Paris, Sept. 18 (CNA) Taiwan hairstylists clinched one gold, two silver and two bronze medals at the OMC Hairworld 2017 World Cup held in Paris on Sunday and Monday.
Taiwanese beautician Wu Kuo-ching took home a gold medal for creating an impressive bird-flying costume in the "fantasy hairstyle" category.
Wu used 10,000 hair extensions of various colors weighing a total of at least 10 kilograms to create a headdress and costume representing the image of flying wings.
The 26-year-old man, a second-time contender, said he was unable to achieve great heights in his previous appearance and was happy to win gold this time around after two months of practice.
Wu's model, identified only by her Chinese name Tang Miao-ya, was a Polish national studying international relations at a graduate institute in Taiwan.
The model said that given her small stature, she had a tough time bearing the weight of the headdress and costume that covered most of her upper body during the competition.
"It was really heavy and caused my muscles to ache. But I'm happy now," she said.
Meanwhile, Chien Kuo-chung, who has 20 years hairdressing experience, captured a silver medal in the Progressive Woman's Cut & Style category.
Chien said he spent a lot of his spare time sharpening his skills before the competition, often practicing until 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m. after getting off work at 8 p.m.
The OMC Hairworld offers a global platform for competitors in the beauty world to show off their hairstyling skills.
With over 50 member countries and 2 million individual members worldwide, OMC started the annual international competition in 1946.
