Meet the Ukraine border guards who look like they’ve just come off the catwalk …

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 5:11 PM on 5th March 2012

For the first time in history, male football fans will actually WANT to be pulled over at the airport and given a thorough pat down while making their way to Euro 2012 this summer.

The staff checking passports at Ukraine’s Borispol airport, near Kyiv, are nothing like the stereotypical border guards that one imagines at an Eastern European checkpoint.

Indeed, they are unlike any border guards at any airport – with their manicured nails, perfect make-up and not-a-strand-out-of-place hairstyles.

New arrival: A young Ukrainian border guard is given tips on wearing make-up and styling her hair during one of the government-sponsored 'mater classes' at Borispol airport near Kyiv

New arrival: A young Ukrainian border guard is given tips on wearing make-up and styling her hair during one of the government-sponsored ‘mater classes’ at Borispol airport near Kyiv

The young female guards in their severe military uniforms, waiting for their turn to be given a professional make-over, look like they might be models in a men’s magazine photoshoot or a slick airline television commercial.

But they are all border guards for a living, and their special pampering is part of a bizarre initiative to provide ‘master classes’ in grooming.

The Ukrainian government is concerned that it might not be putting its best face forward when it co-hosts Euro 2012 with Poland in June/July.

Model workers: Professional hairstylists and make-up artists have been called in to give grooming tips to airport staff ahead of the Euro 2012 tournament in June/July

Model workers: Professional hairstylists and make-up artists have been called in to give grooming tips to airport staff ahead of the Euro 2012 tournament in June/July

Holding pattern: Guards wait in the background as two colleagues are pampered with an array of make-up and hair care products. The master classes are a bid to put Ukraine's best face forward this summer

Holding pattern: Guards wait in the background as two colleagues are pampered with an array of make-up and hair care products. The master classes are a bid to put Ukraine’s best face forward this summer

As a result, it wants to make sure that football fans feel welcome from the moment they step off the plane.

And what better way to soothe pre-tournament jitters than greet travellers with a beautiful and perfectly manicured border guard?

It might be a tad unsubtle but the powers that be hope that this will set the scene for a friendly tournament that thrusts the Ukraine into the international spotlight.

To that end, professional hairdressers and make-up artists have been giving vital grooming tips to female border guards at Borispol airport, which will be the main air hub during the tournament.

Not too much: Professional stylist Andrei Yudin seemed smitten by the guards under his make-up brushes - saying they were all beautiful already, and only need the merest of make-overs

Not too much: Professional stylist Andrei Yudin seemed smitten by the guards under his make-up brushes – saying they were all beautiful already, and only need the merest of make-overs

A Ukrainian border guard

A Ukrainian border guard

Hair stewards: Hairdressers try new styles on two different border guards – clearly receiving mixed reactions 

Not that everyone thinks the tips are that vital.

Stylist Andrei Yudin, 38, seemed
smitten by the guards under his make-up brushes – and rejected more
misogynistic claims that it was because the women were ugly.

He said: ‘Even without any make-up
they look astonishing. I just do it for the sake of touching up a
beautiful face one more time.’

Obviously, male guards have not been expected to attend the classes. After all, there’s only so much the experts can do.

Open bundled references in tabs: