‘You have to look the part’: How much a flight attendant spends on beauty in a month

“Getting ready for work is honestly a highlight of my day.”

Few jobs are as glamorised – and as misunderstood – as flight attending. Behind the complimentary champagne pours and aisle struts in a perfect slicked bun is a brutal schedule that puts your body through a lot. You’re serving coffees at 3am, adjusting to different time zones, not knowing what city you’re waking up in most days. But if there’s one part of the job that’s for certain, it’s that you’re being looked at – constantly.

There’s an unspoken beauty code in the sky: dewy skin, perfect nails, and a lip that lasts through small talk with 200 strangers. Flight attendants have to look the part and for most, this means spending hundreds of dollars a month on beauty upkeep. 

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For Hannah, who has been flying for over seven years, looking the part isn’t just a perk of the job, it’s practically part of the uniform. “When I first started flight training, they did a whole day on grooming: makeup, hair, fragrance. And then from there, you just watch what the other women are doing,” she tells me.

In her line of work, beauty maintenance isn’t just encouraged, it’s expected. “We do have specific grooming standards that we must meet. This includes certain hairstyles, [wearing] lipstick or lipgloss, acceptable nail shades, and makeup guidelines,” she explains. It’s also expected that you maintain your grooming throughout your duty: “So this includes touching up your hair and makeup as needed, if you’re doing a long day or night of flying.”

Hannah takes pride in her appearance at work. “Grooming is so important and looking the part comes hand-in-hand with flying,” she says. “There is pressure, yes. But I truly find joy in presenting myself well. It’s one of the perks of the job for me.”

Outside of work hours, Hannah happily participates in a plethora of beauty treatments. “Seeing my hairdresser is something I look forward to. I normally go for a colour and blow wave every eight to 10 weeks. Sometimes, I’ll go in between that time just for a toner and blow wave to keep my hair looking fresh.” She continues: “I also adore facials, although I only manage to squeeze this in about once a month, as I have a young daughter.”

On top of this, Hannah gets her nails done every two to three weeks and a pedicure every month. “They’re non-negotiable but they can feel like a bit of a chore,” she confesses. “Brows especially – I can’t go without getting them threaded or waxed every fortnight, but it’s not something I get excited about or particularly enjoy.”

On average, Hannah spends around $700 AUD on beauty products and treatments each month. Let’s do a quick beauty breakdown:

Nails: $80 to $110 every two to three weeks

Pedicure: $55 monthly

Hair colour and blow wave: $280 every 8–10 weeks (plus occasional in-between toners)

Brows (waxing or threading): $40 every fortnight

Facials: $110 monthly

Botox: $370 – $460 every six months

Filler: $510 every year to a year and a half

Like many in the industry, Hannah’s venture into cosmetic treatments like Botox and fillers didn’t feel like a radical decision, more like standard procedure. “I started getting filler only a few months into flying. I guess it was just so common and a part of the ‘flight attendant look’,” she explains. “Now, Botox is part of the routine. I get it on my forehead and frown lines every six months. I’d never go back.”

There’s no shame or secrecy in her tone, just calm pragmatism – although she admits: “It’s quite scary when I add it all up. But even knowing all that, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

For Hannah, the cost of beauty isn’t a sacrifice, it’s a priority. And while the cost of living crisis has caused many women to evaluate their routines, she hasn’t compromised. “I haven’t changed anything I do… What I get done just feels like routine to me. And I do these things to feel like me,” she says. Makeup and aesthetics have always felt authentic to her: “If I hadn’t become a flight attendant, I would’ve become a makeup artist,” she admits. “I love looking glam. I love having a nice, shiny lip gloss. Getting ready for work is honestly a highlight of my day.”

Hannah spends about an hour getting ready for work, a process that includes full makeup, hair styling, and ensuring her skin looks hydrated – even if she’s had three hours of sleep and just landed from an overnight international. When she’s not working, Hannah still spends time on her appearance, “probably about 20 minutes,” she says. “I still like to look put-together, but it’s more for me than anyone else.”

I ask about compensation – is she paid for the beauty labour she does outside of work? “We don’t get any extra payments for the time is takes to get ready and presented, this is just part of the role which you accept when you become a flight attendant,” she says. “However, we do have a grooming allowance that is incorporated into our salary. We also have the luxury of going through Duty Free weekly, so I mostly buy my skin care and makeup from [there] which works out a lot cheaper.” 

I immediately ask her what products she swears by – surely constant flying is the ultimate test for a moisturiser. “My holy grail for battling dry skin while flying is the Clinique Hydrating Jelly and Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream,” she tells me. “They’re both amazing and I use them daily.” Despite her love of glam, Hannah’s beauty routine has an underlying practicality. A good hand cream is essential to prevent dry hands, “My favourite is the Pure Fiji hand cream.”

As for makeup, longevity is everything.“My go-to is the Charlotte Tilbury Collagen Lip Bath, the colour lasts so well and doesn’t leave your lips feeling dry at the end of a day of flying,” she says. “The shade Pillow Talk is stunning.” 

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