KEY POINTS:
After 20 years of hairdressing I was offered a job in the wig department of Phantom of the Opera in 1997 and then all the overseas shows that came to New Zealand. Being a wig designer is a very time-consuming, challenging occupation. It becomes a lifestyle as you always seem to have something buzzing around in your mind.
I do sometimes ask myself why I do it (especially when I am halfway through making a wig and my back is breaking) but when it is completed and you sit in the theatre and see your work on stage, that's when I say I love what I do.
At the moment I am working on a short film called Pito by the Okareka Dance Company which requires a 5m-long dread. It has to attach to two separate wigs which are worn by dancers Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal, so it all has to stay in one piece. As a child I wanted to be a hairdresser. I never had any plans to do anything else. I was always cutting my dolls' hair. I can remember my aunty giving me a doll with plastic hair, so I made holes in her head and put ribbons in so it looked like hair.
As a child my mother took me to the opera and theatre and I can remember sitting reading the programmes and wondering how I could get my name in the credits.
I have a breeding pair of kunekune pigs called Pork and Bacon. I have always liked pigs. I think they are amazing animals, they are so ugly they're beautiful. We usually breed our pigs three times a year. Baby piglets are the cutest - it is hard to believe they grow to be so big.
My golden rule of dressing is always dress to your body shape and not just what the fashion dictates.
I first knew what love was when I bought my first guide dog puppy home in January 2006. I am on to my fourth puppy now and she is progressing really well. My first two dogs are now working and the third puppy has just started her training. The most frequent question I get asked is "how you can give them back?" I can't say it's not hard, but when you know that the puppy you have looked after for 12 months is going to make a difference to someone's life, it makes it all worthwhile.
* Annette Beaney is the wigmaker for the New Zealand Opera production of Hansel and Gretel, touring New Zealand until August 13. The Auckland season runs until Monday.
