City living can be tough. Between the manic commutes and school runs, meetings and daily domestic hassles, it can sometimes feel as if you are overdosing on urbanity. Taking time out to treat yourself can help keep stress at bay, and you’ll be glad to hear you can now add thermal healing to your after-work arsenal.

Previously only available in Mayfair salons, I gave some of the items from Keep Immaculate’s Thermal Therapy ™ range a go, to see if their claims of warming relaxation and ‘just left the spa’ skin were anything more than cold comfort.

The brand

Keep Immaculate was developed by award winning entrepreneur Lydia Montoute. At the heart of the brand’s philosophy lies the aim to pare down the typical beauty regime to help women for whom a polished appearance, wellness and convenience are top priorities.

The products

The Thermal Therapy ™ range of products features heat packs containing a super-saturated solution that is activated by clicking a metal disc. Once activated, the gel solution inside the products crystallises, giving off warmth for approximately 20 minutes. To ready the packs for re-use, you simply pop them in the handy drawstring bags provided, boil them in a saucepan for a couple of minutes and then leave them to cool and dry on a countertop.

The three Thermal Therapy ™ starter kits available exclusively at Fenwick’s include:

• Glamhot Hand Exfoliator™ Starter Kit– containing a self-heating hand-held gel pack fitted with exfoliating material and palm strap, 25ml Olive and Jasmine Oil plus a 25ml bottle of Jasmine Cleansing Wash. When the products are used in combination with the heat pack, imperfections are said to be smoothed, circulation stimulated, rough patches eliminated and skin left nourished. As well having an uplifting scent, the jasmine oil is meant to give a non-greasy radiant sheen to the body, creating soft and sensual skin.

• Sauna Radiance Mask™ Starter Kit – containing a self-heating gel pack mask with head strap, 25ml of Clary Sage & Evening Primrose Oil and a 25ml wash with a clean herbaceous scent, designed to promote a clear complexion and youthful looking skin. The warming action is said to open pores, helping to clear toxins, improve product absorption and give all the benefits of a warming facial without any of the mess or hassle.

• Grooming Pedicure Feet™ Starter Kit – containing a self-heating gel pack fitted with instep strap, a 25ml bottle of Apricot & Peppermint Oil and a 25ml wash that has a fresh, cool scent. Designed to be a relaxing treatment, the heat is said to help the vitamin A enriched oils penetrate deeper into stressed, dry, or tired soles.

The result

After a busy week, I tried out the Glamhot Hand Exfoliator™ and despite having naturally warm hands most of the time, I found the experience wonderfully refreshing. The mint essence wasn’t at all overpowering or clinical as I had first feared and the exfoliating pad was gentle yet effective. My hands really did feel softer, smoother and less tense for a good few days afterwards.

The activation system was easy to use and I was also impressed by the fact that the oils didn’t seem to leave any greasy residue on the surface of my skin, suggesting that the heat did indeed help the product absorb much better.

If you want to soothe sore feet, perk up tired skin and bring the warmth of a spa experience into your home, then make your way to Fenwick’s to snap up these comforting packages. The Glamhot kit retails at £19.99, and both the Sauna Radiance Mask and Grooming Pedicure will set you back a mere £24.99.

Alternatively, take advantage of Keep Immaculate's (www.keepimmaculate.com) Mother’s Day promotion that is running until next Thursday (8th March) by visiting the Brent Cross branch in North London. You’ll enjoy 25% off all the products in the range, so you can bag yourself a post-payday pick-me-up as well as treating your mum to some much deserved home pampering.

Searching for more inspiration? Check out the full range of Mother's Day gifts on offer at Wahanda and you'll be sure to find her the perfect present.

Us Brits are typically known for our tea drinking habits (four o'clock on the dot here at Wahanda HQ), but it seems that those wanting to boost their brain power should ditch the Earl Grey and pour themselves a daily espresso instead. Before you dust off the cafetiere or make a beeline for your nearest coffee shop, there is one condition that your newly adopted brew must meet: it has to be caffeine free.

Researchers at Mount Sinai School in New York recently found that giving a dietary supplement with the same properties as decaffeinated coffee to mice with type 2 diabetes resulted in a significant improvement in their condition. Type 2 diabetes lowers glucose levels in sufferer's brains, affecting memory and other important brain functionality. After 5 months of treatment, mice given the supplement actually displayed raised levels of glucose when compared to those given a placebo; a finding that could have major implications for people affected by age-related forgetfulness and cognitive diseases.

"This is the first evidence showing the potential benefits of decaffeinated coffee for both preventing and treating cognitive decline caused by type 2 diabetes, ageing, and/or neurodegenerative disorders," said Dr Giulio Maria Pasinetti, who led the study. Further tests on humans are expected to follow, and are likely to focus on examining the protective properties of coffee compounds.

Sounds promising (and we'll certainly be keeping an eye on this one), but we're not quite ready to abandon our morning lattes and afternoon cuppas just yet. If you'd like more information about diet and physical or mental health, check out our section dedicated to nutritional advice and treatments. Ask qualified practitioners any burning questions, research your nearest nutritional health centres or simply read up on the ins and outs of the services on offer.

As one of the co-founders of adventure park chain Go Ape, Rebecca Mayhew is responsible for the nation's growing obsession with arboreal exercise. Before I took my leap of faith attached to a 500ft zip-line at The Outdoor Show, I caught up with her for a quick chat about fitness, forests and having fun.

• What three reasons would you give to someone to try a Go Ape experience?

They can challenge themselves, it’s exciting and they’ll have fun. We set up Go Ape because we very much felt that we wanted to encourage people to turn "I can’t" into "I can" - to prove that if you challenge yourself, you often find you can do things and, in the end, enjoy them.

• What physical benefits would you say there are to working out outdoors (and in the treetops)?

I think there’s a lot in just being outdoors and getting out into the forest. It puts you in a good mindset. Physically, people say they feel quite stiff after [completing the course] because there’s a lot of upper body strength needed even for just climbing up a rope ladder. You’re going from tree to tree, using both your arms and legs, so it’s a good workout all round. I think the majority of people end up feeling a little achey and say that that they didn’t realise what they were doing, but feel it the next day!

• Do you get many visitors looking to overcome a fear of heights or perhaps boost their confidence?

I think we get a surprising number of people who have really had to convince themselves to come and take part. It’s quite out of their comfort zone and in a way, that’s even better because they are persuaded to really go for it. Then when they get to the end [of the course], they are absolutely delighted with what they’ve achieved.

• Next season, you have a new site opening in Trent Park, North London. This is your first centre in the capital. Have you got any plans to expand elsewhere?

The Trent Park site is the first of our courses where you can actually just get off the tube (at Cockfosters) and the entrance is a two minute walk away.

We’d been really trying to look at where we could find [a site] that close to London, but saying that, 4 or 5 of our other courses are really easy to get to from central London – only an hour to an hour and a half away. We’re always on the lookout and if we find anywhere else, then we’ll definitely do it, but I think the nearer you get to central London, the more difficult it is to find somewhere suitable.

• What do you do to stay healthy and happy yourself?

I hate gyms, but I run about three times a week, I do some biking and I’ve got three young kids who keep me on my toes! I live right by the sea and so I also do kayaking, sailing - all that sort of thing. Fitting it in is challenging though and recently I’ve been so busy that I haven’t really got back into it. It’s quite easy for weeks to go by, especially after the holidays.

I do love running though. The fact that it’s your time for an hour or so and you can obtain complete focus. You can mull things over, away from everything, and it just makes you feel really good.

• And finally, do you have any New Year’s health resolutions?

For me, it’s kind of more about establishing challenges and things I want to do this year. Help for Heroes is our charity partner at Go Ape and they’ve got something called ‘Battle Back’, where you bike from Portsmouth to Dunkirk (I think it’s about 360 miles). There’s that and a few other things that I want to get in my diary that I’ve got to aim for. I’m not very good at the cutting back – “I’m not going to do this, I’m not going to do that...” – it’s more about having positive things to work towards.

For more information on Go Ape and their locations across the country, visit goape.co.uk

I don't know about you, but I've never been one for interval workouts and circuits. Reps of burpees bore me, I find treadmill stints particularly tiresome, and don't get me started on press ups! As a result, I have always fallen back on sports as my exercise of choice, but if (like me) you are wanting to inject a little more adventure into your 2012 fitness routine, it might be time to branch out.

Go Ape describes itself as a 'tree top adventure' and at each of their 27 sites across the UK, you can immerse yourself in the great outdoors whilst undertaking assault course-style activities in the forest canopy. From rope ladders and tyre bridges to death-defying zip-lines, the idea is to embrace your inner Tarzan and hop, swing and scramble your way from one end of the woods to the other without touching the ground.

As well as testing your upper body strength, flexibility and working muscles you didn't even know you had, during the two hours that (on average) it takes to complete the Go Ape jungle-gym circuit, you're likely to burn around 510 calories and push your heart rate well into fat burning territory. Without even realising it, you'll be reducing your cholesterol levels, boosting your mood with bursts of endorphins and lowering your blood pressure, all whilst having tons of fun out in the fresh air.

Before you start, you'll be given a safety briefing, some quick training and will be harnessed up to avoid any aerial accidents. Even once you get going, you can rest assured that instructors are never far away (meaning that if you do get into any trouble, they can come to your assistance in seconds). There are no special fitness requirements* other than the ability to climb a rope ladder (although if you are pregnant, Go Ape advise that you consult your doctor before attempting the course) and you can even bring the kids along to the Bournemouth park, where children 4 to 10 can enjoy the Tree Top Junior trail.

The Go Ape experience

Parks are open between February and November each year, but I got the chance to sample the speed and dizzying heights of one of Go Ape's zip-lines (the longest indoor zip-line in the world, no less) at the The Outdoors Show 2012 in London's ExCel. At 500ft long, Zip 500 spanned almost half of the show space and began some 30ft up in the rafters of the exhibition centre. After scaling a wooden ladder (accompanied by one of Go Ape's founders, Rebecca Mayhew) and being securely clipped to the wire, all that was left to do was jump!

Thrilling (if slightly terrifying), the fast-moving experience left me feeling exhilarated. Once I had unfastened my harness and found my feet, there was just enough time for me to try out one of the company's off-road segways. A unique alternative to the mountain bikes provided at selected sites, the upright vehicles are used to explore the forest tracks from a little closer to the ground. Steering is controlled by a handlebar stem that moves left and right, but acceleration and braking is performed by shifting your weight forwards and backwards, making for an unusual (but surprisingly nimble) ride.

After a couple of circuits on the makeshift track (and a few close calls with the wooden barriers), it was time for me to leave. Monkeying around was so much fun that I've vowed to visit the newest Go Ape site in Enfield as soon as it opens in the spring. Despite my apprehensive start, I've well and truly caught the bug and can't wait for my next forest fix...

* To take on the full course, you must be over 1.4m (4ft 7) tall and weigh less than 130kg (20.5 stone)

Determined to stick to a diet this January, but feel like you've exhausted all your options over the years? Left uninspired by the endless routines and rules of commercial plans currently on the market? If even our suggestions have failed to float your boat, but you want to shift a few extra pounds and develop a healthier relationship with food, it may be time to turn to the heavens.

Forget baby food, chuck out that cabbage soup and get ready to embrace the ways of the Zodiac Diet. Chef to the stars, Sabra Ricci, has combined her nutritional know-how with her passion for astrology to produce a new cookbook containing recipes said to be tailored to each star sign. By exploring the body parts 'ruled' by each astrological house and examining the ailments typically said to afflict individuals born during each period, Ricci has developed meals designed to remedy common complaints and promote better health.

The book devotes eight recipes to each zodiac sign, and includes both hearty main courses and treats for those with more of a sweet tooth. Geminis (who are apparently prone to respiratory conditions and infections), can look forward to indulging in antioxidant, zinc and vitamin-packed 'cornmeal pancakes with sweetened sour cream and blueberries' - a meal designed to provide all the nutrients that promote better lung health. If you're an Aries, brain foods such as oily fish are said to be essential, whereas Cancerians should up their green tea and buckwheat intake in order to hold off their digestive troubles.

We're not sure if rigidly sticking to Ricci's recommendations will cure all your ills overnight (especially if her suggestions conflict with any known allergies or intolerences), but astrological eating has been been floating on the peripheries of the mainstream for a while, and this nutrient rich collection of recipes seems to provide a novel yet considered approach to easing everyday aches and pains.

If you are a horoscope fan who is looking to learn about how your diet can affect your overall wellbeing, this may be the plan for you. Even if you find its premise to be more on the unconventional side, the Zodiac Diet provides a guide to nutritionally sound foods that can help your body repair and rejuvenate itself. You may even find that small alterations in your eating habits do in fact boost your mood and health, as many of us unwittingly fail to obtain our RDA of certain vitamins and minerals through our normal diet.

Further recipes and resources based on astrological/zodiac/ diets can be found online, or why not consult one of our expert practitioners in the community section of the site. For more general nutritional advice and deals, check out our dedicated nutritional advice and New Year detox pages.

Lotions and potions. Surgery and software. As a nation, we spend millions of pounds each year trying to erase wrinkles from our faces. Laughter lines and crow's feet have long been flagged as enemies in the battle against ageing, but it seems that if you want to recapture a youthful appearance this Yuletide, all you have to do is smile.

According to a study recently published in Psychology and Aging, if you manage to flash a grin in your party pictures, people are likely to underestimate your age by an average of two years.

Researchers recruited 154 adults from various age groups and asked them to guess the age of 171 young, middle-aged, and older men and women based on a series of portrait photographs. The subjects were pictured portraying various facial expressions (including 'angry', 'fearful', 'disgusted', 'happy', 'sad' and 'neutral') in a total of 2,052 photographs. Whereas 'neutral' expressions garnered largely accurate age estimates, the study found that participants were consistently fooled by a 'happy' demeanour, and guessed figures well below the photographed subjects' real ages.

Scientists suggest that pictures of cheerful faces may be misleading because laughing and smiling create temporary creases around the eyes and mouth. In a still picture, it is more difficult to tell the difference between temporary wrinkles and real ones, meaning that many signs of ageing can be masked. In separate studies, smiling has also been shown to make people seem more attractive, which in turn may make them appear younger to observers.

"Although age estimates can often be based on multiple cues, there are many situations in which a picture of a person's face is the only information that is immediately available," explained Manuel C. Voelkle of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, which conducted the study.

"In particular, with the rise of social networks like Facebook, flickr, LinkedIn, and many others, it has become common practice to share pictures, often without additional background information."

So if you're someone who normally fears the online publication of office party snaps, set your mind at ease and save some pennies and blushes this year by simply saying 'cheese'.

Ponytails, natural looking highlights and bog standard buns may still rule on the high street, but unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you've probably managed to sneak a peak at the gravity-defying barnets of Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga, or the fluorescent-hued tresses of Katy Perry and Rihanna.

Whether it be in the form of hair bows, multi-dip dyes or blunt blue bangs, avant garde hairstyling has been embraced by the fashion forward over the last 18 months, and the creative hairdressing trend shows no signs of stopping.

As a result, this year's Psionics Hair Show looks set to be an unrivalled display of artistic prowess. On November 5th, styling company STYLECREATIVE will join creative directors George Akkad and Andrew-Thomas Corbett at Café de Paris for a night that fuses fashion, beauty and spectacular feats of hairdressing.

As well as sporting jaw dropping coifs created by seasoned stylists Akkad and Corbett, models are set to wear pieces by up and coming designers Kate Williams and Gemma Goldstone during two spectacular runway shows.

With both industry insiders and celebrity faces expected to make an appearance catwalk-side, this is one date that should be firmly marked in the diaries of hair enthusiasts everywhere. If you fancy mingling with the styling elite, entry will cost £20 on the night or you can reserve guestlist entry and VIP tables by contacting Café de Paris directly.

There may be two months to go, but we're busy crafting our best bouffants already...

With skirts and shorts comes the need for sunkissed limbs - something that isn't always achievable beneath the grey skies of Blighty.

If you're feeling self-conscious about exposing pallid skin that's been hidden away all winter, fake tan can provide an answer. However, home tanning experiences usually involve avoiding a few potential pitfalls...

• Stripey surprise - Streakiness should only apply to bacon, but all too often slightly heavy handed or rushed and uneven application results in multi-tonal shins and patchy elbows. You were aiming for Gisele, but when it all dried you got Mr Blobby.
• The tell-tale palms - Your arms and legs are beautifully bronzed and you breathe a sigh of relief. That is, until you flip your hands over and find your palms are a less flattering shade of mahogany. And have dried that way.
• Stained sheets - Tanning in the evening ensures that your tan has time to develop into a lovely golden glow overnight, right? Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10 it also means any excess cream or gel manages to make its way onto your sheets, leaving your bed looking like a modern recreation of the Turin Shroud.
• Orangey glow - 'Natural looking' on the bottle doesn't always guarantee a subtle result on all skin tones. The label may have promised a Bajan sheen, but instead you look more tangerine
• Have you been baking? - Application went without a hitch and nobody need ever know your tan is not the genuine article. You look good, you feel good and smell... like stale biscuits. Nope, thanks to that distinctive lingering fragrance, everyone will know your summertime look has come straight off the shelf.
• Join the dots- You want to be fuzz as well as carefree, so manage to fit in a quick shave before slathering on your tanning lotion. After the colour has developed, you're certainly brown, but with hundreds of small dark dots where your hairs used to be. And there's no quick fix that'll shift them.

One way to avoid all these tanning catastrophes is to give Vita Liberata products a go. Vita Liberata have been the official sunless tanning providers for the XFactor for the last 2 years and having heard Wahanda community members rave about their salon and home tanning range, we decided to put two of their formulas on trial. Responsibility fell to me, the palest of the team, to test each product claim out.

• Warm Silken Sun

They say: "Packed with natural extracts and water magnets to nourish and moisturise the skin on a daily basis. In 3 to 5 days skin will become sun-kissed and golden. All our tanning products are formulated to perfection with organic extracts and rich moisturisers to ensure a natural fade and prolonged skin conditioning. Simply apply as a regular body lotion. Warm will also work to extend the life of a natural or sunless tan."

We say: This product is a gradual sunless tanner (designed to be applied daily), which delivers a hint of colour in a moisturising body lotion. Non-greasy and easily absorbed, it has a fresh, almost melon-like smell on application; a welcome change from the countless products that smell a damp, empty biscuit tin.

After one application (with a tanning mitt, as recommended by Vita Liberata), there was very little change in my pale complexion, but over the course of three days, a natural looking golden tone began to emerge. Rather than looking like I had painted on a tint, the colour (as the product name suggests) added a welcome warmth to my skin without any odour or colour transfer.

Vita Liberata say that this is because the formula contains no perfume or alcohol and the DHA (a key ingredient which activates the tanning process) used is obtained from organic sugar cane. The gentle moisturising lotion is enhanced with silk proteins and pomegranate extracts rather than harsh chemicals, meaning this product is both light in texture and light in colour. Pale celebs seem to love it too, as Zoe Salmon and Erin O'Connor are said to be Warm Silken Sun fans.

Streaks - 10/10 None, even where application overlapped.

Palms - 8/10 I used a mitt to prevent any unwanted product transfer, but think there may be a slight absorption and colour build up over time if you tried to rub this in like any other moisturiser.

Sheets - 10/10 Still pristine!

Colour - 9/10 Light, buildable and not a hint of orange. It also fades nice and evenly, so you won't suffer with patchy coverage if you decide to skip a few days.

Dots - 8/10 Not evident after 3 days, but as this is a gradual tanner, any changes pore size should not result in glaringly obvious product accumulation. It will not cling to dry areas either thanks to its moisturising properties.

• 24ct Silken Shimmer

They say: "A sheer instant wash off self tan with chocolatey bronzing pearls, and natural silk extracts to leave skin silky, shimmery and soft. This fake tanning product dries in seconds, is perfectly flawless, and washes off in the shower. We love 24ct Silken Shimmer self tan on its own, or over a light tan to give warmth and a dewy glow to the skin. It’s the easiest fake tan in the world to use, and it leaves the skin so silky soft."

We say: This product looks a little intimidating in the bottle, but is surprisingly easy to spread evenly over skin. The 'shimmer' come in the form of fine gold glitter, that blends very nicely into the chocolatey formula and leaves a hint of highlight that adds depth to your tan.

24ct Silken Shimmer also carries a gentle melon scent upon application, which fades as the product quickly dries. It is also packed full of moisture, but I felt that less really was more on my ivory toned skin. The colour is visible instantly and thankfully when used sparingly and in combination with a mitt, can be softly blended to create a more flattering and less intense tone for those of us who are not blessed with rich olive skin.

Vita Liberata say that 24ct Silken Shimmer also compliments Hispanic and African skin tones, creating a summery golden glow that seems to come from within. Alexandra Burke and X Factor mentor Sinitta have recently sung its praises and contestant Rebecca Ferguson is also said to be a devotee.

Another selling point is that this product washes off with nothing more than a gentle lather, making it perfect for special occasions (or for those of you who want to be able to remedy any mistakes in a flash). Despite being easily removed, I tested 24ct silken shimmer's longevity and found that the it lasted extremely well throughout the day with minimal fading and no transfer to clothing.

Streaks - 9/10 Possible, but you'd have to apply the product very unevenly and thickly. With instructions in every box to help you get the best out of your tan, you shouldn't have any problems.

Palms - 8/10 I used a mitt, which is the best option when using self tan. If this product does get on your hands, simply remember to wash them and all traces of the colour should disappear.

Sheets - 6/10 Not designed to be worn for days, this tan has the potential to transfer a bit on a particularly balmy night. Best to hop into the shower if it's particularly sweltering!

Colour - 7/10 Adaptable 'Brazilian glow'. You can easily do a patch test trial, but remember to apply sparingly if you are fair skinned.

Dots - 5/10 As this is an instant, intense colour formula, shaving before tanning is likely to give a slightly mottled effect on lighter skin tones. Simply shave the day before to prevent this faux pas

Overall, we were very impressed. Simple to apply and with great colour pay-off, it's not hard to see why this range has quickly gathered an A-List following. For such good quality products, the are amazingly affordable too, with prices ranging from just under £12 to £22.50.

Vita Liberata are also completely against animal testing and pride themselves on their products being organic and paraben free, making both 24ct Silken Shimmer and Warm Silken Sun both kind to your skin and ethically sound. I'll certainly be stocking up to make sure my tan lasts long after I return from sunnier climes!

Vita Liberata products are available in Boots as well as in spas (including The Chelsea Day Spa and The Beauty Laboratory) and salons up and down the country. They also do a spray tanning range, so if you'd prefer to have a professional give you a golden glow, why not check out our sunless tanning deals page to find an offer near you.

You watch what you eat and take time out to relax, but are you getting enough exercise? Probably not, according to the Department of Health, especially if up until now you have been following their '5 x 30' activity guidelines (undertaking 30 minutes of moderate exercise - such as cycling or periods of brisk walking - 5 times a week).

In response to the latest research, the government is now saying that at least two and a half hours of 'moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity' (such as "heavy gardening, group sports [including] volleyball, football and basketball, or swimming") is needed between the ages of 19-64 to protect against osteoporosis and damaging falls in later life.

