The mane event

NEWTON -- If there is one attribute the Democrats can claim with reasonable certainty this election season, it is the quality of their coifs.

Both John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, enjoy abundant heads of hair, manes the two senators are not afraid to flaunt. Kerry has asserted that his team has better hair than the GOP ticket, and Edwards has playfully referred to the ''Breck Girl" moniker Republicans attached to him, a reference to the onetime poster girls for golden tresses.

So in this age of the unrelenting camera, when image is almighty and hair gel can mean the difference between looking presidential and being an also-ran, the Democratic National Convention Committee has charged two high-end stylists with ensuring that errant strands are smoothed and bangs properly lifted.

''If something needs to be serviced, to make them look better in the light, we'll do it," said Olive Benson, the owner of a Chestnut Hill salon who -- along with Connie Sullivan, a hairdresser in Newton Upper Falls -- will oversee a roomful of touch-up artists backstage at the FleetCenter.

Armed with fine water misters, glossifiers, and curling irons, Sullivan's and Benson's beauty troops will be at the behest of the convention's top speakers: the likes of Teresa Heinz Kerry, former president Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, former vice president Al Gore, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

''We will be rejuvenating and refreshing," Sullivan said. ''We don't expect anyone to arrive undone, but most people can use a quick rearrangement."

Sullivan and Benson relate that they're ladies of a certain age; they won't give specifics. But they have more than 60 years of hairstyling experience between them. Both are accustomed to exacting clients with particular tastes.

''Too short," one customer snapped as Sullivan clipped her pageboy earlier this week. Sullivan, a Canton native with a tidy, ash-blond bob, paid little mind. Blithely, she continued cutting away as her Maltese darted underfoot, his snow-white hair teased into a barrette between his ears.

The two women have worked at a number of high-profile hair style shows, some overseas, and understand the art of the nanosecond touch-up.

So they say with great confidence that they are equipped to instantly tame the unruly locks of an ego-filled and butterfly-stomached parade of politicos.

''We will comb, gel, mousse, anything to calm that texture down, whatever it takes," said Benson, who was voted ''Hairdresser Most Likely To Succeed" at her Cambridge high school.

The two women were chosen for the convention job by a New York publicist who the convention committee tapped to handle all hair and makeup needs for podium speakers. Norma Lee, the publicist, said she knew their work from their many years of working in the beauty industry.

Avowed Democrats who will donate their time, the two women came close before to being stylists to the Democratic stars. Benson, whose expertise at Olive's Beauty Salon on Boylston Street is in calming curls, once offered to work on Chelsea Clinton's hair during her visit to Boston; the White House declined the offer.

Sullivan, who works at Geneses Salon on Needham Street, got a call once asking if she could do Hillary Clinton's hair during another visit, but that, too, fell through.

Next week, Sullivan and Benson are bringing their own crew of assistants, who will tend to hair but also makeup needs, mostly powder for shiny skin. In all, about 18 stylists will work different shifts in a small room backstage. A television there will be tuned to convention coverage, so they can judge and make adjustments to their handiwork.

The Kerry campaign had little to say on the senator's hair plans for the convention. ''I don't have a clue," said David Wade, a Kerry spokesman.

Both Kerry and Edwards have grappled with their appearances and how much to respond to critics' arrows. Kerry has clipped his hair slightly shorter in recent months, but dismisses allegations that he underwent Botox treatment to eliminate wrinkles. Edwards has resisted change for the most part, keeping his hair in a far side-part, one that some say makes him look boyish.

Sullivan and Benson have their own ideas for the men.

''They both have fabulous hair," Sullivan said, before allowing that Kerry's thick salt-and-pepper hair could be served by ''a certain amount of product, to hold it."

Benson said both men's hair could stand to be neater and fuller.

''There is better," she said. ''And then there is the best."