The new do-it-yourself image of this year's Miss America pageant was not quite all it was made up to be.
Beginning in July, pageant officials touted a new policy requiring contestants to do their own hair and makeup instead of bringing in professionals.But then they allowed professional snipping and styling to go on behind closed hotel room doors with a chaperone present, said Joe Sanders, executive director of the Miss South Carolina pageant and president of the National Association of Miss America State Pageants.
"Miss America did not do her own hair and many other contestants had hairdressers," said Sanders' wife, Gail, who is the pageant official in charge of preparing Miss South Carolina for the national competition.
Kimberly Aiken of Columbia, S.C., succeeded Leanza Cornett of Jacksonville, Fla., as Miss America on Sept. 18.
Hairdressers traditionally shared a room at the Atlantic City, N.J., convention center where the pageant takes place, but this year they were banned from the building.
But the pageant sent state directors a letter saying hairdressers were welcome to work on contestants in their hotel rooms, Gail Sanders said.
Cornett's hairdresser, Jeanette Hughes, said pageant officials gave her a badge that read "Special Services" so she could work on the out-going Miss America's hair inside the convention center this year. A year earlier, when she styled Cornett's hair, her badge said "Hairdresser," Hughes said.
"To make it out that the girls are going to be natural and do their own hair and makeup, it just kind of put us down," Hughes said. "We feel like we really got stabbed in the back.
Miss Arkansas' hairdresser, Billy Hoyt, said at least five women selected for the top 10, including Miss Arkansas Nicole Bethman, used hairdressers before they went to the convention center on the day of the pageant.