During these more intense activities, you should push yourself to the point where you are forced to breathe harder, you notice your heart beating rapidly and it becomes more difficult to carry on a conversation. However, stints of more strenuous exercise needn't be long and arduous, as the 150 minute activity quota can be split into several more manageable stretches that last for as little as 10 minutes.

The change in recommendations is accompanied by findings that suggest 75 minutes of intensive exercise a week provides the same benefits as getting twice as much moderate exercise. This means that using your free time to participate in team games or get in a few of lengths at the pool could be more efficient (as well as more enjoyable) than a lonely slog on an exercise bike in front of Eastenders..

Also new to the requirements are periods of "muscle strengthening activity", which the Department suggests people should take part in twice a week. Luckily for those of use who are not big on weight lifting, this needn't involve endless bicep curls, as lifting and carrying heavy shopping loads (such as groceries) also counts.

If you are a gym bunny, such guidelines may seem unecessary, but two out of every three adults in Britain is currently registering as either overweight or obese and changing the nation's diet is only half the problem. If current trends of inactivity and waistline growth continue, the figure looks set to rise to 90 per cent within the next 40 years.

"We know that more than 60 per cent of adults are not active enough," explained Sally Davies, England's Chief Medical Officer, "which is why today the UK Chief Medical Officers are launching the first UK-wide guidelines that draw on the latest science to inform weekly levels of physical activity - whatever your age."

If your routine needs a refresh and you're not sure where to start, have a look at our great value fitness offers - with hundreds of deals on everything from perspiration inducing Power Plate to energetic Zumba, we'll get your healthy heart pumping in no time!

Fathers, husbands, brothers, mates and in-laws - we know you love them to bits, but it can sometimes feel like men don't get much of a look in when it comes to wellness.

We at Wahanda want to remedy this perceived exclusion and with June seeing the celebration of both Men's Health Week and Father's Day, last month's Wahandies contenders were solely made up of businesses that cater for the male of the species.

Winners were singled out for their marvellous massages, fantastic facials and excellent sporting services, acknowledging their efforts in keeping Britain's blokes trim and tidy. With all rankings based on reviews and community ratings, you and you alone chose the nation's top masculine treats. Check out the June 2011 Wahandies winners now and find out whose first class services have put them at the top of the male pampering pile…

Traffic, roadworks, packed commutes and pollution. City living hardly provides the most serene of surroundings, but a study recently published in the journal Nature has suggested that it may actually have the power to change the way your brain responds to pressure situations.

Scientists based in Germany and Canada examined the brain activity of healthy adults residing in large cities, moderately sized towns, or small rural communities whilst they tried to solve tricky maths problems. As the participants began to tackle and struggle with the tasks, researchers criticised them for their poor skills in an effort to enduce social stress.

During testing, those who were currently living in cities were found to experience more activity in an almond-shaped area of the brain called the amygdala than those who lived in towns or rural areas. This part of the brain is associated with fear responses, emotional processing, and self-protection and has also been linked to countless mental disorders including posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and phobias.

Interestingly, those who had grown up living in cities but no longer lived in an urban area also showed higher levels of brain activity in a region called the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps to regulate the amygdala. This would suggest that early environmental surroundings help to shape an individual’s stress response.

“[It seems] living in big cities with many, many people surrounding you sensitizes you to respond more strongly to stress," said researcher Jens C. Pruessner, PhD, director of the Douglas Mental Health Institute at McGill University in Montreal. Researchers are reluctant to pin all the blame for increased stress responses on city living alone, but after they attempted to account for the influences of other factors related to living in a rural or urban area (including socioeconomic status, the size of participants' social networks, or initial anxiety levels), they found that the association still remained.

"I think there's a lot to the story that our environment is important to how we function and also what our mental health is like," said study researcher Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, MD, PhD, director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and professor of psychiatry at Heidelberg University in Germany. Meyer-Lindenberg is now working on further studies comparing the brains of migrants and non-migrants who live in the same city. "They have a different social environment, but same city environment," he explained.

A previous study published in Psychological Science in 2008 also found that working memory was adversely affected following periods spent immersed in an urban environment. Again, researchers found it difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is about city surroundings that may tax the brain, but it is thought that their assault on the senses (competing noises, smells, and sights) affect people’s ability to direct attention. The results suggested that nature-filled areas seem to require a different kind of attention that doesn't appear to be as mentally fatiguing.

"I wouldn't draw the conclusion from these studies that city [...] or urban living is bad and we should all move into the country," said the director of the 2008 study, Marc Berman PhD, a research fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. “"We need to figure out what elements about the city are harmful to us, what things we can change, what things we can add to the city to make it more restorative and better for cognitive functioning.”

If you feel that residing in a concrete jungle is leading you down the road to burnout, here are a few relaxing remedies and getaways currently available on Wahanda:

• 50% off One Night Spa Break at Sonas Spa at Crerar Chevin Country Park Hotel and Spa, Yorkshire

• Two Night Weekend Ayurveda Discovery For Two at La Clairière Spa et Bio Hôtel, France

• Developmental Meditation Class at Crystal Clear Health

• One Night Quick Rest Spa Break at Richmond Nua Wellness Spa

• 70% off Purity Indulgent Treat Package at Purity Spa at London Hilton

Do you feel sluggish when surrounded by shades of dreary grey, suddenly calm when looking at soothing blue, or find that a shot of yellow can easily be used to brighten up your day?

It’s long been said that colour can affect your mood, but recent research suggests that it may be able to alter your athletic performance too. A study published by the University of Rochester has found that exposure to the colour red (traditionally associated with anger) can seemingly make muscles respond faster and exert more force.

The results, published in psychological journal Emotion, compared students’ muscle reactions in two experiments; in one, 30 children aged 9 to 16 pinched and held open a metal clasp after reading their participant number written in either red or grey crayon. In the second, 46 undergraduates squeezed a grip with their dominant hand as hard as they could whilst reading the word “squeeze” displayed on a computer screen on an equally bright red, blue, or grey background.

During both experiments, seeing the color red intensified the strength of the participant’s grip and during the second task, it also increased their reaction speed. Although these findings may seem obscure, they could have important implications in sports and other activities where a quick burst of energy is needed.

However, there may be an emotional compromise if red is used as a temporary brawn boost. “Red enhances our physical reactions because it is seen as a danger cue,”explained researcher Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology at the university.This means that it can also provoke feelings of worry, distraction, and self-preoccupation without us realising, which could actually hinder performance.

Previous studies have also shown that catching a glimpse of red can be counterproductive for those performing skilled motor and mental tasks. Statistics show that athletes competing against an opponent wearing red are more likely to lose, and students who see the color red before a test don’t perform as well.

“Color affects us in many ways depending on the context,” Elliot concluded, “[and the] effects [often] fly under our awareness radar .” It seems that if you want to enhance your physical prowess with a flash of fuchsia, you’d better learn to channel that extra adrenaline in a positive way first.

To find out more about the effects of colour on mood and mentality, check out the Colour Therapy treatment page for facts and the latest deals.

Feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin is one of the sure-fire signs that summer has arrived. Yet whether you’re basking in the rays in exotic climes or enjoying a 4 hour heat wave in a British beer garden, it’s all too easy to forget that the sun is as dangerous as it is enjoyable.

Even on a cloudy day, invisible ultra violet radiation in the form of UVA and UVB rays can penetrate and damage skin, causing wrinkles, sun burn and skin cancer.

We’ve all seen the terms printed on sunscreen bottles, but here’s a quick breakdown of exactly what UVA and UVB rays are, and why you should be protecting yourself against them:

UVA

• UVA rays are the stronger of the two harmful ultra violet rays that sunlight contains.
• Unlike UVB rays, they can penetrate clouds, glass and even your clothing, meaning that they often reach the fatty, collagen and elastin-packed tissues that lie underneath your dermis (second layer of skin) and epidermis (top layer of skin). These cells keep skin looking plump and firm, so if they suffer sun damage, it results in wrinkled, leathery textured skin.
• As well as causing uneven pigmentation and texture, UVA rays can damage cells in the basal layer of the epidermis – the area where most skin cancers occur – sometimes initiating the development of cancerous tissue.

UVB

• UVB rays are responsible for sunburn as well as tanning – UVB stimulates melanin production (the pigment that forms a tan), but also damages the cells in the epidermis.
• UVB rays are strongest in the summer months (April to October), between 10am-2pm.
• They are able to reflect off water or snow.
• Most skin cancers are caused by UVB rays that continually weaken cells in the epidermis.

To prevent both UVA and UVB rays harming your skin, you should choose a sunscreen that is labelled as ‘broad spectrum’ and remember the sun SMART code:

• Spend time in the shade between 11am and 3pm
• Make sure you never burn
• Aim to cover up with a t-shirt, hat & sunglasses
• Remember to take extra care with children
• Then use a sunscreen with UVA protection

The SPF (sun protection factor) figure represents the level of protection against UVB rays offered by the sunscreen, whereas a second (often overlooked) number called the PPD (persistent pigment darkening) indicates UVA protection level. Dermatologists recommend that you use a sunscreen of at least factor 30 (that also has as high a PPD number as possible) to provide adequate protection against skin damage.

Last month was also Melanoma Month, which saw the launch of various initiatives to help the nation stay sun SMART. Amongst public events and mass mole screening workshops, La Roche Posay introduced a new free iPhone app, which links to Met Office data and advises users of the latest UV levels and how much sun protection to apply accordingly. This handy tool also contains a wealth of sun care advice, as well as a map of local pharmacies where their high protection Anthelios XL range can be purchased.

They also relaunched my-skincheck.com, an online hub for skin cancer prevention and detection information, which is run in conjunction with the Melanoma Trust.

Whether you utilise technology in your sun-safe quest or not, as temperatures rise and the temptation to bare more flesh increases, remember to always adhere to the following guidelines:

• Throw away any sunscreen that you’ve had for over 18 months or that has been exposed to sunlight and heat for significant periods of time
• Reapply sun protection frequently (immediately after you have been in water or if you find yourself sweating)
• Frequently monitor your skin for any potential changes (you can keep track of your moles on my-skincheck.com)
• Report any mole changes or unusual skin growths promptly to your doctor or dermatologist.

If you sensibly opt to stay in the shade instead of sizzling in the sun, but like the look of a golden glow during the summer months, check out our range of spray and sunless tanning offers and feel free to bronze away the risk free way!

We watch them bloom and then emerge with perfect formed Beverly Hills babies 9 months later, but it’s not often that stars share their pregnancy secrets. However last week, actress Jessica Alba enthused about hypnobirthing and how the methods involved are helping to keep her calm and comfortable as she reaches the end of her second pregnancy.

“I was freaked out [by the thought of] my first time going into labour,’ Alba revealed. Like many first time mothers, she admitted she didn’t really know what to expect during delivery of her daughter Honor (now 3). “What if I panic?” She worried. “What if I just freak out and I don't know what to do?”

But before little Honor was born, Alba discovered hypnobirthing. “[Hypnobirthing] just makes you chill,” she smiled, explaining the methods she practices (and intends to use when her second baby arrives this August) to chat show host Ellen DeGeneres. “My husband takes me through sort of a meditation. He’s saying, ‘You’re relaxed and you’re floating on clouds,’ while you’re going through labour and your contractions. He just sort of does a guided meditation. I’m just concentrating on breathing and staying relaxed because it’s when you get tense that makes the whole labour worse and more painful.”

“Normally I want to strangle him,” she joked, “but at that moment it’s sort of calming and wonderful.”

Rather than distracting women from the pain, hypnobirthing is designed to help mothers retain control of their emotions as well as their muscles during labour. As Alba described, eliminating excess tension can often result in a reduction of the level of pain experienced during childbirth and according to studies conducted stateside, some women are even able to forego gas and air thanks to the techniques.

Thanks to an NHS trial, expectant mothers in the UK will now be able to try out hypnobirthing for themselves. Tameside General Hospital in Greater Manchester is introducing the technique to women who are interested in the possibility of pain reduction, shorter labour and calmer babies following delivery thanks to the use of self hypnosis.

“The women who do this are all able to take themselves into a deep level of relaxation and are very aware and in control throughout. It's very empowering,” said hypnobirthing practitioner Katy Redford, who is running sessions at Tameside.

"I've delivered three babies to mums who were under hypnosis and it is amazing to see,” adds midwife Jackie Brocklehurst. “It means as midwives, we have to change the way we work because this is a totally new concept, but if you go into it with an open mind, it really is unbelievable.”

If you are pregnant and would like to try hypnobirthing for yourself, why not contact one of our listed therapists who offer the treatment as a service.

Hands up if you are currently slouched your desk, slumped on the sofa or otherwise sat hunched over your keyboard and screen as you read this?

If maintaining good posture proves to be nothing but a pain in the posterior, no matter how many attempts you make to straighten your spine, then you could not only be damaging your back but reducing your grey matter as well.

A study recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience has discovered that the brains of those who suffer from chronic back pain are thinner and less densely packed in six specific regions than the brains of those who are back pain free. Worryingly, the study also found that persistent back pain can impair activation in certain areas of the brain, affecting attention span, judgement and reasoning during cognitive tests.

When compared to 16 non-suffering peers, 18 subjects who identified themselves as sufferers of chronic lower back pain were found to have diminished density in three areas of the frontal cortex as well as in regions related to processing mood, pain signals and judgments about what those around us are thinking and doing.

However, when 14 of the same 18 participants were re-tested some 6 months after undergoing spine surgery or receiving long-lasting painkilling injections to the lower back, the 11 who reported that their treatment had been effective appeared to show signs of a regenerated dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (an area of the brain linked to sensory processing, mood, social judgement and short-term/working memory). Scans also found that their brain activation levels had returned to normal, matching those of the pain-free control group.

"Our results imply that [both] functional and structural brain abnormalities are reversible,” the authors of the research concluded. “Treating chronic back pain can restore normal brain function in humans."

To prevent lesser lumbar pain becoming more than just a niggle, check out the following treatments that are credited with providing relief from back problems:

• If nerve pain is getting you down, acupuncture may help matters.
• Muscle spasms and tighteness may be relieved with Shiatsu massage
• And finally, if you suspect a wonky spine is the culprit, give an osteopath or a chiropractor a call and sort out that slouching once and for all!

In case you hadn’t noticed, summer is fast approaching and if you’re anything like me, then any thoughts of sunnier climes will automatically be accompanied by three niggling uncertainties:

1. Where can I afford to go on holiday?
2. When can I afford to go on holiday?
3. Will I fit into my bikini when I get there?

If your thoughts are currently filled with waistline worries rather than daydreams of sun and sand, then the four-week fitness plan devised by Sienna Spa, located at the award winning Radisson Edwardian Manchester, may just provide a reasonably rapid solution.

Put together by the spa’s fitness expert and personal trainer Kris Bennett, this fast-track programme aims to nip and tuck any troublesome areas in just one month through targeted exercise. Bingo wings, muffin tops and saddle bags will all be at the mercy of the regime, which is divided into weekly phases:

Week One – Packed full of interval training, the goal for the opening week of the plan is weight loss. Through focused training, you are expected to burn off excess fat and calories, and increase your fitness levels.

Week Two – During the second week, upper body toning is your priority. Building muscles through resistance work, you will begin to tone, sculpt and strengthen your upper body.

Week Three – The penultamate week follows a similar routine to week two, but focuses on the lower body muscles as well as upper body resistance work.

Week Four – As part of the final body blitz, week four combines all exercises from previous weeks to ensure your body is fighting fit and at performing at its best.

One hour personal training sessions will be available each week during the programme and you will enjoy full access to both the health club facilities and gym to further sculpt your silhouette.

Following the plan costs £120, but if you want to refine the surface of your skin at the same time, you can also incorporate four week’s worth of Body Strategist Refining Cellulite Treatments for a total cost of £318. This unique treatment is carried out post-exercise each week and includes carnitine and caffeine, which both have an exceptional effect on eliminating fatty deposits. The hot and cold effect, which is used throughout the treatment, also increases blood circulation to the areas being treated, meaning you will hopefully be left orange-peel free.

Four weeks may be a bit too soon to expect abs and buns of steel, but with the promise of a slimmer, more streamlined physique in just four weeks, it’s safe to say we are very, very tempted to try this one out for ourselves...

Tester sessions are available enabling you to sample this programme. For more information contact Sienna Spa at The Radisson Edwardian Manchester.

For years, our stateside friends have ridiculed our teeth. Synonymous with crooked, gaping and generally unkempt rows of gnashers, a Great British grin was apparently not so great, and something to be feel ashamed of rather than flaunted whenever a camera appeared.

Yet new research (from the USA, no less) suggests that UK smirks may actually be something to smile about. A study has revealed that British smiles, including the muscles and movement used to create them, are more expressive and therefore genuine than those of our American cousins.

According to psychologist Dacher Keltner, the contrast between UK and US smiles was so great, that researchers could tell the whether the subject was American or British just by looking at the movement of their lips around their pearly whites.

The British smile is apparently created by pulling the lips back and upwards (which exposes the lower teeth and raises the cheeks), whilst Americans tend to simply part their lips and stretch the corners of their mouths. The British smile action is morely to result in temporary crow's feet at the corners of the eyes, which is said to be harder to fake and gives rise to a more sincere smile.

This news comes just in time for National Smile Month (which runs from 15th May until 15th June). In line with the theme of this year’s campaign, ‘Smile Factor’, here’s a few ways to keep your British beam up to superstar standard:

• 20% off High Gloss Diamond Teeth Polish at Smilepod - To give your teeth back to their natural shine
• Free Inman Aligner and Dental Cosmetic Consultation at Puresmile Dental Care - To keep your unruly teeth on the straight and narrow.
• 20% off the Zoom and Home Teeth Whitening Package at Smilepod and £32 Hygiene Session inc. Teeth Clean, Gum Check & Teeth Polish at Smilepod - To boost your smile’s brightness for years to come.

We all have our weakness; chocolate, chips, a sneaky packet of crisps. But it seems that on the whole, Brits just can’t seem to curb bad eating habits, as it has been revealed that treating obesity-related conditions is now costing the NHS more than treating illnesses related to both cigarettes and alcohol combined.

According to figures revealed in a study by Oxford University and the World Health Organisation, around £12bn is being spent each year in an effort to treat diseases caused by poor diet and sendantary lifestyles, whereas funds used to tackle health issues caused by smoking and alcohol total just £6.6bm annually.

Although liver disease and lung cancer undeniably pose a higher individual risk to smokers and those who drink to excess, obesity has been linked to increased instances of not only diabetes and heart disease, but strokes and shockingly, most cancers. In addition, The British Heart Foundation (who funded the research) points out that the number of smokers in Britain has almost halved since the 1970s whereas obesity now affects one in four adults in the UK.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, a senior cardiac nurse said that a generation who do not know how to cook (and their resulting reliance on junk food), has meant that the typical British diet now contains extremely high levels of fat and sugar which increase the risks of many diseases. Worryingly, these dietary excesses can also affect those who do not outwardly seem unhealthy.

“Obesity is linked to a host of health problems,” she explained, “ but there are other people who look slim and healthy, yet the salt and fat content of their diet puts them at risk of stroke, heart disease and high blood pressure."

It’s not only our own lives that are in danger if we do not tackle the nation’s obesity epidemic. The current level of spending is putting a strain on other elements of the healthcare system and could potentially lead to cuts in selected specialist departments.

"The costs are staggering,” said Tam Fry from the National Obesity Form, “[and] this is bringing the NHS to its knees."

Dealing with weight issues is really something that you should tackle sooner rather than later – not only is it easier to shift a couple of extra pounds compared to a couple of extra stone, it is also easier to keep to healthy habits when unhealthy ones have not had significant time to take root. If you are hovering around the obese range in terms of BMI, now is as good a time as any to take action.

If you (like many members of our team) are aiming to lose the love handles in time for summer or want to kick-start a mission to manage your weight, here are a few more targeted treatments that may be able to help you on your way:

Level One: small weight loss goal

• 2 for 1 Two Hour Kick Start Your Fitness Package at Hillmotts Luxury Retreat

Take a friend and enjoy a exercise session involving either Circuits, Yoga, Zumba, Kettlebells or TRX, a healthy lunch and a Nutritional Talk including fat loss, healthy eating and diet secrets.

• £20 Session worth £45 at Movers and Shapers at Fenwick, Bond Street

Maximise the effectiveness of short workout sessions by performing them on a vibrating Powerplate. Test larger groups of muscles rapidly and safely whilst tailoring the workout to your needs.

Level Two: moderate weight loss goal

• Four Night Total Weight Loss Retreat at Slimmeria

Enjoy boutique surroundings as you shed excess weight with a laid back programme of classes, treatments and specially tailored meals.

• 50% off Six Lipastyle Treatments at Tech 4 Beauty

Give your exercise-powered weight loss a helping hand with six Lipastyle treatments – designed to help dissolve stubborn fat deposits.

Level Three: significant weight loss goal

• £349 Four-Night Bootcamp Break at the Celebrity Favourite GI Jane

Work off unwanted weight and improve your health with an intense boot camp that is designed to maximise fitness and minimise fat storage. Packed full of exercises that burn up to 600 calories per hour, this GI Jane residential program will challenge (and hopefully change) the couch potato within for good.

• 37% off Gastric Band Hypnotherapy Session at Quitmaster UK, London

If disastrous eating habits are deeply ingrained, then Gastric Band Hypnotherapy may help break the cycle. Less invasive and dangerous than gastric band surgery, this treatment offers a mental (rather than physical) solution to end you battle with your scales.

Home and Away, Neighbours and Rolf Harris. Out of all the Australian exports that have made it to UK shores, the only real hint of glamour to date has come in the form of the Minogue sisters.

However at the beginning of last month, that all changed, as antipodean beauty and wellbeing brand Sasy n Savy officially launched in the UK. An established name down under, Sasy n Savy products are stocked in high end beauty stores across the Pacific and are used in the spas of the luxurious Four Seasons hotels throughout Australasia, yet come with a thoroughly reasonable price tag. Packed full of 38 powerfully active Australian plant extracts (such as Kakadu plum – the highest source of vitamin C in the world and a strong anti-ageing antioxidant) and formulated without animal testing or animal derived ingredients, each product in the range is designed to be kind to skin, chemical free and produce visible results.

As part of the launch, I got to try out the Rose Lavender Hand n Nail Repair Crème during a stress-busting hand massage, and as well as discovering that blogging has given me very tense mitts, I was left with silky smooth, delicately scented hands that remained that way right until the end of the day. I also checked out the wonderfully zesty Vitamin Enriched Facial Exfoliant, the soothing scent of the 100% Lavender floral room spray (which is surprisingly fresh and lingers in the air beautifully), and the subtle golden sheen of the Silk Shimmer Body Lotion (an amazing moisturising, lavender and grass lily lotion flecked with the most delicate glitter I’ve ever seen, making it perfect for winter-to-summer skin).

Sasy n Savy skincare, bath and body and wellbeing products (including massage oils, candles and essential oil vaporisers) are on sale now in Harrods. To find out more about the brand and to view the whole product range, visit sasynsavy.com.au.

