Every three and a half weeks I make a pilgrimage to Melanie, my colourist at Hari’s hair salon on the Fulham Road. Calculating exactly when the next appointment will be needed is always a complex task – I certainly don’t want gray carrots for a public appearance – but it’s crazy to book myself in earlier than necessary.
Three weeks is too early, but as a rule four weeks is too short.
The tricky problem is that, as any brunette who dyes her hair knows, one day you’re the full Elizabeth Taylor, wonderfully dark, and literally the next day you stand in front of the mirror and hey presto, you’ve turned into the speckled warbler in shades of gray and brown.
Every time I sit in Melanie’s chair and debate whether we should go a little lighter in the front or whether I just need growth and no highlights, or whether it might have all become a bit too brassy, I wonder if this palaver is even necessary. is.
Why don’t I just give in to my natural hair color and save time and certainly money? Finally, take a look at Jane Fonda and Andie MacDowell, photographed at Paris Fashion Week, flaunting their silver locks in service of L’Oréal, where they are both ambassadors. Silver Not Sorry read the screen behind them.
Every three and a half weeks I make a pilgrimage to Melanie, my colourist at Hari’s hair salon on the Fulham Road – I certainly don’t want gray roots (Stock image of a woman checking her hair)
‘It’s crazy to register myself earlier than necessary. Three weeks is too early, but as a rule four weeks is too short,” says ALEXANDRA SHULMAN
And every time you open the fashion pages of a magazine, there she is, the symbolic gray-haired model who used to show that fashion is not just for the young. Even older women can rock pink pants, says that hair color.
But every now and then I almost think I’ll give up and see what nature has up to. Having no idea what my hair color would be without Melanie’s services, I dash to the starting gate.
It’s all very well to embrace your natural self, but in my mind my natural self is a brunette. I have no idea how I would feel if I became a silvery person.
There are some gray-haired women who look absolutely amazing. And there are others who have just accepted this as a natural part of growing older and are getting on with it. But I doubt that would be my fault.
If I tried to watch the encroaching badger at my roots take over my entire head, I would feel like I’ve taken a step into another phase of life, and I’m not quite ready for that yet.
Chill out, it’s just my ‘resting bitch face’
Have you ever seen a photo where she (Sue Gray, photo) looks happy? I didn’t do that
Still on the subject of appearance, I have a certain sympathy for Sue Gray, as she and I share a physiognomic trait: ‘resting bitch face’.
Have you ever seen a photo where she looks happy? I didn’t do that. But that’s probably because she, like me, looks naturally depressed, cursed with permanently downturned mouths.
I can have sunny thoughts until someone tells me to cheer up, at which point they turn around to reflect my dissatisfied appearance.
I went through a period where I experimented with a fake smile, pulling up the corners of my mouth to prevent it, but it became tiring.
Still, perhaps a glimmer of a fake smile every now and then would do wonders for Sue Gray’s reputation.
Balancing the books is not Naomi’s style
Naomi Campbell in a cream-colored combination outfit in combination with a belt with a gold chain at a signing session in Librarie 7L on September 27, 2024
What’s extraordinary is not that Naomi Campbell has been barred from acting as a charity trustee after discoveries of misuse of funds from her Fashion For Relief initiative, but that she ever was in the first place.
Running a charity involves overseeing financial procedures, not an experience Naomi is known for.
Her skills show up several hours late and look great.
In the Naomi sphere, extravagance is the norm, regardless of who pays. A £12,000 flight to France, expensive hotel rooms and spa treatments all coming from the charity’s coffers would no doubt be deemed appropriate by her, in return for lending her astonishing body and extensive address book to publicize the matter.
Reading the bottom line and questioning the validity of this behavior would not fit in.
Yet the French clearly think it’s acceptable, because even though she’s not an expert with a balance, they just awarded her the prestigious Ordre des Artes et des Lettres.
Another example of where we differ from our friends across the Channel.
It’s the set designer who steals this show
David Oyelowo and Kaelum Nelson attend the press evening afterparty for Coriolanus on September 24
David Oyelowo opens in the title role of Coriolanus at the National Theater, wearing a velvet tuxedo and holding a glass of champagne.
It’s a clever, short-sighted device to demonstrate the arrogance and aristocracy of this doomed Shakespearean general, but the real hero of the production is designer Es Devlin’s sets.
Gone are the days when the curtain fell on one scene change before rising for the next.
Instead, Devlin’s atmospheric sets seamlessly transform the stage from a battlefield to a rebellious popular forum to the elegant home of his mother Volumnia in a matter of seconds.
They keep the audience immersed in a play that has special value in these times of tension between political populism and the elite.
Will we see Victoria at the Old Vic?
Brigitte Macron looks totally chic as she attended Dior’s blue carpet during Paris Fashion Week
Brigitte Macron not only sat front row at the Dior and Balmain fashion shows, but she also has a cameo in Netflix’s Emily In Paris. Victoria Starmer, on the other hand, has been unfairly criticized for showing her support for London Fashion Week by similarly appearing at a show in a borrowed outfit.
Would it be okay if she went to EastEnders? Maybe she could have a pint at the Old Vic, discussing the winter fuel surcharge, while wearing the M&S trousers she has in her own wardrobe?
Soap stars are making a comeback
After years of everyone replacing bars of soap with liquid — spurred by Covid — hard soaps are experiencing a renaissance.
Bronnley has just released a new edition of its Lemon, the first fruit-shaped soap, and the shelves are increasingly packed with nostalgic packaging from brands like Roger & Gallet, Trumpers and Yardley.
So much more distinctive than a plastic bottle.