Those services are mainly for the closeted CD who just cant or wont get out of their closet and they do pay extra (sometime much extra) for the security of knowing that they wont ever be exposed to anyone.
For a CD who can and does get out on their own there really is little need for such services. Yes of course to the outgoing CD there is a whole world out there of shopping, makeup studios, and photo shops.
But for someone who is desperately afraid of losing wife and kids if they were ever exposed this does offer an outlet. The xformation studios need to have on hand clothes that fit a wide variety of people's size and taste. Just a good size wardrobe might run $ thousands and the makeup schooling and styling schooling goes for thousands of dollars too. They should at least have wide variety of experience in make up and hair styling (preferably certified with whatever local licensing requires), and they should have some valuable experience in photography.
Obviously, there is great variety in the quality of such studios and therefore is a variety of prices that a person might pay, hopefully there is some correspondence of quality with price. The ones I've seen advertised on the net have photos (used with permission) of people who have used their service so one can guess more accurately of what is possible for their own session.
From the business side of things there is only a very narrow niche market for such services and therefore few customers, so their mark up must be high. But some neighborhood girl who just offers to do a makeover is merely an amatuer and has little invested. They might be good, might not be, but they are less likely able to service a wide variety of clients that some professional service would be able to work with.
So I dont begrudge the service fees they charge and since I am not one of those closeted people I just go out and get what I want done without the need for such special care.
