Styling 'Harry Styles': She glams up celebrity wax figures

In this series, people from all walks of life offer an inside — often unfiltered — take on their livelihoods and what keeps them going in their jobs. In this instalment, hear from Sheryl Woo, a figure maintenance artiste who helps protect the magic in Madame Tussauds Singapore, as told to The Sunday Times.

- Sharon Salim

I am 32, and I help to make sure that the 90 or so wax figures in Madame Tussauds Singapore in Sentosa look red-carpet ready every day.

Once I start work at 8.15am, I grab my toolbox and start walking around the whole attraction site.

Inside the full toolbox is a lighter, wax and glue, so I can patch up scratches or fix items that have fallen off, such as rhinestones.

Our morning maintenance walk typically takes up to two hours before the attraction is open to the public, and is where we tidy the wax figures' hair and touch up their make-up.

It's just like being part of a glam team that prepares celebrities for red carpets. We memorise what they look like. I look at the figures from head to toe to see if something is out of place or missing.

I go up close to the faces of the figures to see if they have any scratches. The goal is to make them as lifelike as possible.

Once I've made my way through all the zones, I go back to certain areas to improve some details. For example, if there are costumes that guests can try on, I spray a fabric freshener on them to make sure the clothes look "fresh and alive".

If something breaks on-site during our morning maintenance, we bring it back to our studios to fix before putting it back on the floor.

We also have multiple walkthroughs each day, especially when there's high traffic.

Generally, each figure weighs between 30kg and 60kg, requiring at least two of our team members to carry it. There are three people in my team, which I lead as the studio manager.

FEEDING PUBLIC CURIOSITY We encourage people to get up close and personal with our figures, from hugging them to taking a selfie with them.

We want guests to be able to "feel" them, as this is likely the only time they can get close to the personalities they usually see onstage or on the television.