Macrons’ hair bill a snip compared to Hollande’s

Brigitte Macron’s youthful appearance has admirers wondering how she does it. Now we know, but that’s not the biggest surprise.

French President Emmanuel Macron with his predecessor Francois Hollande, who, it turns out, was much more high-maintenance, despite his thinner locks.

Brigitte Macron’s youthful appearance, belying her 65 years, has had admirers around the world wondering just how she does it.

The French Court of Accounts may have provided an answer in its annual report on the Elysee budget, which said that President Macron’s wife shared his official hairdresser and make-up artist. The unidentified specialist has a renewable one-year contract with the presidency worth euros 62,400 ($AU98,300). This stipulates that her services must be available “in the Elysee Palace and during visits”.

The auditor added: “For her public and official activities, Mrs Brigitte Macron calls upon the service of the presidency’s hairdresser/make-up artist.” Mr Macron, who is 25 years younger than his wife, was criticised last summer for spending euros 26,000 ($AU40,000) on make-up and hairdressing in the first three months of his presidency. Aides promised at the time that the bill would be reduced, and appear to have kept the pledge.

France’s first lady Brigitte Macron gets her outfits for free.

The contract may seem large by comparison with the UK, where David Cameron paid 90 pounds ($AU160) for a cut and dry, but it is low by French presidential standards. Francois Hollande, Mr Macron’s balding predecessor, paid his hairdresser euros 118,740 a year and employed a separate make-up artist for about euros 72,000 ($AU113,000) a year. Julie Gayet, his partner, is understood to have paid for her own hair styling and make-up.

The Macrons are relatively good value in other ways, too. Mrs Macron’s clothes are lent free by Parisian fashion groups, notably LVMH, when she goes on a public engagement.

She also has a personal fashion adviser, but the Court of Accounts said that taxpayers had not picked up the bill. The French media have suggested that her stylist is provided by LVMH.

Although there is no official role of first lady in France, Mrs Macron has a private office of four people and a further seven open the 1,800 letters sent to her each month. The government said that her office cost euros 440,000 ($AU69,000) a year, but according to the Court of Accounts the presidency’s accounting system was so vague that the true figure was difficult to establish.

The French presidency has always been run on a grandiose scale and in other ways Mr Macron has done little to change this tradition. The Elysee has 151 cars at its disposal and employs 822 people.

The presidency’s budget in 2017 - Mr Macron took power in May of that year - came to euros 103.2 million ($AU162 million), up from euros 101.7 million ($AU160 million) the previous year. The 198 presidential visits undertaken last year came to euros 17.7 million ($AU27 million).

- The Times