Just before the Easter break, Wahanda were lucky enough to be invited to sunny south London for the opening of French organic beauty brand Melvita’s second UK store.

In line with the company’s environmental philosophy, the Putney branch has been crafted entirely from natural, renewable, PEFC-certified European wood, finished with Eco-label, low emission paint and decked out with a sky mural ceiling and ‘living wall’ (covered in air-purifying plants). Both inside and out, the shiny new store looks unlike any other beauty boutique on the highstreet and is packed full of the entire Melvita range of over 300 natural based products.

After the ribbon had been cut and the store officially opened by a slightly flustered Janey Lee Grace (Radio 2 personality, organic and natural health expert and author) who got caught up in traffic, we checked out the extensive range of lotions, washes and nutritional aids on offer.

Featuring everything from honey-based supplements to a new range of mineral filter-based suncare, every Melvita product has been dermatologically tested and certified by environmental body ECOCERT. Using their own Covent Garden based bees to produce many of the organic honey-derived ingredients (Melvita itself is an amalgamation of the Latin for 'honey' and 'life'), each formula not only smells lovely and helps you look great without causing chemical irritation, but is good for the environment too.

We particularly liked the creamy, peach scented sun cream, the wide range of restorative oils and the easily absorbed, multipurpose Universal Cream, which kept our hands soft for hours afterwards!

If you’d like to find out more and would like to experience the range for yourself, check out our blog covering some of the history of the brand, visit Melvita’s Putney or Covent Garden stores (where you can take a look at their rooptop glass hive enclosure) or head to uk.melvita.com

You may be proud of your newly plumped lips or unashamedly boastful when it comes to your use of Botox, but not everyone feels comfortable displaying the after effects of cosmetic tweaks.

If you’re the kind of person who (whilst healing) would prefer to cover up rather than fess up to any discreet beauty boosts, choosing post-procedural make up can be complicated. Whether you want to hide areas of substantial discolouration or simply wish to blend away a few small bruises, finding a product that provides the right amount of coverage and contains non-irritating ingredients often involves a lengthy trial and error process.

Camouflage make up usually has a thicker consistency, is more highly pigmented and can be harder to match to your specific skin tone than regular make up. Its denser formulation can sometimes mean that it is prone to aggravating sensitive skin and this chemical content can even hinder healing.

Swiss dermal filler manufacturers Teosyal have recognised this gap in the market and have produced a cover-up product that is designed to give the illusion of flawless skin with the benefits of a repairing cream. Their Covering Repair compact has been developed in conjunction with TEOXANE laboratories and contains four shades of tinted skincare designed not only to cover spots, redness and dark circles, but also any imperfections resulting from aesthetic injections. As the compressed cream formula is also infused with bruise-healing arnica and rejuvenating hyaluronic acid, it is said to speed up the recovery process too.

The product comes complete with a sponge applicator and mirror in the minimalist casing. Four different shades of the same solid-to-cream make up are housed in the base: a sienna brown, a light pink tone, a peach and slightly more blush toned pink. The colour range is probably best suited to pink to dark olive skin tones (being quite pale, not even the fairest hue matched my colouring and the deepest shade would probably be a little too light for those with darker skin), but the ability to mix your own personalised colour using the shades provided is a definite plus.

The formula itself applies fairly opaque and when dabbed on, a thin layer does provide ample coverage with good durability. There is no real scent to the product, but it sets quickly with a matte, non-drying texture and provides a natural looking finish (meaning it can also be used as an extra coverage base to your regular makeup).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t test the promised healing properties of Covering Repair, but with extracts containing the vital flavonoids needed to help decrease the permeability of blood vessels, I would think that the results would be similar to applying a thin layer or arnica ointment to the damaged area. When it comes to powerful yet natural cosmetic ingredients, hyaluronic acid is right at the top of the high-performance list too. It is produced naturally in the skin (but in decreasing amounts as we age) and helps with hydration, collagen production and skin renewal – essential in preventing the appearance of wrinkles.

Overall, the product looks like a promising option for those who want to temporarily hide evidence of injectibles or the latter stages of post-op recovery. Potentially beneficial without being particularly medicated, Covering Repair bridges the gap between cosmetics and compresses, leaving you looking healthier whilst you heal.

If you are looking for a more long term solution to scarring, problem skin or pigmentation, then why not check out some of the following treatments:

Chemical Peel - Suitable for the treatment of shallow scarring, this process involves forcing you skin to renew itself through the application of irritants and chemical solutions.

Semi-Permanent Makeup - If you wish to permanently camouflage or correct the outline and apparent texture of damaged tissue, then permanent and semi-permanent makeup that is tattooed onto the skin may be an option.

Photorejuvenation Treatments - If sun damage is your main concern, then photorejuvenation treatments (such as laser resurfacing or thermal radio-frequency technology), which stimulate plumping collagen production can help to firm and tauten affected areas.

For more information about Teosyal and Covering Repair, visit www.lifestyleaesthetics.com/home/teosyal-cosmeceuticals

Health, beauty and happiness lie at the heart of the Wahanda philosophy, and people, treatments and products promoting all three were out in force at this year’s Vitality Show at Earl’s Court 2. As well as a wealth of stalls showcasing companies like Une Cosmetics and services such as boot camps, fish pedis and threading, there were demonstrations and talks galore, featuring industry experts Rosemary Conley and Dr Pixie McKenna (of Embarrassing Bodies fame).

We made our presence known by doing the rounds in a fetching Wahanda tee on Friday 25th March, but if you didn’t make it down or manage to say hello, here is a round up of our favourite moments:

• Dance Theatre

From chart toppers to show stoppers, the small yet skilled dance troupe proved that they could really bust a move. They managed to incorporate elements of both street and classical styles into a flurry of demonstrations, all set to a soundtrack that included the vintage-esque warbling of Christina Aguilera, the melancholy pop of Hurts and music box-like instrumentals.

Highlight: One man spinning round with another man lying stomach down on top of his head. Even more impressively, it was a strictly ‘no hands’ stunt.'

• Zest Magazine’s interactive dance classes

OK, so this is the second mention of dance, but any instructor who manages to get 20 women (and a handful of men) dancing to Beyonce’s single ladies in the middle of the arena deserves a shout out. Throughout the day, belly dancing and Zumba workshops were also available and drew sizable crowds.

Highlight: One man in the Beyonce class out-strutting the ladies like a true diva. We take our hats off to you, sir.

• Top Sante’s top talks

Covering everything from make up application to confidence boosting tips, the advice and practical demonstrations on offer delivered concise and clever suggestions designed to make your life that little bit easier.

Highlight: Bitesize bits of guidance from Sarah-Jane Froom explaining how best to apply mineral make up. Seeing an expert’s techniques in action was eye-opening.

• Free samples on offer at the FoodLovers Fair

Far from being just grains and granola, the FoodLovers Fair was stuffed full of gourmet goodies. After sampling scrumptious organic chocolate and delicious chunks of cheese, we washed it all down with some cool coconut drink and rice milk. Healthy, hydrating and great for those who don't do dairy.

Highlight: When we discovered organic chocolate tea and quickly bagged ourselves a box. Yummy.

• Tattoos, toilet tissue and trampolining

Well, we actually mean all the exhibitors that we didn’t really expect (but were very happy) to see in attendance! Having a go on full size trampolines put a spring in many attendees’ steps, a larger than life Andrex puppy provided photo souvenirs and hand massages for visitors to the Andrex Skincare area and we picked up a beautiful (now sadly faded) henna tattoo on our way out.

Highlight: The playful Andrex pup doing a dance whilst a Zest class was taking place

Did you attend the Vitality Show and did you manage to spot us having a wander around? Let us know about your experience by tweeting @Wahanda.

Orange peel. Cottage cheese. Chances are, if you are female, these two phrases conjour up associations that extend beyond a couple of abandoned items at the bottom of the fridge drawer. As summer approaches and hemlines get set to rise with the temperatures, cellulite once again becomes a major concern for women across the nation.

Typically, many ladies alter their diet and up their fitness regime in preparation for the so called ‘bikini season’, hoping to whip their bodies into shape before the summer sun breaks through the clouds. But dimpled derierres and less-than-taught thighs are notoriously hard to shift, with the pesky pockets of fat and connective tissue often lingering when other bulges have melted away.

Celebrities are not immune to cellulite, and behind the perfectly airbrushed images that grace fashion magazine spreads, a lot of them struggle with the best of us. Famously curvy Kim Kardashian is the latest woman to admit that her legs actually fall short of Hollywood’s exacting standards, despite her daily workouts: “When I'm in Los Angeles, I exercise every day,” she explained. “[But] I'll say it; I think my thighs are jiggly and I have cellulite.”

Whilst there is no surefire way to eliminate cellulite for good, other big names in celeb land have managed to minimise the amount picked up by the camera’s glare by turning to hypoxi therapy. Cheryl Cole, Anna Friel and even Miss Katie Price frequently partake in the treatment, which involves pedalling (as if on an exercise bike) whilst your lower half is sealed into a low pressure vacuum chamber. The pressure difference is said to increase circulation around cellulite effected areas and to draw fatty acids into the blood stream, where they are burnt up by hardworking muscles during exercise.

A series of three sessions a week for 3-4 weeks is said to yield visible results and despite targeting stubborn fat deposits, the treatment is not especially intense, with your heart rate being monitored and kept within an optimum range to promote fat burning throughout.

A recent study also found that hypoxi therapy is more effective at providing targeted inch loss than a typical exercise bike and treadmill based routine. Over a four week period, a group of overweight women lost an average of 5.16 inches from around their hips, buttocks and upper thighs using hypoxi therapy, while a control (spinning and treadmill work) group lost only 1.89 inches in the same areas. Overweight men in the same study scored an average of 3.7 inch circumferential loss in typical problem zones including the stomach and hips whilst undertaking hypoxi therapy,whilst those in a control group shed only 1.14 inches in the same areas.

So if you’ve been searching for a way to speed up your slimming or simply want help smoothing the appearance of cellulite, hypoxi therapy looks like it may be worth a try. Interested? Have a read of our treatment write up page to find out more, keep an eye on our MobDeal pages to be the first to know about future offers or even check out some of our suppliers. You can thank us later, Kim.

Unsightly dermal scars are often an unwanted side effect of surgery and can not only leave patients feeling self conscious, but can also complicate the healing and rehabilitation process.

Topical scar treatments typically consist of Vitamin E solutions, moisturisers or prescribed medicated creams that increase cell turnover, but the routine of slapping substances on and hoping for the best may be about to change.

As part of a quest to improve post-surgical healing, McIndoe Surgical Centre’s Charles Nduka and pharmaceutical company PharmEcosse Ltd have teamed up to launch a series of clinical trials investigating the use of insulin to prevent scarring. Prior studies that have been conducted over the past 14 years have found that insulin (a naturally occuring hormone that helps the body to synthesise sugar and is more commonly prescribed during treatment for diabetes) has the ability to rapidly cut healing times by ‘switching off’ elements of the wound-healing process before a scar has the chance to form.

Tough and thickened ‘scar tissue’ on the surface of the skin is formed around an injury or incision when the body rushes to produce new connective fibers designed to close open wounds. Although this tissue is able to repair surface damage, it is not as functional as the original flesh and instead serves as a protective barrier against bacteria and further damage during prolonged healing. Scar tissue is paler and denser than the surrounding skin because it has a limited blood supply and as a result, it offers less capacity for movement, circulation, and sensation.

Over six million people undergo surgery in the UK each year and Dr Claire Linge, head of research at PharmEcosse, believes that if successful, this study could potentially provide a vital aid to their recovery.

“We have been looking into the use of different components to prevent or reduce scar tissue over the past 14 years [and] insulin was found to control the activity of the key cells involved in wound closure and subsequent scar formation. This means the wound closes, but the build up of scar tissue slows down or stops,” she explained. “Importantly, we have found that insulin can be successfully used as a single dose at the time of surgery and so it is a quick and easy process.”

“In my experience, scarring affects patients mentally as well as physically, particularly if it is in a prominent position on the body,” added Mr Nduka, the research group’s head surgeon. “Insulin is an everyday drug, but this treatment has the potential to revolutionise people’s lives.”

Trials are due to start this month, and will take place on women who are undergoing non-cancer related breast surgery (such as reductions and augmentations).

“[This will mean] we are able to administer the insulin on one breast and a placebo on the other,” explained Mr Nduka. “We are therefore looking for ladies who are thinking of having breast augmentations or reductions to take part [and] patients will be monitored over 12 months following surgery.”

If the insulin treatment appears to reduce scarring across the test group during this period, it is hoped that it could be adapted to benefit everyone from accident victims and cosmetic surgery recipients to patients who have undergone operations to treat cancer.

Are you blighted by scar tissue that you hate the look of or that affects your mobility on a day to day basis? Would you like to have received insulin treatment whilst healing after surgery or a slip up, or do you believe that if proven to work, the treatment should be reserved for the likes of burns victims and those who have been in more serious accidents? Let us know by tweeting @Wahanda].

For more information about taking part in clinical trials mentioned above, visit pharmecosse.com

Guildford just got a whole lot swisher. The Radisson Edwardian Hotel group is planning to open their latest property in the Surrey city this summer, and the leafy county’s star count is about to rise.

The luxury, four star deluxe hotel cost a cool £60 million and with its highly ranked facilities, will take the title of the most esteemed spa and hotel complex in the area.

Comprising of 185 bedrooms, 2 suites, a large day spa, a conferencing space and boasting a range of dining options, the opulent interiors of both the restaurants and bars are to be designed by the Gorgeous Group, who recently revamped similar areas in The Dorchester, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and the Savoy.

The impressive spa facilities will include:

• a swimming pool
• five treatment rooms
• sauna and steamroom
• a relaxation area
• mud spa
• and a fitness suite.

With London’s prestigious May Fair Hotel in Westminster and the sumptuous Beauty Lounge at the Radisson Blu, Manchester Airport already on their books, Radisson Edwardian are set to get the centre's regeneration off to a sparkling start. Be sure to keep an eye out for future deals at the Radisson Edwardian Guildford Hotel on Wahanda and in the mean time, why not check out our current deals across the entire Radisson Edwardian chain.

Whether as part of a beauty blitz or prep for a birthday bash, sometimes it’s nice to ditch the stress and put styling your tresses in the hands of a professional.

Whether you’ve planned a-head or need help remedying a DIY disaster, The Blow Bar is a boutique blow dry bar that promises to provide top notch styling services for a snip of the normal high-end price.

Having heard good things about their visiting services provided by parent company Candy and Bloom, I decided to travel to Islington and check out their chic new salon on behalf of Wahanda.

Venue

Just a five minute walk from Angel tube station, The Blow Bar is situated in a small row of independent shops in Camden passage. Nestled amongst the Tudor-style exteriors, the salon is kitted out with wooden floors, frosted glass fixtures and fittings, and is both light and spacious.

Large mirrors cover the top half of both walls, with a row of three white armchair-esque styling chairs facing the right hand side. Elegantly shaded bulbs provide a bright yet flattering light and towards the rear of the salon, a cloakroom area sits opposite two fully equipped sinks (complete with a stash of immaculate, white fluffy towels). The decor may be clean and somewhat minimal, but the atmosphere is friendly and welcoming rather than cold and clinical.

Treatment

The Blow Bar specialises in five main styles (which form the bulk of their salon menu). Fashion forward, distinctive and thankfully not too ‘out there’ (meaning that they will suit most personalities and face shapes), photos of each adorn one section of the rear wall.

These signature styles include:

• Midnight in Moscow: This deep, sweeping, side-part plait is reminiscent of the seductive styles sported by Bond film femme fatales. It is given a modern twist with teasing and a slightly textured look along the lengths.

• Straightened not Stirred: A poker straight style that’s name (if not nature) is again inspired by 007. Cool and completely tamed, this expert blow dry is designed to leave hair sleek, shiny and flyaway free.

• Top-Tini: A bold bun that sits high atop the head creating a veritable pile of hair. Swept up, glammed up, and perfect for showing off a killer neckline.

• Downtown Cosmo: A New York ponytail that’s packed full of swish. Placed high on the crown, it’s smart and understated, but makes use of eye-catching soft, straight lengths.

After a friendly consultation with owner Emma about my hair and my usual styling habits, I decided to go for the final style on offer, the Pink Lemonade. A fusion of forties waves and contemporary effortless texture, I hoped its screen siren vibe would inject a bit of movie magic into my day.

I was offered a hot drink and then treated to a thorough wash, a spot of conditioning and a lovely head massage. In combination, they left me feeling so relaxed that I failed to notice that I’d lost the towel that was draped around my neck as I moved back from the sink to my chair!

My peppermint tea arrived and Emma applied volumising mousse and then blow dried my hair straight, creating flicks at the ends and adding volume at the front to frame my face. As we chatted away, she spritzed the lengths with heat protection spray and used wide straighteners to create a sprinkling of loose curls in the lower layers of my hair, wrapping sections around the plates before twisting to form glossy tendrils.

Having given my hair a quick brush through to give the style a less dated wave-set look, Emma carefully misted it with humidity defense spray (I unfortunately happened to visit on a damp, drizzly day) and a flexible hold hairspray. I had arrived with my hair scraped back into a basic bun and I couldn’t believe the transformation!

Results

After Emma and her assistant had worked their magic, I left The Blow Bar with soft, bouncy, bombshell waves. I felt relaxed, but with boosted confidence as I felt my hair looked styled but not overdone. The products used felt light and left my hair looking naturally good (rather than ‘crispy’ as some hairsprays tend to do) and I was able to rework my hair the following day.

My style managed to resist the light rain, but when the wind picked up, it became a bit too much and my hair lost its mojo. However, even though the waves had relaxed, the lengths remained soft and subtly textured, leaving me with a rockstar rebel rather than sophisticated starlet look.

Key Facts

• Phone charging, wi-fi and iPod loan facilities are available during your time at the salon.
• The entire upstairs area at The Blow Bar is dedicated to housing special group packages and private parties.
• The Blow Bar deals exclusively with hair styling rather than cutting, so if you’re looking for a trim, you will need to pop in elsewhere.

If you'd like to give the Top-Tini or Midnight in Moscow a go, be sure to keep an eye out for future offers on site. In the mean time, why not have a quick read of some professional reviews here on Wahanda and see what others thought of the experience.

‘Blue Lagoon’, ‘Cheeky Vimto’ and ‘Berocca Rinse’ are just some of the menu items on offer at London’s hottest new venue. Opening in the heart of the capital at the start of Fashion Week, stylish visitors are set to flock to the basement attraction, but will be dipping rather than sipping their way through each colouful cocktail of choice...

BLEACH, the sister salon of Dalston’s manicure Mecca Wah Nails has followed its parent venue to Oxford Circus and is due to open a basement branch in Topshop’s flagship store this Friday, 18th February. The original two-chair salon (brainchild of session stylist Alex Brownsell and Super Agent Sam Teasdale) quickly became a cult destination, with rock stars, press and cutting edge trend hunters all decending on the East End venue in order to try out the bold, peroxide-tinged signature styles.

The BLEACH space at Topshop promises to churn out the famed daring dos (including colour gradients, grey tints and painted on roots), as well as introducing a new range of specially created ‘spray on’ styles. Exclusive to Topshop, the stencilled designs on offer will include cute pink hearts and goth navy crosses, all produced using coloured hairspray and the skills of the salon’s top stylists.

As part of the venture, BLEACH are also collaborating with cult British haircare brand TIGI, whose brash colouring products will be used throughout the salon, and Bed Head , whose fixing formulas will help keep all colourful creations looking fab. Prices for a coloured hair spray stencil will start at £20, whereas all other colour services will begin at £65.

Let us know whether you plan to dash down and make use of Dalston’s coolest coiffeurs or if shapes and lightened lengths don’t really sound like your cup of tea by tweeting @Wahanda. With Wahanda’s offices being just around the corner, I wonder if requesting a blue rinse and couple of stencilled Wahanda fish would go down well...

What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex- eyes, outfit, smile? According to a survey by Pantene, single ladies had better brush up on their styling skills, because men are more likely to be impressed by top notch tresses than designer dresses.

Whether they cheesily profess to be a leg, bum or boob kinda man, it turns out that the majority of men are actually first drawn to a woman based on her hair rather than the rest of her body.

A whopping 74% of men confessed that they notice women because of their hair and 44% of those surveyed revealed that hair is in fact the first physical attribute they take in. This is almost double the number who focus on clothes (26 per cent) and legs (25 per cent) and miles more than the percentage who initially notice make-up (4 per cent).

The men questioned also stated that they were more likely to approach a woman at a bar who had great hair than a woman who was sporting a low cut top, and 82 per cent added that they see sexy hair as a key element in contributing to a woman’s sex appeal. Perhaps surprisingly, 60 per cent said they’d prefer to date a woman with healthy, well styled hair than a woman with large breasts and 78 per cent said they find well cared for hair a major turn-on.

It's thought that well kept hair almost acts as a shorthand for responsibility, attentiveness and care taken over (rather than obsession with) personal appearance. According to Steve Ward, CEO of Master Matchmakers dating service, these are all qualities that men tends to look for in a potential partner and will be impressed with when on a date.

So it seems like flaunting your curls and waves is a better way to catch someone’s eye than showing off your curves. Will you be heading to the hairdressers rather than the highstreet before your next blind date? Or do you think that men say they are admiring a woman’s hair when in reality their eyeline often wanders lower? Let us know via @Wahanda and if you’re in London, don’t forget to check out today’s MobDeal where you can get a cut, Deep Conditioning Shine treatment & blow dry finish at Elegant Studio for just £20.

When their divorce is finalised, some women treat themselves to a new pair of shoes or a different hairstyle as a little pick me up. However, recent research by the Transform Cosmetic Surgery group has shown that more and more women are taking things a step further and making over their body with post-split surgery.

Over a quarter of all people who visited Britain’s Transform clinics last year were recently divorced women – a 62 per cent increase when compared to the previous year, the study revealed. The surgery figures for newly single men was lower at 11 per cent, but the overall rise in procedures amongst divorcees has led to such processes being dubbed ‘revenge surgery’.

The majority of female patients plumped for a so-called ‘yummy mummy package’ (breast augmentation, bust lift, liposuction and abdominoplasty), whereas men requested rhinoplasty, ‘moob jobs’ or Botox™. In fact, 34 per cent of all Botox™ procedures carried out by the Transform group last year were performed on divorcees who wished to turn back the clock .

Almost half of the women questioned admitted that their motivation for having surgery was to make their ex-partners jealous, whilst 21 per cent said that they decided to go under the knife after their husband left them for a younger woman. Others admitted longing for the body they had before they got married or the figure they used to flaunt before they had children

“Many divorcees we see look to cosmetic surgery as a fresh start in a newly single world,” explained Shami Thomas, speaking on behalf of Transform. “[They] want to regain the confidence they had in their appearance when they were younger.”

Surgery figures are also rising amongst young professionals in the USA, where people are choosing to revamp their looks rather than their CV in an effort to succeed.

