65° - 01.07.1968, Blaðsíða 18

65° - 01.07.1968, Blaðsíða 18
Grooming the Beauty Queens “Through these doors pass some of the most beautiful girls in the world” might well be printed over the entrance to Heilsulindin, the health and beauty culture establishment in Reykjavik, for in the land known for its beautiful women, Heilsu- lindin has the special distinction of handling the girls who become Miss Iceland. Many women, girls — and men, too — come to Heilsulindin. Here, in a restful, quietly-deco- rated and beautifully equipped suite of rooms, clients received personalized attention. At their disposal are sauna baths, steam baths, electric massage couches, sun lamps, spot-reducing machines and individual massage by a trained masseuse. In the facial department are skin-stimulating machines and the kind of commonsense counsel- ling on diet and exercise that underlies real beauty, for the basic idea at Heilsulindin is that good health is essential to looking and feeling well. Thus in addition to facial treatments and cosmetic advice, special attention is given to skin disorders, all on the advice of a consultant doctor, even to the extent of diet lists. Since 1961, aspirants to the beauty queen titles have been sent to SigriSur Gunnarsdottir, director of Heilsulindin. Several years training as a model in Canada resulted in her opening a school for models in Reykjavik in 1955 which has now developed into the beauty-culture school, Heilsu- lindin. Candidates for the Miss Iceland title are usual- ly recommended to Mrs. Gunnarsdottir through any third person who thinks a girl may have the necessary possibilities. After seeing them herself and making the difficult decision as to how much “certain something” a girl has, the group is nar- rowed to five or six serious entrants. These girls come regularly to Heilsulindin for the round of health treatments mentioned before and for special instruction in posture and graceful car- riage, manners and conversation. Mrs. Gunnarsdottir makes the experienced ob- servation that women seemed to be composed of two halves: one excellent, and one needing at- tention, thus a woman with a beautiful face and upper body is apt to have a hip and leg problem, whereas good hips and legs seem to go with faces not so attractive. Fortunately, Icelandic girls possess a good deal of facial beauty, and fortuna- tely also, although one cannot grow a new face, one can slim down hips and legs. And Heilsu- lindin does just that when necessary. Also es- sential in the training is a series of sunlamp treatments for a slight tan. Icelanders are fair people and tend to look anemic without a touch of color, so when skies are overcast for days at a time, the sunlamps are busy. Another problem typical to Icelandic women is their shyness. It takes quite a while, she says, to convince a girl that she is not weakening her integrity by re- laxing and letting her personality shine through, and it takes some time before a girl learns to initiate or at least participate in conversation without embarrassment. A promising aspirant for a beauty title has to have a better than average figure to start with, or proportion defects which can be corrected. She must have good teeth, a nice smile, and something more than good looks. “That certain something which no one else has” is about as close as Mrs. Gunnarsdottir comes to describing it, but she recognizes it when she sees it. As a matter of fact, she says, there is a sixth sense within her always alert for that touch of “dif- ference” in passing faces. That others have also seen the “difference” is attested to by the fact that one of her girls, Sigrun Ragnarsdottir, won third place in the Miss Universe contest of 1961, GuSrun Bjarnadottir won the Miss Universe title itself in 1963, and of the later Miss Icelands, four have gone on to become top models in the European fashion world. (See pages 18 and 19). Although the beauty aspirants finish their training before the actual contest, they usually keep returning to Heilsulindin for occasional sauna baths or massage and for last minute pre- parations for the next step — participation in the larger contests held abroad. This spring’s winner of the Miss Iceland crown, Jonina KonraSsdottir, 21, married and disqualifi- ed herself from the Miss Universe contest and was replaced by Helen Knutsdottir, 18, who will probably also represent Iceland in the Miss Inter- national Contest in Tokyo in October of this year. Representing Iceland in the Miss World contest in London, and the Miss Scandinavia contest in Helsinki will be Helga Jonsdottir, 18, who placed third in the Miss Iceland competition. 16 65 DEGREES

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