she could remember. “I would get my poor animals and cut their hair. The few dolls I had had great haircuts. In fact, it wasn’t unusual for my parents to wake up and find one of my friends getting a hair cut,” she says. A week after graduating from Herculaneum High School in l982 Politte was off to cosmetology school. She opened her first salon in the lower level of her home. Later she expanded into a building designed just the business. Then one day her husband met a radio personality from a country music radio station in St. Louis. He told her how talented his wife was and the radio personality became a client. “Whenever there was a need to do makeup and hair for her commercials she’d give me a call. Then WIL put together a television program called ‘St. Louis Country’ where people would come and dance and country musicians would perform. I did the makeup for the personalities and made sure no one shined,” Politte says. During the year and a half the program ran, Politte did hair and makeup for country musicians such as Joe Diffie, Neal McCoy, Pam Tillus, Collin Raye, Willie Nelson and Ty England. This was her first experience with celebrities — a positive one all around. “You know you’re right in their face (doing makeup), but I had a pleasant experience with the people I worked with. I’m usually pretty energetic, but (around the stars) I actually felt calm. It felt like this is what I should be doing,” she says. Always eager to learn more about business, Politte sought additional training in Beverly Hills. One of the designers she met was Edward Jimenez, another master design specialist with his own salon on Rodeo Drive. The two became friends and whenever he needed some extra hands he would call Politte. A year ago he called with the invitation to help with the Grammy Awards. “I think I was in a state of shock for a few hours after he called. You say, ‘yes’ because you’ve worked so hard but when you get there it’s such a level of enjoyment it doesn’t even seem like work,” she says. Her assignment at the 1999 Grammy Award show was on the Ricky Martin production which was the Latin musician’s American debut. Politte was asked back to this year’s award show to work again with the Martin crew. The performers were to look like they had been in the mines all day, she says, “but they still had to look good and authentic.” Politte says the key to making people look good — whether it’s for television or for the office — is professional products — that and a good hair spray. “They hold up better than other cosmetics. I think department store cosmetics are over-rated. There’s such a difference in quality and performance of ingredients. I’ll be bashed for saying that, but I feel (selecting cosmetics) should be in the hands of professionals,” she says. In her own bathroom, Politte says you’ll find several professional lines of makeup and skin care. She uses Novita Spa Skin Care products for cleansing and moisturizing. On her hair she’s trying Pure Hair’s line of shampoo, conditioner and styling products. “In makeup I like to use Gerda Spielman’s foundation, Bodyography’s mascara and eye-shadows and OPI’s lipsticks and nail polish. I switch back and forth and try new things,” she says. ‘I can be ready in 10 minutes, but picking out clothes is another thing.” Politte encourages people to develop a relationship with their designer. Most people don’t have the time to go out and try new products, she says, and a trusting relationship with a good stylist can help educate clients on which items to buy. Today Politte works out of the Iowa City store with the goal to get out and back into the salons, this time educating designers about new products. She says the closest she gets to a salon chair these days is the one she uses in her basement to cut her family’s hair. “When I find the time,” she says, laughing. |
andrea@andreapolitte.com© Copyright 2002-2008 Andrea Politte and William Easton Design. All rights reserved.