Surgery figures across the board rose by 5 per cent last year in the US, and according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), three quarters of American women believe that a youthful appearance can have an effect on whether you get a job, get promoted or manage to acquire new clients. As a result, one in ten women admitted that they’d consider surgically altering their appearance in order to help them ‘better compete’ in the job market.

“People are [having] plastic surgery while they're unemployed to try to make themselves more attractive for the next job,” said Dr David Magilke, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Portland, Oregon. "We're seeing this trend more and more with [both] men and women."

Does a change of circumstance really require (or even justify) a change in appearance? Have you turned to a surgeon following a split, or do you feel like ‘reactionary’ surgery is dangerous and believe you need to learn to love yourself before you can love someone else? Let us know by tweeting @Wahanda.

Light sensitivity, visual disturbances, nausea, chills, and intense pain; these unpleasant and debilitating symptoms are all too familiar to migraine suffers. The intense headaches affect one in seven people in Britain and cost the nation £17 billion each year, yet around 60% of sufferers fail to approach their GP and ask for help.

Contrary to popular belief, if over the counter remedies prove to be ineffective there are plenty of alternatives available. Last year, Botox™ was approved as a treatment by UK drug regulators following successful trials on chronic migraine sufferers, but now it seems surgery may in fact offer a more permanent solution.

A study that tracked the progress of sixty-nine migraine patients who underwent surgery to deactivate muscle and nerve trigger points in their foreheads, noses, temples and the back of their necks, found that over the course of five years, 88% experienced a reduction in the frequency and severity of their attacks.

The research, published in the February issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, also found that nearly 60% of patients experienced a significant improvement in their condition five years after the surgery, and a total of 29% even claimed their migraines had been eliminated completely.

The specific surgical process involves relieving pressure on tiny nerves located at the end branches of the larger trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve is responsible for carrying pain signals and other sensations to the face and head, and can become irritated when sections are rubbed or compressed by muscles, connective tissue, or become trapped against bone or blood vessels.

Bahman Guyuron, MD, chairman of the department of plastic surgery at Case Western Reserve University and a key researcher in the study, discovered the technique after his brow lift patients revealed that their headaches had disappeared along with their wrinkles post-surgery.

“Often when people have forehead migraine headaches, they have very strong frowning muscles,” he explained. Migraine sufferers who have their corrugator muscle (located in the forehead area near the eyes) removed and experienced relief as a result could be experiencing nerve irritation due to muscle tension.

“He thought, well, maybe this is like carpal tunnel syndrome of the head instead of the hand,” said Jeffrey Janis, MD, a plastic surgeon and associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who trained with Guyuron and also performs the surgery. “By taking away the muscle [which] doesn’t grow back, you’re decompressing [the area] just the same as you would do in a carpal tunnel release,” Janis says.

If you feel surgery seems like a bit of an extreme solution to persistant migraines, you are not alone. Several surgeons have voiced concerns about adopting invasive techniques when typical drug and selected holistic treatments have also been found to have beneficial effects in the majority of cases.

“Surgery is not commonly recommended for treatment of migraine,” said F. Michael Cutrer, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnisota, who was not involved in the study. He also stated that he believed surgery is best treated as a last resort for most patients, who should always consider conventional therapies first.

Do you think migraine surgery is an example of killing two birds with one stone or will it just kill off your expressions? Do you suffer from severe migraines and feel that surgery may be your only option when it comes to long lasting relief? Tweet us via @Wahanda and let us know.

Happy birthday to us! It’s hard to believe, but here at Wahanda we’ve reached the grand old age of three. It has been a fantastic journey so far - there have been tears, tantrums and teething problems along the way, but without sounding boastful, we think that we’ve turned out okay in the end.

To mark this momentous occasion, we’ve decided to crack open the bubbly, dust off a few Wahanda family photos(*) and look back at just how far we have come. Here are a few milestone moments that show what we’ve managed to achieve in our short online life:

0-1 years

A giggling and gurgling product of love (well, we were created on Valentine’s Day), we first made our way into the online marketplace in February 2008. We quickly learnt to crawl, mastering the ABCs of spa listings, content such as treatments and made our parents (founders) proud with the first incarnation of the Wahanda voucher.

1-2 years

After our first year in the big wide world, we were certainly beginning to find our feet. Toddling along through the not-so-terrible twos, we made our voice heard with the introduction of daily MobDeals as well as the more sophisticated e-vouchers. We also continued to strengthen our friendships with spa and salon buddies, whilst working with customers to build our base in the wellness sandbox.

2-3 years

As we continued to grow, we soon found that we could defiantly stand our ground. After artfully throwing some coding at windows and walls, we created a miniature masterpiece in the form of a site redesign and felt confident enough to make a splash by jumping headfirst into the dated bookings arena.

As for what’s next... that’d be telling. One thing is for certain; it feels fantastic to be up and running with you alongside us and we’re excited about taking the next steps forward. What we can promise is tons more marvellous MobDeals, a delightful deluge of dated bookings and the same cheeky cheerfulness you’ve (hopefully) grown to love.

Consider yourself invited to the festivities, but don’t worry about bringing a present. We’re giving you bundles of gifts as part of the special day (we’re a giving lot- it’s just how we roll). Follow us on Twitter (@Wahanda) for some celebratory competitions on the day and in the mean time, be sure to enter our brilliant spa break draw to be in with a chance of winning an overnight stay at Nottingham’s Clumber Park Hotel & Spa.

(*)have a peek at a (growing) selection of team baby photos on our Facebook page. What a bonnie bunch!

Salford-area single ladies: spoil yourselves! This Valentine’s day weekend, get out and about in Manchester instead of staying in and away from cloying coupledom.

Lowry Outlet Mall are pulling out all the stops this February with a ladies-only pamper day, providing a sure-fire way to avoid overly amourous pairs and treat yourself all in one. For four hours on Saturday 12th, female shoppers will be treated to the services of a team of professional make up artists who regularly work with the stars of stage, film and television. Free makeovers will be given alongside one-to-one demonstrations and advice about the hottest make up trends, information about ways of replicating celebrity stylist cheats and tips on using the latest products.

Free mini-manicures will also be on offer thanks to J-Crystal, the Mall’s beauty salon, and luxury bath and beauty store Molton Brown will be doling out free hand and arm massages.

To top things off, Fibre Hairdressing will revamp your coiff! Salon experts will be on hand to answer questions and shoppers can take part in free demonstrations, complete with the use of Paul Mitchell heat styling products.

Once your have been preened to the max, you can also update your wardrobe with ease. The Mall is packed to the rafters with fashion retailers (including Whistles, Gap Outlet, and Marks & Spencer) which all offer up to 60% off High Street prices, so show yourself some love and pop down between 12 and 4pm.

Situated right in the heart of Cheshire’s footballer country, The Mere Resort and Spa has undergone a bit of a makeover. Players from across the country were already familiar with the impressive golf club and related facilities, but now pampering junkies, wannabe WAGS and fitness fans can indulge themselves too following a luxurious £5.5m expansion and rennovation project.

The Mere has been a leading leisure venue in the county for over 75 years and the spa and fitness redevelopments represent part of a £15 million facelift being carried out across the complex. The spacious new site boasts a twenty metre swimming pool, a hydrotherapy vitality pool, a thermal zone complete with hammam, caldarium, aroma steam room, salt infusion, experience showers and seven private treatment rooms. Rebuilt inside the club’s listed stables building, the health club and spa benefit from a sleek, contemporary interior, but outside retain much of the historical charm and period features of the existing building.

As well as benefitting from shiny new facilites, The Mere is the only health club in the area which possesses a Rasul room and one of only a couple of venues in the north of England which offers fish pedicures (dubbed the ‘Fishy Feet’ foot treatment). Bespoke skincare consultations from Aromatherapy Associates and Carita are also available, as well as dining in the spa lounge (where locally sourced produce is used to create a range of delicious healthy dishes).

Following a star-studded opening on 21st January, the venue’s Golf Resort is now offering a special couples package in time for Valentine’s day, which includes a three course dinner for two and full use of the new high-end spa facilities. This experience is exclusive to Wahanda and booking spaces are limited, so if you like the sound of a relaxing Cheshire getaway, treat yourself by heading to the Mere Golf Resort 13th February Valentine’s spa day or Mere Golf Resort 14th February Valentine’s spa day page to book your stay now (before it’s too late)!

February is bound to be filled with flurries of romantic gushings. However this year, why not buck the trend and devote your heart to a good cause instead? As well as being bookmarked in the diaries of lovebirds everywhere, February is also officially National Heart Month and there has never been better time to support the British Heart Foundation (BHF)’s efforts to beat heart disease.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are living with damaged hearts, whether as a result of disease, congenital defects or having survived a heart attack. The BHF has been tirelessly working to save lives and help improve the quality of life for heart failure sufferers for decades, and 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the charity’s creation.

To help celebrate, the BHF has launched a brand new campaign alongside the annual ‘Red for Heart’ initiative (where people are encouraged to raise funds and awareness by wearing red clothing to work or school for one day). The Mending Broken Hearts Appeal is focused on funding pioneering medical research that could possibly provide a way to re-grow human heart muscle and help people with heart failure.

Traditionally, coronary care has been based on limiting further damage to the heart and has consisted of surgical and drug-dependent treatments. However, it was recently discovered that a tiny species of fish native to India and its subcontinent has the ability to grow back portions of heart muscle in a matter of weeks. It is hoped that by studying the transparent Zebrafish (part of the minnow family), scientists will be able to improve the field of cardiac regenerative medicine within the next decade and revolutionise the treatment of potentially fatal heart conditions.

The problem is that the heart disease and heart patient care sector is desperately underfunded, and the BHF needs help to raise the £50 million required to carry out the stem cell and developmental biology research. You can make a difference, help to save millions of lives and give hope to countless people affected by heart failure by contributing to the Mending Broken Hearts programme in any of the following ways:

Sponsor hope

• Pledge your support to the initiative by setting up a regular gift donation that runs for five years
• (bhf.org.uk/hope)

Buy hope

• Purchase an exclusively designed fashion or art product created for the BHF by some of the world’s greatest designers and artists (including pop art legend Sir Peter Blake and the whimsical Patrick Hughes).
• (bhf.org.uk/shops)

Give hope

• Organise or take part in a sponsorship-filled BHF fund raising event.
• (bhf.org.uk/events)

To find out more (and to snap up a Mending Broken Hearts appeal pack), head to bhf.org.uk/research/mending-broken-hearts. For more information about Red for Heart 2011 (taking place on Friday 25th February), visit bhf.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/red-for-heart.aspx and remember even if you're fighting fit, regular exercise and a balanced diet can help to keep your heart healthy.

When it comes to signs of affection, sharing some quality time with your partner makes more of a statement than an elaborate card and some cheap last minute chocs. To really show you care, give the gift of a day spent together this Valentine’s by utilising Wahanda’s brand new real time booking service.

It may still be fresh out of its shiny site wrapping, but our list of bookable overnight spa breaks is growing by the day - and even if you've left it to the last minute, the process is super simple:

• PICK a spa experience from the selection on offer
• FLICK through the calendar displayed on your chosen spa break’s page
• CLICK on the available date you wish to attend and book it right there and then through Wahanda.

All that’s left to do then is enjoy your romantic getaway! To help you choose between the sumptuous spas on offer, we’ve put together a couple of our top overnight stays as part of a loved up list...

One Night Valentine's Spa Break at Pasha Hammam & Beauty at Pasha Hotel

For a Turkish treat, look no further than a trip to Pasha Hotel in Camberwell, London. Situated in the south of the city, this hotel haven promises to remove you from the hustle and bustle of urban living and lavish you with luxury. From £69.50 per person, including double room accommodation, set menu dinner with wine and then breakfast before you head on your way, this break is bound to brighten up your February 14th and beyond.

One Night Valentine's Spa Break at Grayshott Spa

If you think you’d prefer a short stay in leafy Surrey, then why not ramp up the romance factor by whisking your beloved away to Grayshott Spa. From £185 per person, you can snap up an overnight stay (which includes Standard Double Room accommodation, all meals from the dinner on the day of arrival to the lunch on the day of departure, evening canapés and cocktails, a treatment of choice(*) for each guest and full use of the spa facilities) and cosily relax to the max.

(*)from the following: Grayshott Refresher Facial, Olive Stone Scrub, Back, Neck and Shoulder Massage.

One Night Romantic Spa Break at The New Leaf Spa, Clumber Park Hotel

Head to The New Leaf Spa at Clumber Park Hotel & Spa this Valentine’s Day for a blissful break in the heart of Sherwood Forest. Available from £129 per person, the romantic package includes an overnight stay in a Superior Double, a four-course dinner in the restaurant on night of arrival, breakfast the following morning, the choice of one treatment(*) each plus full use of the spa facilities. The beautiful venue is also a stone’s throw away from National Trust's Clumber Park, a tranquil enclave of natural beauty.

(*)from the following: Mini Manicure, Mini Pedicure, Rejuvenating Facial , Back Massage.

Two Night Romantic Valentine's Spa Break at MalvernSpa

Enjoy chocolate and champagne at the fantastic MalvernSpa in peaceful Worcestershire. A two night indulgent Valentine’s break will set you back from £169 per person and will include an overnight stay in a Double or Twin Room, dinner for one night, breakfast both mornings, a box of chocolates and bottle of champagne on arrival, the choice of either an Express Facial (30 minutes) or Back, Neck & Shoulder Massage (30 minutes) each and full use of the spa facilities. Test out the intriguingly named Fire and ice experience, chill out together in the post-treatment relaxation suite, or simply retire to your room...

One Night Romantic Valentine's Spa Break at Radisson Blu Hotel Leeds

Sleek, seductive and complete with strawberries, the one night Valentine’s Day package at the Radisson Blu Hotel Leeds is sure to set your heart a-flutter. A half-bottle of champagne accompanies the fruity nibbles served on your arrival, followed by an overnight stay in a luxurious Business Class Double. From £84.50 per person, you will enjoy a three-course romantic dinner in the restaurant, breakfast buffet he next morning and full use of the health club facilities (including Jacuzzi and steam room).

And for all you lovelies who are not loved up, remember that February 14th marks Wahanda’s third birthday (we know, doesn’t time fly?). Consider yourself invited to join in the festivities and get ready to get down with a pre-party package at Scin. Once you’ve been preened, simply slip on a slinky little number, whip out the bunting and keep an eye on the site for some sneaky celebratory goings on.

Whether you’re loved up or still looking, it has probably not escaped your attention that Cupid’s anticipated annual visit is fast approaching. However, we couldn’t help but notice that in the run up to this year’s Valentine’s Day, there’s been a bit of a break from the usual chocolates, roses and cheesy cards. When it comes to pampering prezzies, more intimate gifts and experiences have been brought to the fore, with neglected nether regions being thrust into the salon spotlight.

Bikini facials

Sometimes your skin just needs a little TLC. Sometimes that skin is, well, down below. Whether waxing, shaving or hormonal breakouts have left you feeling uncomfortable about the state of your undercarriage, help is at hand. Bikini facials transform sore to smooth, ingrown to invisible and red to radiant with the help of antibacterial masks, gentle exfoliation and expertly handled tweezers. You’ll be beaming and blush free in no time.

Vajazzle/Penazzle

Forget about a sparkling V-Day ring and instead go with some stick on bling. If you want to make a loved one (or even just yourself) smile on February 14th, you could always opt for a spot of vajazzling or penazzling. Once you’ve winced through the waxing, you can decide whether to plump for a themed Swarovski motif or to design your own crystalised decal. Be brave and we’re sure you’ll (both) adore your adornment.

Vaginal Steaming (Chai-yok)

To get yourself feeling at your best when Valentine’s rolls around, you could always try a ‘chai-yok’ or vaginal steaming session. Herbal and supposedly healing, this cleansing treatment claims to help with a wide range of conditions and will hopefully leave you feeling refreshed and re-invigorated. In certain spas men can give it a go too, so man up, sit down and steam your way to a whole new level of clean.

Vattooing

With no need for needles, vattooing is a temporary way to add some artistic flair to the skin ‘down there’. If you’re not a fan of dazzling vajazzling, the flat, customisable and professionally airbrushed designs possible with vattooing (which gently fade over the course of a week or so) may be more your style. As with vajazzling and penazzling, a full Brazilian wax is a must before vattooing and as the therapist will get fairly close to their canvas during the ten minute treatment, it’d be wise to leave your shame (and embarrassing underwear) at home.

Bikini waxing and Manscaping

To ensure you are fuzz and fancy free for Valentine’s Day, turn to waxing for results that can last for several weeks. Ladies can choose from a Brazilian, Hollywood, French or good old-fashioned bikini wax, whereas men who want a tidy up in the trouser department can indulge in some manscaping. There’s no escaping the pain, but sometimes you’ve just got to take feeling rough to get smooth!

Eggs, bread, cereal and a manicure -The weekly supermarket shopping list might soon start to look a little different if Tesco has its way.

The grocery and clothing giant looks set to add another string to its market-dominating bow with the announcement that it plans to open 70 new beauty salons across the UK. With treatments lined up including threading and artificial nails, Tesco are hoping that their foray into the industry will be as successful as their Florence and Fred (F&F) clothing range, with which they launched a couture label last spring.

Details of the store’s planned salon locations and full menus have yet to be released, but we want to know what you think of the plans. Would you welcome a wash and blow dry at the end of your trolley dash, or do would you not be seen dead having a till-side trim? Maybe you’d be willing to give it a go as long as they promise not to use value range products during your pampering stint.

Let us know by tweeting @Wahanda and for the best deals on beauty bookings, check out the beauty salons inspire page her on Wahanda.

We’re all prone to feeling a little guilty about our eating habits now and then, but statistics showing that Britain is the fattest nation in the EU make for worrying reading. This week (17th- 23rd January) is National Obesity Week, and with a new year well underway, there is no better time to decide to take action if you’re plagued with diet demons.

People often make unsympathetic comments and trivialise matters when you are overweight. They suggest ‘simple’ weight loss solutions without understanding the underlying emotional and mental relationships with food that initially take indulgence to a level where it begins to endanger your health. Jamie Patterson, accredited psychologist at Abermed, the UK's largest occupational health provider, feels certain that there is a complex maze of psychology behind obesity.

"We're conditioned from any early age to view 'bad' foods as lusted after treats,” he explained. “Children may be rewarded with a sweet treat after vaccinations. The promise of chocolate encourages them to behave in the supermarket. Easter, Halloween and Christmas mean guzzling as much as possible of goodies that are usually rationed.”

Jamie, who has over thirteen years experience in mental health believes that such associations sometimes become so ingrained in a child’s psyche that they influence adulthood habits. “Eating sweet foods activate pleasure centres in the brain, making us more likely to repeat those eating behaviours,” he continued. “You reach for a chocolate bar on autopilot and before you know it, you're left with an empty wrapper and feelings of guilt.” According to Jamie, the shocking reality is that you’re often unable to even describe how the 'must-have' indulgence tasted once you’ve swallowed the last morsel.

The first step to breaking such behaviours is recognising when and why they take place. “Triggers can easily be identified in people's lifestyles [and] work is often a big contributor,” he explained.

Since the majority of us spend more waking hours at work than at home and are often pressured to find time for food, it’s easy to resort to unhealthy snacks. “Maybe you're flagging on a Monday afternoon and need a pick-me-up. Perhaps you just had a really bad meeting. Or a great one, and want to celebrate your success,” continued Jamie, reeling off a list of desk-side excuses.

Although the responsibility ultimately falls at the feet of the individual, Jamie believes that employers need to acknowledge the role they play too, helping to encourage healthy habits that employees may be inspired adopt at home. "Employers must become engaged in the psychology of living healthier lifestyles,” he affirmed. “They have a moral duty to look after staff but should also be aware that a healthier workforce is happier and more productive.”

Jamie’s solution? Ensuring staff have access to drinking water and providing visible healthy options, such as frshly stocked bowls of fruit. “Fill vending machines with products like dried fruits, nuts and seeds. Make it easy for people to make healthy choices and it will become habit."

Implimenting healthy practices needn’t be a struggle for businesses either. Companies such as Multi-national food service organisation ARAMARK provide lunch menus packed with nutritious, low fat and low sodium options (including hot food such as reduced salt mince and potatoes).

Contrary to popular opinion, reducing dietary nasties does not need to mean a loss of flavour or appeal."We assume that 'good' food can't give us the satisfaction that 'bad' food does, but it can,” Jamie stresses. “We can use our senses to eat mindfully- appreciating the texture, taste, colour and smell of what you're eating, as opposed to wolfing it down. By eating this way, the messengers that tell the brain we are full have time to reach their destination and just one square of chocolate, or a healthier choice, can be extremely fulfilling."

Are you naughty or nice when it comes to snacking and if you are part of the dark side, do you plan to make changes for the sake of your health? Do you feel the time has come to confront your food fads and fears, or have you already stepped up to the challenge? Share your food tips and woes with us over on Twitter by tweeting @Wahanda and check out our gym and fitness deals to find the perfect exercise to compliment your efforts.

In recent years, nutritionists and doctors alike have been extolling the virtues of anti-oxidant and Vitamin C rich berries. They may be small, but it seems the health benefits of the fleshy fruits are enormous and their list of medical merits just keeps on growing.

Often dubbed a ‘superfood’ by diet devotees, blueberries have long been known to contain a diverse range of micronutrients. However, newly published research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Harvard University has suggested that specific bioactive compounds found in the fruit could actually help to combat high blood pressure.

The compounds, called anthocyanins, belong to a group of chemicals known as flavonoids. Other types of flavonoids, which are present in tea, red wine, fruit juice and dark chocolate, have already been shown to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but this is the first time the effects of anthocyanins have been examined on a large scale and definitively linked to reduced instances of hypertension.

As part of their research, scientists studied 134,000 women and 47,000 men, tracking the progress of their health over the course of 14 years. Subjects involved in the experiment were already taking part in Harvard’s long term Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, but none of them had been diagnosed with high blood pressure when the investigation began.

To determine whether diet has an effect on the development of hypertension, the men and women were asked fill out health questionnaires every two years, whilst their eating habits were assessed every four years. Newly diagnosed cases of hypertension were then examined and compared to the recorded consumption of different flavonoids throughout the duration of the study.

By the end of the 14 year period, 35,000 patients had developed hypertension, but the scientists discovered that the participants who had consumed the highest amount of anthocyanins (found mainly in blueberries and strawberries in the diets of the US-based population examined) were eight per cent less likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than those consuming the lowest amounts.

Encouragingly, the results seemed to be even stronger in participants under 60 and blueberries were found to provide more effective absorption of anthocyanins than strawberries. In fact, those who ate at least one serving of blueberries per week were found to be 10 per cent less likely to become hypertensive than those who ate no blueberries at all.

“Our findings are exciting and suggest that an achievable dietary intake of anthocyanins may contribute to the prevention of hypertension,” said the study’s lead author, Professor Aedin Cassidy of the Department of Nutrition at UEA’s Medical School. “Anthocyanins are readily incorporated into the diet as they are present in many commonly consumed foods. Blueberries were found to be the richest source in this particular study,” he continued,” but other rich sources of anthocyanins available in the UK include blackcurrants, blood oranges, aubergines and raspberries.”

