Woman finds success as male model

WHEN  jobs dried up in an industry that considers 25 middle-aged, Elliott Sailors, 31, chopped off her blonde locks, bound her breasts and reinvented herself as a male model.

Elliott Sailors

ELLIOTT Sailors was a blond bombshell with the prestigious Ford modeling agency and had curves that graced Bacardi billboards around the world.

But when jobs dried up in an industry that considers 25 middle-aged, Sailors, 31, chopped off her blonde locks and reinvented herself - as a male model.

Instead of pouting her full lips, Sailors now binds her breasts and accentuates her strong jaw line.

"I'm starting over to have a longer career," Sailors told the New York Post. "Men don't need to look as young as possible, so I have a lot of time."

The former beauty-pageant contestant from Tucson, Ariz., who was given her mother's maiden name, Elliott, confessed that male modeling seemed like a natural transition because "earlier on in my career, I would get frustrated because I thought I looked too masculine.

"I have a strong jaw, wide forehead, huge eyebrows. I thought I looked like a man wearing makeup."

Sailors now shows up to casting calls in flannel shirts, ripped jeans, boots and biker jackets. She gets her hair buzzed at Decatur and Sons barber shop in Chelsea.

Elliott Sailors

She says her husband, Adam Santos-Coy, is supportive - although she was a jaw-dropping blonde when he married her.

"He said he knew people would see me differently once I did it, but he didn't realise how much people would see him differently," she said, explaining that think that many think they're a gay couple.

Sailors dresses like a man on most days because it's easier than wearing makeup or heels.

And she says no one opens the door for her anymore:

"When I'm in an elevator, I notice that they let all of the girls go first - like, the real girls."

Elliott Sailors

This story originally appeared in the New York Post.