Beauty Tips from the Beauty School Drop-Out

Hair

There can't be too many people with naturally curly hair who go to their hairdressers and pay to have their hair straightened so that it can then be curled.

I did.

It always looks so easy (and so nice) when they do it in the salon, and then you are fooled into thinking that if you just had the correct equipment you could probably do the same job at home. And then when you consider that you can purchase the equipment for the price of one sitting in the salon ....

So I bought a set/pair? of hair straighteners and set to, first of all blowdrying my hair (a thing I haven't felt the need to do in six years) until I looked like one of the hair bear bunch on a bad hair day and then straighening it so I can use the straighteners to curl it. Well, nearly straighten it. I couldn't reach the bit at the back to straighten it - I would have needed arms like Mr Tickle to achieve that miracle.

If the 'straight' wasn't quite straight, the curling was a disaster. I did what I thought I had paid vast quantities of money to my hairdresser to do, but instead of curling my hair into nice spirals, I got the complete Miss Hoolie look. After an hour of trying, I eventually gave in and watched the instruction DVD that had been supplied with the straighteners.

And suddenly it all became clear! So I went back to the job, but by this stage my poor arms were so knackered that I did a couple of curls at the front, sprayed them with half a tin of hairspray and then gave up as my other half considered that the amount of hairspray in such close proximity to the hot straighteners constituted a serious fire risk.

Make-Up

In my experience (and even as a child I was useless at those painting by numbers kits) doing your makeup is a nightmare, so my advice is to go to the Benefit counter in your nearest department store and let them talk you into a free trial. Once you've had one of those and bought some products, they very kindly keep asking you back for further free promotions.

If you can time these visits right, you never have to do your own make-up again :-)