Hypertension is one of the most commonly diagnosed cardiovascular conditions globally; approximately 25 per cent of the world’s entire adult population is affected, with around 10 million people in the UK and one in three US adults receiving treatment. A precursor of other fatal diseases, it often leads to stroke and heart disease and costs health services more than $300 billion each year globally. It is hoped that further research into different dietary sources of anthocyanins will help to define the optimal dose required to prevent hypertension as well as improving public health recommendations.

If you’re already a fan of blueberries, is this report going to prompt you to scoff more? Or perhaps you turn your nose up at blue food and would prefer to wait for an anthocyanin pill. Let us know what you think by tweeting @Wahanda.

With temperatures lingering in single figures and memories of snow fresh in our minds, the last thing many of us are thinking of is going for a swim. Yet the pastime of taking a dip needn’t be confined to the summer months, especially when it’s all in the name of a good cause.

This week, Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew and TV presenter Gail Porter helped to launch Swimathon 2011, the world’s biggest fundraising swim. Set to take place between 8-10 April, the event will make use of a record breaking 580 of the nation’s pools and 22,000 sponsored participants are expected to don their swimming costumes over the course of the weekend in an effort to raise millions of pounds for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Swimathon Foundation.

Last year, the total raised reached £2 million after registration numbers shot up by 38 per cent. Funds raised this year will help support the dedicated army of Marie Curie Nurses who provide year-round free nursing care to the terminally ill (including cancer patients), in locations of each patients’ choice. Throughout 2011, over 29,000 terminally ill people are expected to benefit from the efforts of the charity’s nurses in communities and hospices all over the country.

“Launching Swimathon this year gives me huge pleasure,” said Porter, speaking at the official opening event in Marshall Street Leisure Centre, London. “The challenge is ideal motivation for everyone to get in the pool and enjoy a much-needed New Year health boost.”

Porter also went on to emphasise the positive social and familial aspects of the Swimathon, and praised the recipients of the sponsorship fund:

“I know what a difference [a little help] can make as both my mum and my grandmother died from cancer and received care at home from a Marie Curie Nurse. Caring for a loved one at the end of their life is never an easy time for families but it was made much more bearable for us by the skill and care of [the] amazing nurses.”

The Swimathon initiative is now in its 24th year and over half a million swimmers have taken part across the decades. Participants have managed to raise more than £34 million and incredibly have swum the equivalent of 24 times around the world.

Reflecting on these impressive achievements (after a spell showing off his own skills in Marshall Street’s art-deco pool) , Swimathon President Duncan Goodhew pointed out that encouragingly, the end of the event doesn’t seem mark the end of people’s enthusiasm and involvement in the sport either:

“We are approaching a quarter of a century of Swimathons and what’s really exciting is that around 2,500 of those who dived in [last year] told us that they only started swimming again because they entered the event. From grass roots right up to our overflowing international trophy cabinet, it seems that Britain’s love affair with swimming really is back to stay.”

If you're an aquatic fanatic or enthusiast who fancies making a charitable splash, you can do your bit by signing up for Swimathon 2011 today. Visit swimathon.org to register and choose whether to tackle a 1.5km, 2.5km or 5km swimming challenge individually or as part of a team. All ages and abilities are welcome to take part, and if you register before 31st January, you will be able to secure your entry for half price. Registration closes on 7th April and a full list of participating pools and leisure centres can be found on the official Swimathon website.

What would it take to make you take on a second job; a rise in rent rates, the promise of an exotic holiday this summer or a glimpse of a few fine lines when you smile?

According to research published by Harris Interactive, the latter may be surprisingly accurate, with figures showing that almost a third of European women would be willing to work more hours or angle for a promotion just so that they could afford to have anti-wrinkle treatments like Botox™.

In a survey undertaken by the market research specialists, nearly 3,000 women were asked to share their views on the use of facial injectibles. 53 per cent of respondents revealed that they felt that their own skin showed signs of ageing and 62 per cent of those worried about their wrinkles admitted that they’d tried out anti-wrinkle treatments. Overall, this means that the equivalent of one in every three women has had some form of cosmetic Botox™ or dermal filler treatment.

Celebrities think nothing of popping to the doctors for a top up, and it was hardly surprising this week to find out that Nicole Kidman’s suspiciously frown-line free face is not completely a result of good genes, but a good old dose of Botox™ too. Yet despite such widespread use amongst the famous and non-famous alike in recent years, the financial cost of injectibles remains high.

With the after effects of the recession still being felt across the globe, many women are shunning cheaper alternatives and looking to bolster their income purely so they can continue to have their bi-monthly Botox™ fix. 31 per cent of those questioned said that they would seriously consider working a second job or attempting to move to a more highly paid position so that they could support their cosmetic routine and shockingly, 29 per cent admitted that they would actively cut back on food purchases in order to afford treatments.

Does retaining a wrinkle-free appearance mean that much to you? Would you adopt the facial fillers diet and swap wine and chocs for a bit of Botox™? Let us know where your priorities lie by tweeting @Wahanda.

Poise, precision and perfect balance- do think you’ve got what it takes to give ice skating a go?

As another set of nervous celebs polish off their blades, don leotards and buckle up their boots as part of ITV’s newest series of Dancing on Ice, we’ve rounded up the best places to practice gliding round the rink with ease whilst perfecting your pirouettes (or where to ‘battle through the bruises until you can manage a lap unaided’ in our case). Whether you’re looking for lessons and dream of being the next Torvill or Dean, or just fancy a skate round with your mates, it’s worth remembering that the hardest thing about ice skating is...the ice.

Don't get cold feet though; pack a pair of gloves and be prepared to take a tumble or two, but also to have tons of fun along the way.

Scotland

Ice-dance your way to Dundee when you can make use of a full sized Olympic rink at Dundee Ice Arena. Ice skating tuition is available on site and all ages are welcome!

Wales

Wing your way to the Welsh capital on a razor-sharp blade and a prayer and enjoy Planet Ice, Cardiff. Home to one of the UK’s most successful ‘Learn to Skate’ courses, all lessons have been developed in association with the National Ice Skating Association, so you know you’re in expert hands.

London

Inner city ice fiends- if you want to add a (tenuous) touch of Olympic gold to your routine, head straight to the Lea Valley Ice Centre in Leyton. As well as being a regional centre of excellence for Ice Sports in the south of England, it and boasts an international sized rink and was opened by the Bolero dancing two-some themselves in the same year that they scooped a flawless scoreboard full of 6.0s.

North East

Whitley Bay Ice Rink is a Tyne-side treat that caters for thousands of skaters every week. Open year-round, beginners are welcome to skate alongside semi-pros and ice-hockey fanatics in between training sessions held by the resident Whitley Warriors Ice Hockey team.

Yorkshire and Humberside

Sheffield’s National Ice Centre has two Olympic-sized rinks, so whether you’re a novice or a triple-axel aficionado, there’s plenty of room to practice your moves. The centre runs multiple 6 week National Ice Skating Association courses across ten separate ability levels, allowing you to master moving smoothly and gracefully across the ice at your own pace.

As designated detox month continues, it may be worth remembering that a reduction in toxins can benefit your skin as well as your waistline. Dirt-grabbing oil, patchy dryness and overall dullness are common complaints during the harsh and indulgence-filled winter months, and finding the balance between reviving your stressed, sensitised skin and removing the clogging culprits can be difficult.

If you’re fed up with scrubbing and slathering and still having troublesome areas, the skincare specialists at Sk:n are said to have come up with a simple solution. The Ultimate Detox Facial is now available throughout the chain’s 36 dermatalogical clinics nationwide and promises to purify problem skin without parching your pores.

Each treatment is bespoke, with the facialist tailoring the process to best benefit your skin, but a typical Ultimate Detox Facial includes:

• An in-depth skin analysis to determine your skincare habits, skin type and specific needs.
• A warming cleanse to strip the skin of impurities that have built up, without over drying the skin.
• An exfoliating microdermabrasion or glycolic peel (depending on your skin requirements) to lift away dry, dead winter skin. This will give the face a fresher, brighter look, whilst softening fine lines and wrinkles.
• A deep cleansing clay mask.
• Application of SkinCeuticals Hydrating B5 Gel to help replenish and hydrate the skin post-cleanse.
• Application of sk:n Derma Performance Repair Serum , which helps to protect against UV-induced cell changes and helps to reverse the ageing process in terms of cellular activity.

With such thorough clarifying and restorative elements, it sounds like you’re guaranteed to emerge fresh-faced and looking fabulous!

The treatment even comes with expert endorsement in the form of a glowing reccomendation from anti-ageing expert Nicky Hambleton-Jones (of Channel 4’s ‘Ten Years Younger’ fame). “It’s not always easy to keep our skin looking good, especially throughout the Christmas period when our skin suffers from the effects of over indulgence and stress,” she explains. “But this quick fix treatment is a great way of ridding your skin of any impurities ready to start the new year with a bang.”

The Ultimate Detox facial lasts for 30 minutes and is normally priced at £70. However, if you book now via Sk:n’s website or booking line (see their dedicated Wahanda profile for details), then you can get the Ultimate Detox Facial for half price or receive a free stand-alone skin analysis.

Be sure to keep an eye on our London MobDeals for some special offers too...

I don’t know, but I’ve been told; January gym trips are getting old...

Do you need to kick start your New Year tone-up mission, but at every attempt have found yourself struggling to find inspiration? If you’re looking to work towards something that truly is a break from the norm, then why not try to shake off army-style in preparation for the 2011 Soldier Challenge.

On 26th March, scores of city dwellers will take to London’s streets to as part of an urban Rat Race assault course. As well as boosting their fitness levels, participants will be collectively raising money for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity with the help of event organisers and urban adventure sports specialists, Rat Race Adventure Sports.

Founded in 1944 as the Army Benevolent Fund, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity strives to provide grants and financial support for both past and currently stationed British servicemen and their families, as well as aiding other service-related charities such the Royal British Legion, BLESMA, Help for Heroes and SSAFA. It counts the Queen among its patrons and currently has to raise £7 million a year to meet the needs of soldiers in need.

Over the past two years, ABF The Soldiers’ Charity has experienced a 30 percent rise in applications for financial support, largely as a result of current military operations and cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. The charity anticipates that requests made for assistance will rise significantly in the next few years and they plan to increase fundraising to £14 million a year by 2015 to be sure that they can provide help for each and every soldier who submits a request for aid.

There’s no need to shy away from the challenge if you fear you may be a little out of shape either. The Soldier Challenge is open to all fitness levels, and although the military themed physical and mental ‘tasks’ are completed in teams of two to four, there are 35 to choose from (including such once-in-a-lifetime experiences as abseiling in the City and completing a fun-filled obstacle course in the moat at the Tower of London) and you can decide to partake in as many or as few as you like!

Every penny raised through sponsorship by those who take part goes straight to ABF The Soldiers’ Charity to boost their efforts and each participant will receive a free trial at the Rat Race Urban Gym classes, which take place in the City of London every Tuesday and Thursday.

Registration is now officially open, so here is all the info you need to know if you fancy giving the Soldier Challenge a go:

• The challenge lasts for four hours and is held in the very centre of the capital.
• You will be provided with a special Soldier Challenge t-shirt on the day, which you will need to wear throughout in order to take part and gain entry to London’s most famous tourist and military venues.
• All other equipment is provided (including kayaks, abseiling gear and safety helmets), but remember to put on comfortable shoes!
• Some activities involve water and/or mud, but non-swimmers and the image conscious can avoid these as they will be clearly marked on the day.
• You can choose your own starting time from five specified “waves” of competitors: 1000, 1030, 1100, 1130 and 1200 (in military hours, naturally) and then will have 4 hours to complete as much of the challenge as you wish.
• Teams can be made up of two, three or four people, but all team members must be over the age of 14. 14 and 15 year old competitors must be accompanied by at least one adult and participants aged 16 and 17 years old (who may take part without parents/guardians) need to obtain written consent from a parent/guardian consent to do so.
• Entry costs £35 per person, which covers the cost of running the event. ALL sponsorship funds are sent directly to the charity.
• And finally, you can find answers to other FAQ (including queries regarding the use of public transport during the event) and online entry forms at soldierchallenge.co.uk.

Quickkkkk march!

If your New Year has begun with a bit of a post-festive whimper rather than a bang, then the fun-fuelled Vitality Show 2011 is sure to put a spring in your step.

The return of the UK’s largest beauty, fitness, health and wellbeing event promises to be bigger and better than ever, with Earls Court 2 once again being crammed with top interactive attractions, TV-chefs, dance and sports stars, industry insiders and over 300 of the hottest health and beauty brands.

From 24th to 27th March, visitors to the show will be able to enjoy a fabulous blend of shopping, shaping up and pampering, as healthy eating tips, free dance and fitness classes and salon services will be on offer amongst the exhibitor stands. The list of sponsors includes Benefit and Top Sante Mag (both sure to make an appearance) and you will also be able to snap up expert advice alongside bargains in the new dedicated accessories area (dubbed ‘The Wardrobe’). Gorgeous gourmet nibbles will also be to hand thanks to POM Wonderful Juice and the introduction of FoodLoversBritain.com’s ‘Food Lovers’ Fair’ indoor market. Yummy!

Also new to the line up are:

• Dance Theatre

Get ready to rhumba! Dance Theatre is an experience designed to excite and entertain. A spectacular showcase featuring some of the UK’s hottest dance talent, the shoe shuffling on show is bound to impress, with professionals demonstrating everything from street dance to salsa, ballet to ballroom and bangra to breakdancing.

• Make a Difference Makeovers at The Travel Pavilion

Dip into a world of inspirational adventures, relaxing retreats and feel good opportunities...which also help make a difference to remote communities in need around the globe. Speak to the experts who can make any travel dream a reality and get ready to pack your bags for the trip of a lifetime.

• The interactive show site: vitalitylive.co.uk

The online home of the Vitality Show has been revamped and this year boasts blogs detailing the latest health, beauty and fitness news and tips from a team of resident experts. You can also become a fan of the event on Facebook before you head down to check it out, or follow the show on Twitter to make sure you receive the latest announcements directly.

Win tickets

Sounding good? Well how do you fancy attending The Vitality Show 2011 courtesy of Wahanda? Tickets normally start at £5, with VIP packages setting you back around £70, but we have a pair of sought after adult tickets (worth £15 each) to give away free to you, our lovely, lovely readers.

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is follow us on Twitter and then tweet the message below to guarantee your entry:

I want to win Vitality Show tickets on @Wahanda.

Got that? I want to win Vitality Show tickets on @Wahanda.

Nice and straightforward!

All entries must be received before midnight on Thurs 13th January 2011, giving you just over a week to get tweeting! Good luck everyone and we hope to see you there...

From the fingertips of New York City slickers to those of North London lovelies- Joanna and Lynda-Louise Burrell know a thing or two about nails. During her 11 year career as a stylist in the States’ most fashion-forward city, Lynda-Louise had sat through over 570 mani-pedis and had worked alongside the best session-technicians on advertising campaigns, fashion shows and high-profile shoots. She decided to bring the expertise she’d acquired over to the UK back in May 2009, and has run Islington based Nailgirls Nail Spa with her sister Joanna ever since.

Nailgirls has remained something of a local gem despite Vogue and Elle both singing its praises, and its unique social and customer-tailored approach to polish really sets it apart. Rather than rushing visitors through its doors, the salon makes an effort to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible during their appointments. In fact, Nailgirls positively encourages its customers to linger on the premises with its luxury extras and quirky range of ‘event’ services (including weekday coffee mornings, Saturday night glam sessions and Wednesday evening boys’ nights).

Fancy catching a flick whilst you have your fingertips filed? Monday movie nights are for you. Prefer to zone out whilst technicians work their manicure magic? Simply pop in a pair of earphones during your appointment and listen to tunes on one of the provided iPods as you get a fresh coat of polish.

Complimentary glasses of fizz, green tea or fruit infused water are available along with nibbles in a specialised nail ‘Drying Lounge’, furnished with Dali-esque lip shaped sofas and sleek Perspex chairs, and longer treatments come complete with a shoulder massage to make sure you stay relaxed whilst your digits dry. Weather permitting, you can also enjoy the great outdoors by opting to have your mani-pedi in the serene nailgirls spa garden and as all polishes used are nailgirls’ own brand vegan friendly, not tested on animals, recyclable and toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate and camphor free formula (phew!), you can bask in the knowledge of your impeccable green credentials (as well as the British sun)!

Other treats such as eyelash tinting, eyebrow shaping, hand and foot massage and (the probably slightly less enjoyable) facial waxing are also offered by the salon as part of a pix’n’mix style menu. Packages, parties and outside visits (where the nailgirls come to your house or workplace) can be booked too, but we are particularly taken by the idea of the salon as a social hub where you can pop in for a natter over your newly perfected nails.

Take a look at the Nailgirls Wahanda page or visit nailgirls.co.uk for more information about booking an appointment.

…And wrinkle free skin, if pre-Yuletide Botox enquiries are anything to go by.

Research by Sk:n clinics has shown that the number of people consulting experts about having Botox treatments in the run up Christmas has risen by 50% since last year. Commentators have noted that the Botox boom reflects a growing trend for seasonal ‘self-gifting’, with the recent injectable indulgence by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow persuading people across the country to treat themselves to a cosmetic pick-me-up before they purchase loved ones’ presents.

“We have seen a surge in people coming in for Botox and fillers this year as they treat themselves for Christmas,” confirmed Jane Lewis, Clinical Development Director at Sk:n. “Many women, especially, feel they work hard all year round and the festive party season is the perfect opportunity to reward themselves.”

Every year, 200,000 injectable cosmetic treatments are carried out in the UK, and it’s not just facial freshness that people are seeking. Procedures dubbed ‘handtox’ and ‘breastox’ have been utilized by those who wish to pep up and smooth out the skin on the back of their hands and décolletage, and now ‘gumtox’ looks set to take the cosmetic industry by storm.

Designed to help people who would like to show more teeth and less gum when they flash their gnashers, gumtox involves injecting botulinum toxin into the upper lip to prevent it retracting as far when the patient smiles. It is also sometimes combined with lip filling injections if a thinning top lip is also contributing to the problem.

The ten minute treatment is already said to have improved the smirks of both Jennifer Garner and Nicole Kidman, and leading cosmetic surgery group Transform has seen an 81% increase in enquiries throughout its clinics over the past year. It seems that those who have previously felt self-conscious about their smiles are taking steps to fix matters with gumtox in preparation for seasonal snaps too, as bookings with Transform also quadrupled during November (compared to figures for October).

“Gumtox has proven extremely popular and the quirky treatment is spreading rapidly via word of mouth – mainly due to the high satisfaction rate,” explained Shami Thomas, spokesperson for Transform. “We’ve seen a wide range of different people coming in for the treatment- from young women wanting to flash their smiles in festive photos to older businessmen who have been self-conscious of their gummy smiles for years and want a subtle fix.”

Results last about 4 months, so if you take the plunge with gumtox now, you will be able to beam with newly found confidence well into the New Year! Let us know what you think of this new use of Botox and whether its emergence is likely to leave you grinning from ear to ear by tweeting @Wahanda.

Twas one of the nights before Christmas and all through the house, only one creature was stirring as they clicked their mouse. Having given up on the high-street, they’d begun to worry: could they find a great gift, and in such a hurry?

They’d dithered and pondered and all but thought it too late, but began searching online on the advice of a mate. “Pampering prezzies –they’re the way to go, and there’s plenty of treats on this one site I know…”

The monitor glowed as they made their selection and snow fell outside in the mirror’s reflection. The tired shopper grinned and sat back in their chair. They gazed at the stockings placed fire-side with care.

Visions of spa delights began to dance in their head; a confirmed order on screen and the recipient snug in bed. They gave a sigh of relief and knew their gift was right, for they chose to trust Wahanda with their present that night.

We know how it is. The task of purchasing the most important present of all gets put on the back-burner because you spend so long agonising over what to get that special someone. The old staple of socks, a scarf or a novelty tie just won’t cut it and in the confusing, last-minute whirlwind of fragrances, festive gift sets and ‘the-perfect-prezzy-you-think-they-may-have-bought-themselves’, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Stop, take a deep breath and relax. We’ve got the perfect solution and it’s only a few clicks away. Here are five reasons why Wahanda is guaranteed to put a smile on both you and your loved one’s faces this Christmas:

• We offer something for everyone.

At Wahanda, we have worked hard to take the guesswork out of gift buying. Whether you are on the hunt for a storming secret Santa present or an elaborate way of telling a loved one that you care, we’ll have something in our sack full of treats that fits the bill.

A good starting point are our Christmas page and the spa inspire pages for him and her, which are crammed full of ideas that’ll help placate even the trickiest wannabe ninja nephews and the most particular of party princesses. We work with everyone from the biggest chains to the smallest boutique spas in order to get the best quality packages and amongst the myriad of member venues are gyms, salons and retreats that offer massage, floatation, yoga, kickboxing, Botox, kayaking, climbing, manicures, make up, hairstyling…and much, much more.

We cater for every budget boundary, so you won’t be left unexpectedly out of pocket and you can also leave the decision making down to the recipient by simply selecting an all round Wahanda voucher (starting at £25), which is accepted on treatments at over 680 locations nationwide.

• There’s no need to trudge through the snow for hours in order to get the perfect prezzy.

We have to admit that although it can turn any scene into a picture-perfect winter wonderland, snow and ice on the high-street often turns shopping trips into a slippery sludge filled slog.

Get your gifts sorted in minutes and with minimal hassle by ordering through Wahanda. You won’t even need to leave the cosy comfort of your home to snap up some fabulous presents, and this Christmas, we’re being extra helpful by providing a wide range of experiences via eVoucher. Yes, we’ll deliver your carefully selected special treat directly to the inbox of your choice, ready to be printed out and presented at the venue, ensuring a completely fuss-free experience for both you and the lucky recipient.

• The circus of parking, packing and wrapping is eliminated.

The Wahanda voucher and eVoucher gift system not only saves you time by cutting out the pavement pounding, but it also keeps stress levels to a minimum. Forget the queues, bad parking rage and children having till-side tantrums, and kiss goodbye to the struggle to bundle bags into boots before covering their contents in gift wrap. The most stressful decision you’ll have to make during the process is whether to go for a physical postal voucher or an eVoucher.

• You can order Wahanda vouchers at the last minute with confidence.

Physical Wahanda vouchers are available right up until 22nd December at 4pm, and if you order before (what we like to call) Christmas Eve-Eve rolls around, they will be sent out by our wellness elves the very same day.

You can also look forward to a lovely Elemis gift arriving with your prezzy to give it that extra special festive flourish. 20ml of luxurious beauty perfecting balm will be wrapped and popped in the post so that the recipient can enjoy some high end preening as soon as they open their gift.

• If deliveries in your area are being stalled, don’t need to worry about postage.

If you choose one of our excellent eVoucher gifts this yuletide, not even adverse weather will stop your present reaching its destination on time. Blizzards, black ice and blisteringly cold temperatures? They are no match for us!

As a bonus, your eVoucher will also come complete with tons of useful info about the experience you have chosen, including full venue details, contact information, a map of the location and clear instructions on how to use the voucher (all wrapped up with a fetching e-ribbon). Simply print and then go get pampered!

It’s time to get into the fish-mas spirit! Debut some silky soles courtesy of our finned friends the Garra Rufa fish who have just taken up residence at MALIKA’s new salon in the sparkling One New Change development, St Pauls.

Stressed out Christmas shoppers can now stop off for some tootsie TLC at the central London salon, which is the first in the chain to offer a luxurious fish pedicure treatment to customers.

Forget festive kissing under the mistletoe- at One New Change, it’s all about taking the plunge and letting the toothless wonder-fish kiss your tired toes back into shape!

The boutique chain’s founder, Ritu Patel, is particularly excited by the arrival of the tiny aquatic therapists and is keen to emphasise that as the temperature drops, it is especially important for Londoners to look after their feet:

"Winter can be very punishing on our feet,” explains Ritu. “It is easy to forget about your feet when you are hiding them away in socks and boots but it's essential that we look after them. Our Fish Pedicure Treatment is an enjoyable and relaxing way to remove a build up of dead skin and maintain smooth, good looking feet all year round."

Four brand new pedi-pools await visitors and state of the art technology ensures that each one is kept in tip top condition. The water used is constantly filtered to keep things hygienic, ultra-violet lights add an extra level of sterilisation and a constant oxygen supply is fed through the tanks to keep the famous fish healthy and happy.

Once you’ve whipped off your woolly socks or (Christmas) stockings, all that’s left for you to do is to simply sit back and enjoy the bubbling bliss as the Garra Rufa gently exfoliate and soften your freshly washed feet. Whether you choose a 10 minute (£15), 25 minute (£25) or 40 minute (£38) treatment, when it’s all over, your tingling toes will be left polished and perfected, ready for seasonal soirees and sky high heels. Fabulous!

If you fancy hot-footing it along to St Pauls to meet MALIKA’s slippery new staff, start by checking out the dedicated One New Change salon page.

With Christmas just around the corner, the last minute scrabble for stocking-fillers, supplementary gifts and secret Santa prezzies is in full swing. If you have some lovely ladies left to buy for (and have already exhausted the Wahanda voucher avenue), then look no further than Elemis for a sumptuous selection of gifts that will go down a treat with beauty lovers.

We at Wahanda are currently sending out gorgeous Elemis miniatures with every voucher purchased in the run up to the big day, but for some wonderful washbag-sized pampering products for under £30, take your pick from four luxury sets available exclusively at timetospa.co.uk:

Nourishing Secrets, £20 A moisturising selection to help nourish tired skin paired with an uplifting and relaxing travel candle.

• Skin Nourishing Milk Bath 125ml
• Skin Nourishing Hand and Body Lotion 100ml
• Exotic Cream Moisturising Mask 15ml
• Travel Candle

Sublime Beauty, £25 To give the gift of youthful, rejuvenated skin, choose this collection of four award winning anti ageing products which have been clinically proven to deliver results.

• Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsules (14 Capsules)
• Gentle Rose Exfoliator 15ml
• Pro-Collagen Quartz Lift Mask 15ml
• Pro-Collagen Marine Cream 15ml

Sheer Brilliance, £20 A re-invigorating collection of products that will add luminosity and radiance to dull complexions.

• Maximum Moisture Day Cream 50ml
• Skin Buff 20ml
• Fruit Active Rejuvenating Mask 20ml
• Visible Brilliance 10ml

Divine Radiance, £20 Three award winning products in one gift set, including the new Pro-Radiance Cream Cleanser, to provide beautiful skin with visible anti-ageing results.

• Pro-Radiance Cream Cleanser 30ml
• Pro-Collagen Marine Cream 15ml
• Papaya Enzyme Peel 15ml
• Cleansing Mitt

Of course, you could just treat yourself- decisions, decisions! Look out for more fantastic Elemis products and offers on Wahanda very soon…

Munching on mince pies and sipping on sherry over the festive season can leave you feeling more than a little sluggish by the time the New Year rolls around. Finding the motivation to get up and about after the holiday cheer has faded can be tough, especially when faced with the monotony of a hard slog at the gym.

Instead of moping beside the treadmill, kick-start your 2011 exercise regime by trying something new. The most common workout woes when it comes to burning off that Christmas stuffing are monotony and money, and so to fix your fitness fatigue we've tracked down two alternative routines that are just the thing if you want to beat body-toning boredom or shift some pounds without breaking the bank:

The Freedom Climber

If a fear of heights has put you off attempting rock climbing in the past, the highly original toning and limbering workout provided by scaling steep surfaces may no longer be out of your reach thanks to the Freedom Climber.

A circular climbing apparatus that extends just 8 inches from the wall and fits into a room with 8 foot ceilings, the Freedom Climber is non-motorised rotating wall that slowly turns as a result of gravity and your own climbing action, keeping you perpetually skyward-bound.

Grappling to grip the specially moulded hand and foot holds on the changing surface puts both your brain and body to the test, whilst the Climber’s smaller scale also eliminates the danger of falling, enabling you to exercise harness-free (adding authenticity when you're pretending to be Spiderman... Oh, just us then?)

The speed at which the wall rotates can also be manually adjusted by tweaking the amount of resistance that the internal gear system encounters, so both more experienced climbers and novices can keep to a pace that suits them. You can even track your progress on a side mounted digital display that records how long you’ve been climbing, the elevation you’ve effectively reached and how many calories you’ve managed to burn- phew!

Look out for Freedom Climbers in gyms across the country and get ready to hang tough!

The Junkyard Workout

After having spent the last of your hard-earned cash on presents for friends and family, forking out for gym membership fees come 1st January can seem like an unnecessary expense. If end of year indulgences have left you out of pocket as well as out of shape, do not despair- simply turn to everyday objects that are already at your disposal and get back to fighting fit.

Before you scoff at the thought of a wheelbarrow workout, bear in mind that basic weight and functional training has been at the heart of strict strong man and army fitness regimes for decades, proving that such an approach does in fact provide an all-round boost to strength and stamina.

Surroundings such as stairs and objects including sandbags and water bottles of varying sizes can quickly and easily be used to create a unique fitness programme tailored to your needs and there are plenty of DIY work out ideas online if you are feeling uninspired. Exercise when and where you feel like it, without having to face queuing for machines or sweating it out in crowded classes during the nation’s New Year body blitz!

Still not feeling motivated? For plenty more fabulous fitness ideas, head to our inspire pages and track down the routine that's right for you.

Princess Diana, Cate Blanchett, Gisele Bundchen, Kate Moss... The list of Mary Greenwell’s clientele past and present reads like a who’s who of iconically beautiful women spanning the last thirty years. As one of the most renowned and influential makeup artists in the world, Mary has carved out an unparalled career by deftly and subtly enhancing the beauty of her clients until their features seem impossibly close to physical perfection. Her award-winning skills have seen her consistently sought for cover and high profile shoots by top fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, and she has been responsible for some of the most groundbreaking beauty trends of the last twenty years (even masterminding the fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked minimalism that dominated the nineties and is still making waves today).

As well as continuing to cater to the aesthetic needs of A-listers and offering premium make up workshops in central London, Mary has recently branched out into beauty products. However, unlike many of her contemporaries in the industry, she has chosen to eschew the seemingly obvious enterprise of a personally developed make up line and has instead released her very own fragrance, Plum.

Harnessing her talent for producing timeless and captivating creations, Mary has teamed up with esteemed fourth generation perfumer Francois Robert to design what has been described as a chic and ‘classic chypre’ (a fragrance that has full, lingering musk base-notes, which are gradually revealed when floral middle layers and citrus top-notes fade with wear), but with a ‘modern twist’. Plum’s gently modernised top-notes blend the soft fruity elements of peach and blackcurrant with more traditional lemon tartness, giving it a unique, simultaneously warm and refreshing edge. Its middle heart-notes contain a variety of blooms and the intense base is composed of woody, resonant layers that include oakmoss and the almost caramel-tinged amber and patchouli.

Ultimately a complex and accomplished scent, Plum carries influence of Mary’s involvement right down to the sleek bottle design, 22 carat gold plated cap and vibrant outer packaging. Wahanda recently spoke to her about the motivations behind creating the fragrance, her work as a makeup artist and how her relationship with both perfume and the beauty industry has shaped the venture.

• First of all, what does makeup represent to you?

Make up is all about the enhancement of natural beauty. For me personally, it represents a fantasy world where I can experience the joy of colour, texture and an abundance of ideas. It is just an explosion of fun and joy!

I have a childlike relationship with makeup- playful and filled with wonder. However, I also have a deep understanding and appreciation of how it can help women feel comfortable and confident by simply enhancing what is naturally there.

• Do you think that fragrance holds as much power as makeup?

In a way, yes, but it’s not about power and I don’t think they can really be compared in that way.

Fragrance is filled with personality. It’s a way of revealing yourself and I knew I wanted to do something personal. I didn’t bring out a makeup range as I didn’t want to be judged on, say, a black kohl pencil with my name on it or having put out what was essentially just another red lipstick.

I like the fact that Plum, as a fragrance, has been a truly personality driven venture that’s resulted in an item representative of me. Perfume is something individual and distinct- you either like it or you don’t.

• Have you always been interested in scents and do you believe in their therapeutic properties when used in, for instance, aromatherapy?

I have always loved scents. My mother always smelt wonderful- she was an English beauty who loved classical fragrances and was never without an aura of fabulous scent around her.

As for aromatherapy, I think it’s wonderful - I adore it. The other day, a friend visited my home and when she walked past the bathroom immediately exclaimed “Wow, it smells gorgeous in here!” I had just had a relaxing aromatherapy bath and the fragrance had remained in the air.

I remember someone telling me that our sense of smell is the only one that sends messages straight to the brain. Images, experiences, feelings and memories can be triggered or conjured up in an instant through scent and so I think it is very powerful in that respect.

When it comes to perfume though, I must admit I do prefer crafted, ‘real’ fragrances to pure essential oils. I personally enjoy the different notes, the individuality of a specific perfume and just feel that they are layered and mixed better.

• Could you briefly describe your perfume history?

In terms of habits, I wear one perfume constantly (without change) until the bottle is empty and I remember buying and loving Chloe back in the seventies as it was so unique. I also enjoyed being surrounded by my mother’s bottles of the first Lanvin fragrance (Arpege) and a variety of Chanel perfumes at home.

• If you could bottle a memory, which one would you choose?

Wow, that’s quite...something! I have many significant, magical memories connected to fragrance and to be honest, I’m glad I don’t have one sole memory that I’d like to bottle. I think every delicious memory throughout my life has been associated with a scent as I’m subtly enveloped in perfume every time I step out of the door.

• How did you find the creation of your first fragrance and did you have any doubts during the process?

I never had any doubts about my decision to create a perfume- I believe it was the right thing to and I really wanted to do it. It was an opportunity to create something that I love and that I hope others love too.

It also represented a challenge and the only doubts I would say I had were related to desperately wanting to create something that I liked enough and was proud to put my name to. Making your own fragrance is a creative process and it is intensely personal. It’s a bit like writing a book, as you pour your all into it and then put it in the hands of other people whilst impatiently asking “Is the edit done?”

That said, I really appreciated the help and guidance of those who worked with me to produce Plum and valued having someone there to say ‘stop’ at the crucial point before I ruined things. During your quest to perfect something you are strongly tied to, it is so easy to keep on changing little things and go too far.

I would say, all in all, the entire process (from the idea through to the shop floor) spanned about one year. However, having finalised the fragrance, getting it out there was like the creation of a little baby as it took nine months to get Plum from the initial bottling stage to the shelf.

• Can you describe Plum using five adjectives?

Certainly! I’d say it is exuberant, exhilarating, embracing, feminine and... joyous. I’d like to think it brings joy as that’s what it represents to me.

• Have you experienced first-hand an increased interest in health/wellness in the beauty industry over the last few years?

Yes, and even in the midst of a recession, the one thing that is doing well is beauty. I think that women today look great and this is definitely linked to an increased awareness of the importance of health and taking care of yourself.

There are certainly more people getting involved with wellness- women are out there doing Pilates and really looking to understand what products and treatments can do for them. It represents an investment that they are still prepared to make, without cutting back- an investment in themselves.

• And finally, what wellness practices help maintain your 'health, beauty and happiness' inside and out?

I do Ten Pilates two or three times a week, which is marvellous. I also have regular, brilliant Eve Lom facials and have my hair coloured every three weeks. That’s my maintenance routine that helps me feel at my best.

Plum is now available exclusively at House of Fraser stores nationwide and comes in the following sizes:

• Eau de Parfum (100ml) £90, (50ml) £60
• Solid Parfum (3g) £70
• Purse Spray (7.5ml) £25
• Scented Candle (180g) £36

To find out more about Mary Greenwell, check out her Wahanda profile page or visit marygreenwell.com

Christmas lights are now shining brightly in high streets up and down the country and thanks to the lovely people at Bliss, you too could soon be glowing with health and festive cheer.

The superb spa treatment, body beautification and skincare experts from the brand’s London base are holding a special customer event, where you can pick up products for less.

All those who head to Bliss’s Sloane Square headquarters between 9.30am and 8pm on Thursday 16th December will have the chance to purchase the perfect prezzies for friends and family at a reduced price. Fabulous Bliss goodies will be available with 20% discount*.

All you have to do to gain entry to this splendid seasonal shindig is print off a free eVoucher from the event page... and turn up - it’s as simple as that! Be sure to let us know if you manage to bag a bargain!

If you suffer from cold sores, you will be well aware of how much of a menace the virulent simplex virus can be. However, researchers are hopeful that the world of cosmetic procedures may be able to stop the lip-dwelling discomfort in its tracks.

Surprisingly, scientists have turned to Botox in an effort to eradicate the virus, which remains dormant in the body after the initial infection and can then flare up at any time. As yet, no cure has been found for the condition, leaving sufferers fearing subsequent outbreaks triggered by stress or unrelated illness, which cause the re-emergence of clusters of small, painful and unsightly fluid-filled blisters on and around the mouth area. These blisters are highly contagious (sometimes spreading to other areas of the face following contact with ‘shedding’ infected skin cells), are accompanied with nerve irritation (often an itching or tingling sensation) and take around a week to swell and scab before eventually healing.

Researchers in Chicago are testing the theory that deactivating nervous (rather than muscle) tissue around the mouth with Botox injections could help to prevent the future eruption of cold sores laying dormant in nearby nerve endings. Scientists at Chicago Centre for Facial Plastic Surgery plan to inject men and women who suffer recurrent outbreaks with the paralysing poison every three months for a year, whilst monitoring the severity and frequency of any activated cold sore infections. By avoiding the main lip muscle, surgeons are confident that participants will retain all normal facial movement.

Are you hopeful that the notorious injectible will provide a solution to this frustrating affliction? If you are cursed with cold sores, what methods do you currently turn to in order to cope? Let us know by getting in touch on Twitter via @Wahanda.

After quizzing her on the ins and outs of the wellness tourism industry, we decided to try and find out more about Anne Biging's personal healing habits.

Which location or space do you visit to take some time out to heal, relax and enjoy yourself? For me personally, it depends on the time of the year. I love snow in the winter, but I like all four seasons. I love cross country skiing in South Tyrol or walking in the Australian bushland. Once a year, I spend time on a silent retreat in India - that is a feast!

Who first introduced you to healing, spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation? A friend from Australia introduced me to it and I was hooked from the first moment on. This friend is still very dear to my heart.

You have said that in discovering health, we discover ourselves. What is the most important thing being involved in wellness travel has taught you about yourself? How important it is to take care of myself. If I do not do it, nobody else will! I am responsible for my own thoughts, my own feelings and my own state of fitness and health.

What day to day wellness practices help maintain your 'health, beauty and happiness' inside and out? I couldn’t do without my daily yoga and meditation practices. They help me to stay focused and fresh throughout the day. I am a vegetarian and I am trying to stick to healthy eating habits, with no coffee and chocolate and lots of fresh ginger tea. However, a muffin or croissant aids my personal wellbeing from time to time as well!

With over 20 years experience in international destination marketing, travel PR and hotel consulting (as well as being a keen traveller herself), Anne Biging knows a thing or two about wellness tourism. The CEO of Healing Hotels of the World has overseen the induction of over 50 carefully selected venues into the luxury health resort partnership since founding the business with Dr. Elisabeth Ixmeierback in 2006.

Today, the Healing Hotels of the World professional network spans five continents and 25 different countries around the globe. Each hotel is cocooned in stunning surroundings and offers both a relaxing retreat and a positive, life-enhancing and health reforming experience thanks to meticulous refinement of everything from meals to staff conduct on site.

Wahanda spoke to Anne about the ever expanding Healing Hotels portfolio, the philosophy behind the creation of the brand and where she feels both her business and wellness industry as a whole is heading...

• What was the driving aim behind the creation of the Healing Hotels of the World group?

Healing Hotels of the World was created in response to the growing spa and health industry. I realised early on that the normal spa industry (as it was, with a focus on beauty treatments and relaxation) had reached its peak and that the industry was ready for further development.

As the owner of an international marketing organisation with a focus on global tourism, I was working with destinations and luxury hotels around the world. In the early 90s, I watched the first resorts for wellbeing and health come onto the scene. Being on a holistic path myself, I realized that these resorts are powerful places for transformation and promote the adoption of a new lifestyle – making the experience and knowledge of a deeper and new understanding of life available to a wide clientele.

In 2006, I decided together with my business partner to create the brand Healing Hotels of the World as a reliable source of wellbeing for guests and to support hotels who wanted to become a ‘perfect healing hotel’. The core of our business model is a focus on holistic wellbeing and the strong growth of the global spa industry is a clear indicator that we are on the right track.

• What makes a Healing Hotel special?

All our partner hotels are very unique in what they offer and they guarantee a stay that provides an exclusive, high level holistic healing experience.

Healing Hotels of the World developed an extensive catalogue of criteria that have to be fulfilled by all partner hotels. The criteria apply to the entire hotel, including of course the spa, the rooms, the food, the sustainability of the place, the overall philosophy and much more. It is crucial for partner hotels to offer personal consultancy for the guests as well.

• Why do you think travellers have decided to incorporate healing and wellness experiences into their holidays in the last decade?

In an age where people have everything and where the luxury market is absolutely saturated with cars, jewellery and houses, health gets a whole new meaning. Health is the new must-have!

There has been a huge paradigm shift, which has changed people’s perspective on what makes our lives meaningful and what is needed for our continued survival on the planet. This paradigm shift involves a growing awareness of the nature of health: the interconnectedness of body, mind and soul which leads us to holistic therapies. We have understood that we have to take responsibility for ourselves and the world around us and that lasting happiness does not come from accumulating material possessions. As a result, travellers are looking for something that is true - for places that honour their individuality and their personal way of life.

• With reference to this new awareness and feeling of connectivity between mind/body/soul and the planet itself, how much do you feel the location of a hotel enhances the wellness experience?

The location is vital for a Healing Hotel. Nature is a very healing entity and thus all our hotels are nestled in beautiful natural surroundings. We believe that every person is unique and thus everybody has different preferences. Our hotels are in various locations around the world: in the mountains, by the sea, in beautiful countryside as well as in tropical environments. The climate is also crucial- some people like hot weather, others prefer it to be rather cold.

Location is also important when it comes to improving your personal health issues. For example, one of our German partner hotels, the Strandhotel Georgshöhe, is located within reach of the sea spray, exactly where the North Sea air is at its most restorative. This is very beneficial for people with asthma, lung- or other breathing problems.

• Has this social re-definition of spa and resort standards meant that you have seen the typical wellness customer and the overall public view of wellness tourism change much over the last twenty years?

Yes, mere pampering is not enough anymore. This does not mean that beauty is out. On the contrary, beauty (and moreover, feeling beautiful) is vital for the wellbeing of many people. Who doesn’t love to have a luxurious pedicure and to show off beautiful feet in lovely new shoes afterwards? But twenty years ago, this was as far as it went in many places. Nowadays, we want more- more ‘me’ in a treatment. We want to be seen as real people with real issues and not just a paying customer who wants to have beautiful feet again.

In society, there has been a major rethink- we are not only redefining what builds self-confidence but also considering the notion of self-responsibility. We learn how to take care of ourselves and we begin to learn how sacred– and how fragile– our whole being is. And of course, the industry is responding to our needs.

• So the typical leisure customer’s expectations have clearly changed. Have you noticed any knock-on effects that an increasing interest in and consciousness of wellness has had on business around the globe?

Yes; more and more companies are popping up that concentrate on health (rather than more superficial, temporary pampering) as their main strategy. Many city spas nowadays offer energy therapies or personal coaching for example.

In the online landscape, we see more and more platforms that deal with wellness and want to bring some clarity to the consumer amidst the wide range of offers– sites such as Wahanda.

• If city spas are changing their approach, do you believe this means the demand for business travel wellness hotels and resorts is also increasing and do you plan to expand in that area?

Yes, it definitely is. We are not only getting more and more requests from companies, but we also see a demand for Healing Hotels in cities. So far, we just have one urban Healing Hotel: The Lyall Hotel & Spa in Melbourne, Australia.

Having been a business traveller myself for many years, I would like to create a haven in every major city in the world; a safe place where people can totally relax and unwind, even for just one night. In urban Healing Hotels, health programs are not the focus. Instead, we must evoke a feeling of coming home.

• Has the recession affected wellness tourism in any way?

In the luxury sector, people have become more price sensitive and in regions hit by the recession, people have been staying closer to home. For example, in the years of the economic crisis in Germany, wellness hotels in the country experienced double digit growth. In general we’ve observed that in times of financial downturn, people will cut down on all kinds of luxuries, but not on the expenses that improve their health. On the contrary, in stressful times they want to do more to stay in balance, but they might be more price sensitive in their spending.

Furthermore, the recession has demonstrated that money and possessions are very fragile constructs that you can lose in a split second. Our health becomes more valuable and we realize how important it is to live a happy and healthy life when the world appears to have been turned upside down.

• With this concept of newly ‘valued’ health in mind, how do you see the industry developing in the next decade?

Holistic health, wellbeing and prevention (rather than a feeling of wellness resorts being a quick fix) are key. People are beginning to understand that they have to take care of themselves and that they are responsible for their own wellbeing – inside and out.

The industry has to be ready to answer to this demand for top quality services and there is a lot of learning and training involved. It will be more important to deliver tangible results for guests seeking health and wellbeing then to impress them with glamour and ‘bling bling’!

• What's next for Healing Hotels of the World?

So much! We love working directly with the customer in order to address specific requests. This is why we will soon launch a platform where people can log in, share experiences and talk to us directly.

On the other hand, it is part of our job to consult hotels and resorts on how to become a healing hotel and thus a competence center for holistic health. We are continuing to look for suitable venues and truly beautiful spots in the world in order to provide our guests with an unspoiled experience.

• And finally, what do you hope your current and future guests to take away from a stay at one of your hotels?

We want to provide guests of a Healing Hotel with a truly personal experience and we want to show them how to live a happier and healthier life. It does not have to mind blowing- little steps are perfect as well. If someone re-learns how to breathe properly (surprisingly,most people have problems here), how to make minor changes in their diet in order to rid themselves of headaches or constant tiredness, or if someone just learns how to focus on him or herself and not just on others – that personal change is the true aim of a Healing Hotel.

In short, the purpose of a Healing Hotels is to support the wellbeing of the guests in a holistic way: physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually – and to educate them about how to take care of themselves in the future.

Oh my cod fish fans, have I got some fintastic news for you! The people behind London’s first luxury fish spa, the revolutionary yet refined Aqua Sheko in Kensington, are opening a second London store next month.

Aqua Sheko Soho will have all the sleek, oriental glamour of the original spa, but with the addition of two new treatments that you’re bound to fall for hook, line and sinker. Alongside the ever popular fish pedicure, Aqua Sheko’s tiny Dr Fish army will be available to help carry out both fish manicures and full body exfoliation treatments when the branch opens on 6th December.

11 tanks housing the aquatic therapists will be situated next to a bar-style area on the first floor of the venue, where dull digits and hardened hands can be transformed into miraculously soft mitts whilst you enjoy a cup of one of the 24 different tea blends available.

Down a flight of stairs and opposite a peaceful Japanese garden on the basement level, 10 familiar foot treatment tanks await Londoners’ tired tootsies. Also on this floor are two large full body tanks, where customers are invited to submerge themselves in a pool of gentle Garra Rufa and enjoy the light tingling sensation as they lift away areas of dead skin. As they get to work on rogue rough patches, the fish also secrete a beauty boosting enzyme called diathanol, which speeds up skin regeneration. This means that not only will you emerge from the water silky smooth from head to toe, but the healthy natural glow of rejuvenated skin will stay with you for days.

Prices range from £30 for an ‘Aqua Sheko Energiser’ (a 25 minute escape combining hand or foot fish therapy and the choice of a foot/head and shoulder massage), to £115 for an ‘Aqua Sheko Double Indulgence’ package (60 minutes of bliss, which includes fish therapy and foot, arm, shoulder and hand massages for two people). Those who are itching to try out the 50 minute full body treatment can splash out and hire the entire treatment room for £112, or really indulge by netting a series of six sessions for £420. Basement Christmas party slots are also available if you feel your office would appreciate fishy frolics more than traditionally festive fair this year!

However long your visit, it’s bound to be a unique and memorable experience. "Aqua Sheko's Soho store offers more than just beauty treatments,” agrees founder and owner of the chain, Karen Ho. “It is a place where you can come to relax with friends in a chic setting with a social ambience".

Southerners are not the only ones in for a treat though. As a result of the fish pedicure catching on nationwide, Aqua Sheko have made their way to the Midlands and set up a pop up fish pedicure shop in Birmingham’s Selfridges department store. Sore soled shoppers should to head to the beauty hall for a fish-filled dip that’ll put a pep in their step, but they’ll have to be quick- the scaly visitors will only be there until Christmas.

Yoga aficionados have long boasted about the calming and relaxing benefits of their exercise regime, but a recently published study seems to have finally added scientific weight to their chilled out claims.

According to research printed in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, those who regularly practised yoga demonstrated an improved mood and showed lower levels of anxiety than people whose work out consisted of a weekly walking routine. Now that's certainly something to smile about!

Out of a group of 34 volunteers, 19 were randomly assigned an Iyengar yoga workout program and the remaining 15, a metabolically matched series of walking exercises. During the 12 week study, each group carried out their designated exercises for an hour three times a week. Participants were tested throughout, and their overall mood and emotional stress levels were carefully measured. The amount of a nerve and neuron calming neurotransmitter, gamma-Aminobutyric acid (known as GABA,) present in their bloodstream was also recorded with the help of magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans at the start and end of the study, as well as after every scheduled period of exertion.

Dr Chris C Streeter and his team found that the yoga group not only displayed evidence of a boosted mood and reduced anxiety levels, but also appeared to be producing higher amounts of GABA than those who spent three hours a week walking circuits. This suggests that specific areas in the brain related to relaxation and elevated mood are activated during yoga, enhancing the focused and contemplative tranquillity that its meditative stances promote.

Has yoga tempered your temper, made you more zen and soothed your mind as well exercising your limbs? Are you surprised by the results of this study, or does it confirm what you have suspected all along? Let us know by tweeting @Wahanda.

Have you heard about London’s latest five star spa, opening in Harrods today? Massage, personal training, custom facials, steam rooms, top quality stylists, thalassotherapy and designer cupcakes will all be on offer in a treatment suite conveniently situated on the fourth floor of the iconic store. Sounds like the perfect place for a post-shopping stop off, right?

Before you polish off your credit cards and rush to book an appointment, I should mention that there is one small (yet important) quality that all prospective clients must possess to make the grade: it doesn’t matter how much you are worth and there’s no point flaunting the connections in your little black book... if you have homo-sapien DNA, you will be turned away.

Positioned at the heart of the luxury retailer’s Pet Kingdom, the Harrods’ Pet Spa is opening its doors to the capital’s spoilt Siamese and tired-out terriers in an effort to tease away tension and soothe sore paws. Nutritional woes resulting from Fido’s refusal to eat anything but the finest sirloin can be cured with a premium-priced appointment with a dietary consultant, cranky Persian princesses can be made to feel like the cat’s whiskers again as they have their claws cut and coated with the season’s hottest colours, and frisky ferrets can be calmed with a session of spiritual Reiki.

Spa manager Stephanie Mehanna has rounded up the best in the business into order to provide a service that places the centre firmly at the top of the grooming game. Amongst the gerbil bathers and tortoise masseurs, there is ‘Head Stylist’, Alison Rogers (a member of the England Grooming Team and placed third in the World Grooming Championships last year) and high-profile animal behaviourist Rob¬ert Alleyne (who has leant his expertise to the BBC canine reformation show, Dog Borstal).

Treatments come with price tags that match those for their human counterparts. Amongst the scented candles, 'pupcakes' and marble tiled treatment rooms, a luxury –massage will set devoted owners back £125, thalassotherapy mud baths cost £49.95, a full body grooming session starts at £85 and Reiki comes in at £175 for a single session.

If you have plenty of cash to splash on your beloved pet, will you be bundling them up and heading to Knightsbridge? We’d love to hear from owners of doggy divas or pet spa cynics, so send us a tweet via @Wahanda with your views.

The ‘Rachel’, the ‘Meg’, the ‘Pob’- over the past few decades, the biggest hair trends have been tied to the names of the stars who sported them first. However, as this year comes to a close, a new breed of chic crop is making its way to the fore. Recently spotted on celebrities, but more commonly seen perched atop those with less financial clout, the ‘recessionista’ is the latest style causing a stir.

Essentially, the craze involves stepping out with sunkissed, honey-blonde ends and exposed, dark coloured roots...several inches of them. Designed to look as if you haven’t had the time or the money to hand to be able to address the situation with a much needed touch up, for once, the ‘grown out’ look is most definitely ‘in'.

"Roots are trendy because of the recession," affirmed Alex Brownsell, avant-garde colourist at Bleach in Dalston (the recently launched, left-field salon branch of cult nail destination, Wah Nails). “Sounds naff, doesn't it?” she added, talking to The Telegraph, “But it's true - which means bad news for traditional hairdressers." Not that Brownsell minds; the style has proved to be so popular, that Bleach’s books are heaving with cool customers who have booked in specifically to have their ends lightened by her creative team.

Like the chipped varnish manicure, the recessionista represents a (not-so-bargain) barnet whose faux-untidy appearance has to be cleverly crafted. Whether you add a glossy tint to help blend your authentic roots into bleached ends or purposefully turn to peroxide, you must make sure that your ‘unkempt’ mane is sleek and conditioned.

Have you embraced dark roots and bright ends or are you dye-ing to try it out? Let us know what you think about graduated locks by tweeting @Wahanda.

Now that the warmth of summer is all but a distant memory and the flurry of Bank Holidays is long gone, you may be searching for something (other than the climax of Saturday night talent shows) to look forward to during the dreary days in the lead up to the festive season.

If you live in Manchester and a night of pre-Christmas partying and pampering sounds right up your street, then grab your calendar and make sure that you keep Thursday 9th December free. That night, The Beauty Lounge is hosting a ‘Prepare to Party Xmas Night’ at the Radisson Blu Hotel where lucky guests will be treated to:

• A drinks reception at the airport hotel.
• A two course dinner in one of the venue’s plush restaurants.
• Live music and a performance by an X-Factor boot-camp contestant.
• Individual goodie bags.
• Demonstrations of the latest St Tropez tan and body shimmer products by the salon’s experts
• A raffle with proceeds going to the AADC (Aromatic Amino Acid Decarboxylase Deficiency ) Research Trust’s MARCH (make a rare child healthy) campaign to help with their ongoing mission to diagnose, provide support sufferers of the brain disease worldwide.
• Christmas stalls selling gifts and stocking fillers.
• A champagne station as well as 25% off all alcoholic drinks from the bar throughout the night.
• A Christmas disco until late.
• 30% off vouchers to use on treatment appointments at the salon during the month of January.

As an added bonus, the Radisson Hotel are offering discounted room rates for the evening so that you can party in style without having to worry about booking a cab home at the end of the night! If you fancy attending the beauty-themed bash, tickets will set you back a mere £20 and are available through The Beauty Lounge, Manchester’s website.

Earlier this week, ladies across the nation were made to feel guilty as it was revealed that the average British woman spends the equivalent of five days getting ready in front of the mirror each year.

A survey of 1,000 women conducted by QVC also found that in total, Brits use enough lipstick each day to be able to draw a line from London to New York, slap on 880 gallons of liquid foundation before facing the world and conduct more than 16 million sweeps of a mascara wand annually.

Just under forty percent of women admitted that they wouldn't consider leaving the house without make-up on, and twenty-five percent claimed that they see make-up as an essential, not a luxury. The final blow came in the form of the financial impact of our preening habits, as it emerged that women in the UK spend an average of £653.64 every year on beauty products, which adds up to more than an astounding £43,000 in a lifetime.

However, it seems that after the gasps and firm insistence that natural beauty is best, some of the beauty in nature isn’t that ‘natural’ after all. Researchers in Spain have found that flamingos (frequently seen as one of the world’s most beautiful birds thanks to their pretty pink plumage) effectively use make-up themselves to enhance the hue of their feathers.

Whilst observing the birds in their natural habitat, scientists noticed that the flamingos would use their cheeks to rub red coloured pigments from an oil gland near the base of their tails on their chest, back and neck. This ritual then boosted the intensity of the fuchsia flush, making them more attractive to possible mates.

The researchers explained that the pinker the animals were, the healthier they looked to others. Birds of the opposite sex could also tell that the preened bird had a good quality of life, as they were able to set aside time to make an effort with their appearance.

"The rubbing is time-consuming. And the more frequently the birds practise it, the more coloured they appear,” they told BBC News. "If the birds stop rubbing, [their] plumage colour fades in a few days because carotenoids [the pigments] bleach quickly in the sunlight."

Surprisingly and unlike many mating displays in the animal kingdom, the behaviour is more common in female flamingos than in males, the researchers said. Dr Juan Amat, from the Donana Biological Station in Spain, added that flamingos with the most intensely coloured feathers actually started breeding first and took the best breeding sites, which also gave them a reproductive advantage over their more muted rivals.

Though the old adage of ‘less is more’ certainly still applies, it just goes to show that a little bit of primping is certainly nothing to be ashamed of if it helps you look and feel your best.

Curries, chocolate, cheeky pints down the local- before you know it, your waistline is expanding faster than your waistband can cope.

You can adopt the healthy approach, upping your cardio activity and cutting back on nutritional nasties; the more drastic surgical approach by succumbing to body sculpting procedures, weight loss surgery and liposuction; or the lazy approach… by popping down the shops.

Yes, to get a nip tuck without setting foot inside a clinic, men can now head to Selfridges and pick up a ‘tummy tightening’ tee and trunks courtesy of Spanx. Famed for their slimming and shaping women’s underwear, Spanx have now created a series of male firming and flattening garments, including a Cotton Compression undershirt, a Zoned Performance undershirt, Cotton Comfort briefs and boxer briefs, which retail for between thirty-seven and sixty-nine pounds.

Described as ‘your favourite T-shirt without your least favourite part... love handles’, the cotton undershirts claim to 'comfortably firm the chest, flatten the stomach, improve posture and eliminate bulk under clothes', whereas the pricier Zone Performance design is meant to provide 'maximum shaping with instant transformation'. Whilst the shirt appears to turn moobs into muscle, Spanx state that wearing the new briefs means that ‘there's no chance of a sagging bum' thanks to their ‘close fit’.

“The men in my life, and in Hollywood, have been asking me to make ‘Spanx for men’ for years,” said American founder of the brand, Sara Blakely, at the launch of the range on Thursday. “We applied our ten years of knowledge and expertise in compression fabrics and transforming the body to this first-of-its-kind collection for men.”

Gentlemen- will you be turning to t-shirts to trim your torso and perk up your posterior and ladies, do you think that a vest and set of control pants is the answer for those who are more couch potato than chiselled Chippendale?

All we can say is that for maintaining a fit physique, nothing beats a trip to see your old friend Gym and there will come a moment when the ‘wonder-ware’ has to come off. We think at that point, you may have some explaining to do…

Dream interpretation can sometimes be tricky. Remembered details are often hazy or far and few between, and describing just what happened before you flew away on a banana/elephant/alien spaceship can be awkward and embarrassing. You may even be convinced that you never dream at all or desperately wish you could recapture a fleeting scene that shattered as soon as you awoke.

Fret no more, as it has been reported that scientists are one step closer to creating technology that enables them to record dreams electronically. Tests on twelve epilepsy patients who had electrodes surgically implanted into the medial temporal lobe (MTL) area of their brains found that it is possible to effectively ‘read peoples’ minds’ by decoding neuron activity.

The volunteers were shown a selection of instantly recognisable images (such as headshots of Michael Jackson and Marilyn Monroe and pictures of the Eiffel Tower) on a screen. Scientists monitored which pictures elicited a response in different areas of the participants’ MTL and then showed them two images superimposed over the top of each other. Volunteers were told to concentrate on thinking about only one of the images whilst the researchers ran the brainwave response patterns through a decoder machine.

Once the information had been decoded, it was fed back into the machine, causing the image whose neuron was firing more quickly to be enhanced and the other image to fade. Participants watched this feedback in real time and more than sixty-six per cent were able to eliminate the secondary picture, making their target image fully visible.

The American researchers plan to test the method on sleeping subjects next. ‘We would like to read people’s dreams,’ said Dr Moran Cerf, leader of the study. ‘It would be wonderful to read people’s minds when they cannot communicate, such as people in comas. We can sail with our imaginations and think about all the things we could do if we had access to a person's brain and basically visualise their thoughts.”

Scientists have a long way to go, but what do you think of the prospect of recording dreams- ingenious or invasive? Tweet us with your thoughts!

Normally Katie Price is all about the plastic fantastic, having undergone numerous breast enlargements and reductions, a nose job and having been injected with a plethora of dermal fillers. However, the celebrity formally known as Jordan has gone on the record saying that she has given up Botox (for the meantime at least). The reason for Miss Price cutting short her love affair with botulinum toxin? Her busy schedule.

"I haven't had Botox for ages and you can actually see wrinkles on me for once!” The pneumatic celebrity admitted during an interview with This Morning. “I just haven't had time. I said I was going to let it all come out and then start again, because I find the more Botox you have the more you find you need and then your face doesn't move.”

It turns out that Price is also far from being itching to be injected again. "It actually doesn't bother me at the moment,” she continued. “I'm outside all the time riding [...] and I'm squinting in the wind and rain because I've got an outside school. But I don't care at the minute."

Price is not alone in her abandonment of Botox. Terri Hatcher caused a stir over the summer by posting pictures of herself on Twitter in which she pulled faces to prove she’d ditched the toxin, and after being derided for her apparently frozen forehead on the last series of The X-Factor, Dannii Minogue says she too has given the treatment the boot.

“I have to say that, while I have been open about it, I'm not doing it now," confessed the talent show judge. She even went on to joke about the situation and media coverage, quipping: "For the X Factor, it's actually quite useful to be able to have facial expressions."

The Aussie’s sister Kylie, once a firm believer in the injectible, also abandoned sessions earlier in the year and now relies on skin creams to keep deep wrinkles at bay.

"I’ve been honest about the fact that I did use Botox," she told The News of the World back in April. “I don’t any more, I won’t go near it. I have lines. You can see the lines on my face."

Is this the start of a Botox backlash, or are these stars still in the minority? After the treatment’s surge in popularity, it seems favour has waned when it comes to those in the spotlight due to the necessity of keeping up injected instalments. Frequent public appearances and the fear of being snapped with squint lines seems to have driven some celebs to overuse, and so now they feel that seeking alternative methods may be the best option if they want to keep their features and their fanbase intact.

As well as turning to products such as The Eye Secret, the rich and famous are opting for treatments that promote youthful skin renewal rather than preventing wrinkle causing behaviour.

Bookings for so called Dracula Therapy and micro-needling are on the rise and carboxytherapy is creating a growing buzz. Others are simple turning to laser treatments to regain a youthful glow.

Are you, like Simon Cowell, still an advocate of Botox or do you think we should jettison the jab for good? Are small doses the answer when it comes to staying fresh faced, or do you find paralyzed profiles a little on the freaky side? Let us know on Twitter by tweeting @Wahanda

Scientists, dentists and dieticians are forever telling us to eat certain foods to keep our bodies healthy. Here at Wahanda, we do our best to heed their advice (though the odd sugary boost may pass our lips when 4pm rolls around), but it looks like we may need to add nibbles that maintain healthy gums to our list of food commandments.

A recently published study suggests that eating foods high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs for short) may combat gum disease and periodontitis. In other words, foods such as oily fish and nuts may actually help save your smile, as periodontitis causes gum tissue to separate from the teeth and allows bacteria to build up in the resulting gap. If it is left untreated, the condition can lead to severe decay as well as bone and tooth loss.

Researchers found that individuals who ate plenty of foods rich in PUFAs were up to thirty per cent less likely to have any form of gum disease than those whose diet contained little or none of this particular type of fat. Researchers are hoping that a widespread dietary switch may help patients suffering from the condition to halt progress of the disease as well as preventing further cases occurring throughout the population.

"A dietary therapy, if effective, might be a less expensive and safer method for the prevention and treatment of periodontitis," says researcher Asghar Z. Naqvi, MPH, MNS, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “To date, the treatment of periodontitis has primarily involved mechanical cleaning and local antibiotic application."

Past studies have shown that PUFAs can aid treatment and avert the development of other inflammatory conditions, including heart disease. Scientists are hopeful that this effect can be proven to help reduce the number of cases of other such illnesses.

“Given the evidence indicating a role for n-3 fatty acids in other chronic inflammatory conditions,” Naqvi continued, “it is possible that treating periodontitis with n-3 fatty acids could have the added benefit of preventing other chronic diseases associated with inflammation, including stroke.”

Next time you hit the supermarket, don’t forget to add tuna steaks and pistachios to your shopping list. It may just help you dodge the dentures and you can thank us later (with a toothy grin).

Don’t be surprised if you glance across the dinner table in the coming months and spot seemingly unsightly chipped polish on the fingertips of your usually stylish friend. Forget French and don’t mention Minx; thanks to New York fashionistas, the next big thing in nails is apparently splotchy, ragged and distinctly worn looking varnish.

Before you cancel your mani-pedi , bear in mind that this look has to be carefully crafted. To embrace the trend, you can’t just sport any old chipped polish, it has to be delicately and deliberately applied. Nails must first be cut short, then filed and shaped (as during a regular manicure). A coat of clear varnish is then applied to protect the nails and left to dry. Next, an uneven-edged layer of coloured polish that reaches the tip of the nail, but finishes well above of the cuticle and stops short at either side is added to complete the ‘illusion’ of a days oldmanicure).

Fan of the look, American designer Amy Smilovic, posted a picture of her ‘chipped’ red manicure) on Facebook, and went on to explain her choice:

"When I was in London this summer, I had drinks with an editor from Vogue,” she said. “She was of course tremendously chic and amazingly put-together. But her nails were red. And they were chipped. And it just made her so much more approachable somehow."

Could it be that keeping your fingers and toes perfectly polished sometimes makes you appear too...er, polished? Is a purposefully tatty set of talons a style do or a style don’t? Let us know by tweeting @Wahanda.

We’ve all seen the music videos (and the biceps)- there’s no doubting that Madonna, the self-proclaimed queen of pop, has had a fair bit of experience when it comes to exercise.

Not content with unleashing a new single, iron-pumping vid and tour on the record buying public every few years, the eighties, nineties and noughties icon has decided to branch out and is opening a chain of fitness centres.

Ten of Madge’s Hard Candy Fitness gyms (named after her last studio album) are set to spring up in major cities around the world over the next few years, with the first opening in Mexico City on 29th November. It seems that the project is not simply a case of a celeb putting their name to a venture either, with Madonna planning to attend the launch after having worked with her manager Guy Oseary, New Evolution Ventures, and Mark Matrov, innovator behind the enormously successful global chain 24 Hour Fitness on the enterprise for the last three years.

"Hard Candy Fitness will be a reflection of Madonna's point of view and will reflect her input on every detail including music space, light, and other design cues," explained New Evolution Ventures Chairman Mark Mastrov. "Madonna's touch will be everywhere."

The Mexico City venue has been described by the development team as "a beautiful and uniquely designed 30,000 square foot (9,100 square metres) space" and is situated in the Bosque de las Lomas area of the city. It will house a number of fully equipped workout areas as well as catering for a range of fitness classes, such as Zumba, spinning, Latin Moves and Cardio Kickboxing. A café serving fresh juices will also be available to gym members, who will be able to relax post-session in sauna and steam rooms.

Sites in Russia, Brazil, Argentina, and throughout the rest of Europe and Asia are currently being lined up as locations for further centres, and so it seems that the material girl now sees herself very much as an entrepreneurial woman. What we want to know is; will you be signing up?

Do you have a penchant for pearls, a gluttonous appetite for gold or a disgraceful diamond addiction? Precious metals and glittering gems may end up punishing your bank balance, but it just so turns out that in another guise, they could work wonders for your body.

If you really want to sparkle, then postpone the trip to Tiffany’s, cancel the Cartiers and halt your pilgrimage to Hatton Garden. Instead, keep reading and learn how to shine all over with a few of a girl’s best friends...

Pearl Body Wrap

The pearl body envelopment at Aqua Sculpture Day Spa in Hammersmith is a body wrap treatment with a shimmering twist. Following a thorough exfoliation, a moisturising concoction containing white pearl extracts is smoothed all over your body and left to be soaked up by your thirsty skin. After 80 minutes of luxurious relaxation, you walk away re-hydrated, tautened and plumped with beautifully iridescent limbs.

Diamond Microdermabrasion

More commonly known as a silk peel™, diamond microdermabrasion is tough on wrinkles and blemishes but gentle on the structure of your skin. It utilizes ‘wet abrasion’, where a mix of cell-stimulating serums and medical grade diamonds are gently moved across the skin by a special designed machine, leaving behind deep-penetrating nutrients and a fresh faced radiance. Unlike microdermabrasion, a silk peel doesn’t leave you with post-treatment redness, so you can show off your gleaming new skin immediately after your session.

To give it a ‘’glow’’, visit Violet Clinic Body and Skincare or check out the venues offering the treatment that are listed on Wahanda.

Minx Manicure

When it comes to accessorising every one of your fingertips with silver (without resorting to selling off your possessions), Minx is the go-to treatment. The liquid metal look is extremely difficult to replicate with nail polish and is all too easy to smudge and chip during that awkward ‘dry-to-touch-but-not-if-bashed-on-a-keyboard/new pair of jeans/coffee mug’ period.

To brush away brush manicure woes, take advantage of the 50% off the Top to Toe Package atEnamel Nails and Beauty Boutique in Leeds.

Gold Facial

Yes, a 24-carat gold facial really does involve the use of gold. Chrysotherapy (as it’s sometimes called) starts with a hydrating compound being massed into your skin before a process called nano-misting prepares it for the application of thin sheets of gold leaf. A second round of nano-misting seals in the gold and then the whole lot is softly rubbed in.

The inclusion of gold is not simply an expensive gimmick, though. Once it has been applied, the skin tries to reject the metallic layer because it’s a foreign object, and in order to do that it builds new cells. Under normal circumstances, your skin produces new cells every 28 days or so, but the gold facial procedure accelerates cell renewal, firming the skin and leaving it looking youthful and refreshed.

To experience beauty with the Midas touch, visit Gina Conway Aveda Lifestyle Salon/Spa in Notting Hill.

Tooth Jewellery

Subtlety is key when it comes to tooth jewellery, as the idea is to give your smile an understated boost with a minimum amount of bling. A single crystal applied to the corner of a tooth by a dentist will give you the cute and cheeky glimmer you are looking for, whereas a whole row of diamond-encrusted gnashers á la Kanye West just looks a bit...well, a bit silly really. Plus, we bet that bedazzled lot are a pain to clean.

Ask your dentist about tooth jewellery, or find a cosmetic dental practice near you by searching the Wahanda listings.

Amethyst Crystal Steam Room

At The Spa at The Mandarin Oriental, London, you can enjoy the use of an amethyst crystal steam room. It may seem like a bit of a mind boggling mouthful, but the unique treatment room at The Mandarin has been designed to induce tranquillity and inspiration as well as helping with peaceful meditation.

What makes it different is the large amethyst crystal which is mounted in the centre of the room, supposedly channelling healing powers through the muted coloured lighting and the infusion of fragrances which hang in the moist air. Sit back in the pleasant heat and simply let the gem do the (crystal therapy-style) work.

Crystal Wand Massage

Another variant of crystal therapy is crystal wand massage. The type of crystal used will vary depending on the condition being treated and the wand is usually heated before being utilised as a tissue manipulation and drainage massage tool.

Unfortunately sapphires, emeralds and rubies do not feature in the crystal wand selection, but I have a feeling being prodded with the less glamorous (but holistically more significant) rose quartz baton may have more of a holistic healing effect.

To try out crystal wand massage, book in at Pure Mind Body & Spirit in Cheshire.

Ashley Loong is one salon owner who hopes her fledgling business really takes off. After travelling thousands of miles during her job as an air hostess with Singapore Airlines, Ms Loong decided to call it quits and along with a beauty loving buddy, established ‘Apronbay’ beauty boutique (apronbay.com).

The name isn’t just a reflection of Loong’s past, but very much representative of the Kuala Lumpur salon’s present; ‘apronbay’ is an aviation term that refers to the section of runway reserved for aircraft parking, refuelling, and the loading and unloading of passengers- a one-stop refurbishment and recovery zone. The integration of the airport theme doesn’t quite end there though...

When the salon opened its doors last month, it became the first air travel concept spa- yes, the entire venue is built around the various stages of a first class air travel experience. Customers first ‘check in’ at reception, before being guided to the first treatment area by a member of salon staff who is dressed head to toe in flight attendant attire.

Dubbed the ‘first class waiting lounge’, here guests are treated to a manicure and pedicure before moving on to their ‘in flight seat’ in a themed main treatment room. Depending on which process customers have elected to have, they will be guided to a seat amongst one of the following surroundings:

• Waxing- A neon light-bedazzled New York (‘Contemporary City’), the peaceful shore-side of Boracay, Phillipines (‘Seaside Loft’) or Chinatown in Shanghai (‘Oriental Suite’)
• Brow Design- A market straight out of Victorian London (‘Covent Garden’) or the tranquil greenery of ‘Country Garden’.

“We aim to fulfil this unique brand concept by exuding the glamour, comfortable luxury and the sort of poise that come from being exposed to cultures around the world,” explained Loong, who chose and manufactured the scenic wallpaper used in each room herself after raiding her friends’ photo collections. She has gone to great lengths to create an atmosphere in a compact space, and the details are even carried through to the doors of each of the treatment rooms, which are cleverly crafted to look like aeroplane side hatches.

At Wahanda, we can’t wait to see what creative salon owners will come up with next when it comes to concept stores. Perhaps they should consider a pirate theme- a fish pedicure where you have to walk the plank and a seaweed wrap amongst the rigging? On second thoughts, we’re not sure, but that may change if you throw Mr Depp into the equation...

Of all the DIY beauty horror story topics, brow blunders undoubtedly crop up the most. Professional brow shaping has been the key to framing the features of the rich and famous for decades and recently, there has been only one treatment name on the lips of in-the-know stars across the nation: HD Brows.

HD Brows is a seven step process formulated by beauty expert Nilam Patel which defines and perfects your brows (modelling them to suit your face shape) in just 15 minutes. After some precision threading, specially trained brow artists contour and fill overgrown or over plucked brows, leaving you with a picture perfect set of arches.

The celeb secret is rapidly growing in popularity, but only a handful of salons up and down the country have technicians qualified to craft HD Brows, meaning the treatment is very much in demand. However, North West lovelies are in luck as the award winning Eastthorpe Hall in Mirfield, West Yorkshire has just been added to the lucrative list.

Eastthorpe Hall is situated in beautiful historic surroundings and offers both individual treatment appointments and indulgent spa days. HD Brow appointments at the prestigious venue are rapidly filling up, so if you want to give your face an A-list lift without the pain of surgery, book an appointment to have your brows reshaped now. Trust us, it won’t be long before the waiting list is longer than the queue for the VIP lounge...

It’s all too easy to be tempted by till-side titbits when you’re standing in line, credit card in hand. Chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks somehow slip into the basket or trolley and before you know it, you’re cursing yourself for having scoffed that sweetie which blew the day’s dieting goal.

If you swapped your plastic for a pocket full of change, however, it seems you may find it easier to stick to the fruit and veg. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that shoppers found it more difficult to part with cash when food shopping and so limited their purchases.

The research took place over the course of six months, during which time the shopping habits of 1,000 households were observed and recorded. Researchers found that when consumers used credit or debit cards to make their purchases, shopping baskets had a larger proportion of food items that were considered ‘impulsive’ and ‘unhealthy’. A follow up study also revealed that people were more reluctant to part with their money if they had to pay in cash and so avoided till-side snack foods.

"Cash payments are psychologically more painful than card payments,” claim the authors of the study. “The notion that mode of payment can curb impulsive purchase of unhealthy food products is substantially important; the epidemic increase in obesity suggests that regulating impulsive purchases and consumption of unhealthy food products is a steep challenge for many consumers."

The American researchers believe that it may now be possible to correlate the stateside obesity epidemic with the increasing use of credit cards across the country. Over 33 per cent of adults in the US are classed as obese and nearly 40 per cent of all purchases made in the USA during 2006 were paid by credit and debit cards.

"The relationship between these trends suggests that self-control is not entirely volitional,” the study’s authors continued. “It can be facilitated or impeded by seemingly unrelated contextual factors that influence people's visceral feelings."

If you’re feeling particularly body conscious or consider yourself a bit of a gym bunny, bear this in mind next time you pop out for a pint of milk- it may be worth grabbing the pennies to help prevent putting on the pounds!

Allergies can range from being a lifetime annoyance to a potential life or death situation. Anything from perfume to pets can trigger a reaction and symptoms can be as inconsequential as a slight rash or as severe as anaphylactic shock.

Allergies often appear to develop without obvious cause, but new research conducted over 5 years in Finland has found evidence that if you do suffer from an allergy, its specific nature may be down to the time of year in which you were born.

As part of the study, scientists in southeast Finland regularly tested 1,000 children who were born between 2001 and 2006 for food allergen sensitivity until they reached the age of 4. The results showed a significant variation in the number of sufferers which seemed to correspond to the month when each child was born. Of the 18% who were found to have food allergies, 5% of children born in June and July tested positive, compared to 9.5% of October and November babies.

Doctors also found that ambient pollen levels for birch and alder trees peaked during April and May and discovered that children whose first three months of foetal development ended during those particular months (late autumn babies) were three times more likely to become allergic to milk and eggs than babies who reached the same developmental stage in November and December.

Earlier studies have shown that winter babies are more likely to suffer from eczema and respiratory allergies and that they also have higher levels of allergen antibodies than their summer born contemporaries. Scientists have proposed that this could be because foetuses start producing such antibodies after the 11th week of development and antibodies to specific allergens when 24 weeks of gestation have passed. According to the researchers, an allergic-type response at 11 weeks is necessary for a pregnancy to progress, and in some cases this particularly (pollen) aggravated response continues after birth, resulting in long term sensitivity.

So far, scientists have yet to conclusively tie specific allergies to the presence of outside allergens, but this study is likely to be the first of many on the subject. If later research backs up these findings, you may just be able to blame pollen for ruining your relationship with peanuts before you even left the womb...

For more information about allergy testing and nutritional advice, visit the treatment pages devoted to the subjects here on Wahanda.

Red and purple and pink and white- they may come in a rainbow of colours but there’s one thing that all stretch marks have in common: they’re very much unwanted.

Whether you put on a bit of a growth spurt as a teen, developed some whilst pregnant or simply filled out a little round the edges, if you have stretch marks (or ‘striae’), the reassuring thing is that you’re not alone. Approximately 90% of women develop stretch marks during pregnancy and 7 in every 10 girls and 4 out of 10 boys develop stretch marks during puberty, making them a common (and completely harmless) condition.

Stretch marks are a result of breaks in the dermis (the middle layer of skin that is responsible for supporting the entire organ, giving it firmness and flexibility). They occur after the dermis has been subjected to a short but intense period of stretching and appear purple or red at first before fading to a silvery white. The marks themselves are in fact deeper layers of skin showing through the dermal tears, which gradually become less visible as the skin contracts over time.

Although there is no real way to banish stretch marks for good, there are a number of procedures that help improve the appearance of the affected skin and as a result, boost your confidence. We’ve rounded up the most trusted treatments to form a definitive complexion correcting collection:

Endermologie

Endermologie is a cosmetic treatment more traditionally used to target cellulite. However, its skin-stimulating rollers combined with suction increase circulation (vital for healing) and stimulate the renewal of connective tissues, apparently speeding up the repair of dermal tears.

A series of sessions is required to obtain the optimum results, so if you’re thinking of giving it a roll (sorry, couldn’t resist), then you can find your nearest practitioner through Wahanda’s extensive listings.

Body Wraps

Whether moisturising or toxin destroying, body wraps offer a more relaxing way to tackle troublesome stretch marks. As well as nourishing the skin and making sure it absorbs all the water that it needs to function, body wraps are also said to boost circulation to all layers of the skin (a benefit that is enhanced if you plump for a post-wrap scrub and massage).

The more moisture-rich wraps will work best on early stage stretch marks (known clinically as ‘striae rubra’) which are still purple, whereas increasing blood supply to affected areas is likely to help the healing of marks at any stage of development.

Get ready to unwrap faded striae in the near future by booking in at one of the many venues listed on Wahanda that offers body wrap treatments.

Laser Resurfacing

Laser resurfacing is slightly more invasive than other stretch mark solutions. Results are often visible after just one session, but as it literally strips away layers of the skin to force renewal and collagen fibre production, the treatment usually requires a local anaesthetic and carries a recovery time of 7-10 days.

Unfortunately, those with dark skin may want to avoid laser resurfacing, as there is a chance that the procedure will cause changes in your skin’s pigmentation levels. You should also be aware that it is significantly pricier than alternative treatments.

If you want to blitz away the redness of stretch marks with laser therapy, then have a look at Wahanda’s venue listings for the best deals and the latest customer recommendations.

Microdermabrasion

To buff away beastly marks, turn to microdermabrasion. A gentler process than laser resurfacing, microdermabrasion involves a small unit being used to slough and hoover away dead skin and impurities. The treatment utilizes the abrasive properties of tiny crystals that are propelled with air across the skin, and requires no recovery time.

Although it is quick, easy and fairly bank balance friendly, microdermabrasion does not reach the dermis layer where stretch marks occur and so it is best combined with other procedures.

To try out microdermabrasion for yourself, start by finding your nearest venue offering the service on Wahanda.

Sunless Tanning

Hiding stretch marks is often easier than trying to reduce their appearance and spray and sunless tanning are simple and widely available treatments that do just that. Kill two birds with one stone before jetting off on holiday; have a salon tanning treatment and you’ll arrive with a sun-kissed glow (and won’t be afraid to show it off on the beach knowing that those silly stretch marks are well concealed).

To top up your tan and tone down scars, first visit the dedicated spray and sunless tanning page here on Wahanda to track down a salon near you.

Cosmetic Surgery

If the source of your stretch marks has also left you with excess skin, then cosmetic surgery such as abdominoplasty (otherwise known as a tummy tuck) may be a viable option. The most expensive and most risky stretch mark treatment, abdominoplasty will tighten up your stomach but may result in a whole new set of scars.

If you’ve decided that going under the knife is your treatment of choice, be sure to do your homework by looking for more info on practitioners and clinics which perform abdominoplasty.

Have you undergone a stretch mark treatment that has worked really well? Can you recommend any complimentary nutritional methods or skin care routines to other members? Let us know on Twitter @Wahanda.

Vicky B has re-embraced hers, Cheryl Cole has added cherry lengths to match her recent dye job and Britney Spears has been lambasted for once again stepping out with a set that is in need of some serious TLC.

After the appearance of tumbling 70s waves, carefree flicks and thick ponytails on the spring and summer season runways, hair extensions are back on the radar and longer and more lustrous than ever. To keep Rapunzel locks in check (and prevent them looking like the unfortunate Miss Spears’ tendrils), it is essential that you visit a salon regularly to make sure your extensions are properly attached, cared for and blended well into your own hair.

If you opt for a more vibrant colour, similar to that sported by Katy Perry, Rihanna or hair chameleon Lady Gaga, then colouring appointments become all the more vital to make sure that natural hair additions fade at the same rate as your own barnet.

If you’re flirting with the idea of thickening up your tresses or have recently gone to new lengths like Nicola Roberts, then Wahanda have got all you need to maintain your mane so you are turning heads for all the right reasons:

• For all those new to the extension game, get your first set for half price but still at top quality at Secrets Hair. Birmingham beauties can nab £100 worth of extensions for just £50, guaranteeing that your first forays into fuller hair are a sure-fire success.

• Get money off luxury treatments by Aveda at Gina Conway Aveda Salons in Wimbledon, Notting Hill or Fulham, and let your hair shine. With a £20 discount on all treatment combinations when you spend £50 or more, a brilliant blow dry or selection of treatments with Aveda’s gentle plant-based products will all be at your disposal for less.

• Make a day of a trip to Mayfair and get a free manicure with your master haircut courtesy of Ozzie Rizzo. For £65, (a saving of 31% compared to the standard price of £95) you’ll walk away with tidy ends and neat nails. Fabulous!

• Add the finishing touches to your extended style by turning it into a curl extravaganza; Bad Apple Hair in Birmingham is offering a GHD styling session worth £32 for just £25, saving you over 20%. Bounce and brilliant shimmering gloss will be yours if you book any day of the week (excluding throughout December), so get ready to be blessed with infinite twists and twirls at the hands of a professional.

Felicity Kendal left jaws on floors across the nation when she bent over backwards to wow the Strictly Come Dancing judges with her rumba on Saturday night. Pulling off moves that would stump most of the other contestants who are half her age, she effortlessly slipped into a controlled splits position before twisting and turning with her head just inches from the dance floor.

When quizzed about her astounding athletics, 64 year old Miss Kendal had only three words to explain her flexible feat and uttered them with a giggle and grin: ‘Pilates and yoga’. Apparently a newly converted devotee to the stretching and strengthening exercises, Miss Kendal was frequently seen attending sessions at a central London gym in the run up to the start of the series. Insiders say she also upped her aerobic activities, undertaking demanding gym classes in an effort to boost her fitness in preparation for the hours of dance training.

Kendal is not the only celebrity who has recently admitted that they’ve waved bye-bye to Botox and shunned surgery in favour of a good old fashioned exercise routine to keep them looking and feeling spritely. Kelly Osbourne has been raving about the fat burning properties of Pilates in combination with long dance classes and Dannii Minogue took to Twitter to let the world know that it was Power Plate sessions and not post-pregnancy surgery that has left her glowing inside and out during her X-Factor appearances. This Saturday, the Aussie tweeted: ‘Killing from #PowerPlate...25 mins, twice [a] week!’, but also praised the effects of the intense work out.

Perez Hilton is also getting in on the act and is swapping his acid tongue for muscle building calorie burn (for part of the working week, anyway). FitPerez, a combination of celebrity fitness news and healthy living advice, has recently gone live and the no holds barred blogger has said he wants to help his readers reject their junk-filled lifestyles after losing 61lbs himself over the last two fitness-filled years. Once a prominent detractor of aerobic exercise, Hilton appears to have come full circle and embraced body buffing sessions after saying that he feels not only healthier and more full of energy, but much happier, and wants his loyal fans to share his gym-goer glee.

If the self-styled (drama) queen of mean has some positive words to say about sweating it out, then there really is no excuse to shirk weekly work outs. Whether you pick poise perfecting Pilates or something a little more punishing, it’ll get that blood pumping and help you on your way to being a svelte as the stars.

There is no escaping the fact that cigs represent a bad habit that carries a more serious set of consequences than most. Worrying statistics recently released by the European Respiratory Society (ERS) reveal that there has been a 50% rise in the number of women dying from lung diseases like bronchitis and emphysema over the last 20 years- a fact largely attributed to the impact of smoking.

Yet tobacco is notoriously hard to kick and thousands struggle every year to ditch cigarettes for good. Amongst the medical doom and gloom, Wahanda is determined to help all those who want to give up on their way towards a smoke-free life. Whether you are quitting to improve your health or to bolster your bank balance, there are plenty of services and treatments out there that are designed to provide support and a much needed bit of extra assistance to those with a nicotine dependency.

We’ve rounded up a few of the best (and most original) willpower boosters so that you can permanently stub out those sticks (or give any other persistent compulsions like nail biting the heave-ho):

Acustaple

As the name suggests, acustaple involves using surgical staples to target acupressure points in place of needles. Carried out solely on the inner cartilage area of the ear, it is supposed to help stop stress in its tracks (no more anxious nail nibbling) as well as curb cravings by creating a strong distaste for substances like tobacco. If routine rules but leaves you unable to relax or a reliance on nicotine hits has destroyed your resolve in the past, then this treatment may be the one for you.

Have a look at our venues offering acustaple

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is perhaps the most well known ‘alternative’ aid for changing your life. Rather than zoning out, the treatment is designed to focus your mind on a certain (often subconscious, rarely considered or emotional) thought in order to help modify its progression or stop it occurring altogether.

Again, relaxation lies at the heart of the treatment (unsurprising, considering many habits are distractions that we turn to when stressed out) and so it should hopefully stop you turning to bad behaviours when a presentation or traffic jam rears its ugly head.

Head to one of the following places if you fancy giving hypnotherapy a go.

Bioresonance therapy

Stress and toxins are said to be effectively shaken out of your system during bioresonance therapy. It may seem unconventional, but the treatment boasts an enviable claimed success rate, with 90% of patients said to have reduced their habit by the time their second session has rolled around.

If you want to see if bioresonance therapy can help you out where other methods have failed, why not start by checking out the venues nearest to you which offer the treatment.

Banish beds and burn, shun sprays and never suffer the indignity of turning orange again- scientists believe they have produced a cream that causes the skin to produce the natural skin tanning pigment, melanin, without you even having to set foot in the sun.

The cream’s inventor, Dr David Fisher of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, began development by researching the chain of chemical reactions which cause the skin to produce melanin. His experiments on 'red-haired', sensitive- skinned mice revealed that a molecule know as cAMP is crucial in triggering the production of the natural pigment.

According to a report published in the journal Genes & Development, he then conducted tests to try and find a drug that would stop cAMP being broken down in the skin (instead, boosting its levels). When he formulated a cream containing the drug and applied it to the animals' skin, he found that it resulted in significantly darker and denser melanin pigmentation (which faded then faded over a period of weeks in exactly the same way as a sun developed glow) after just five days of treatment. This increase not only gave the mice’s skin a tanned appearance, but also had the added bonus of enhancing its protection against damage from UV rays.

“The primary goal of inducing melanin production in human skin would be the prevention of skin cancer, since all the common forms are known to be associated with UV exposure,” explained Dr Fisher. “If you look at who gets skin cancer and who is relatively protected, one of the major risk factors is fair skin and the inability to tan. Pigment production appears to be overwhelmingly important in protection against skin cancer.”

Cheap holidays in sunnier climes, sunbed use and a blazé approach to wearing sunscreen have been blamed for the increasing number of skin cancer cases being diagnosed each year. Incidences of melanoma have risen more than any other type of cancer in the UK over the last 25 years, with more than 100,000 Brits being diagnosed with the disease annually and nearly 2,000 dying as a result of the more serious variant, malignant melanoma. As a result, The World Health Organisation has declared sunbeds to be as great a threat to the nation’s health as cigarettes.

“Not only would increased melanin directly block UV radiation,” added Dr Fisher, “But an alternative way to activate the tanning response could help dissuade people from routine sun-tanning or indoor tanning, both of which are known to raise skin cancer risk.”

Tan fans shouldn’t rush to the shops just yet though; unfortunately, the mouse tanning solution cannot penetrate human skin, which is around five times thicker than that of rodents. However, Dr Fisher is continuing to look for drugs that are suitable for use on people and hopes to have a cream ready to go into production within five years.

At present, half a million different tablets and concoctions are being rigorously tested in his lab in an effort to find a chemical that is safe and produces the same results.

“Before it got anywhere close to widespread use, one would have to be absolutely sure about its safety. What is safe for a mouse is not necessarily safe for people,” said Fisher. “It has to be completely safe, because you are treating healthy people.”

Whilst we wait for Dr Fisher’s cream to be ready to hit the shelves, take a look at these treatment centres who will help you obtain a sun-kissed glow in wintery grey Blighty.

After having had the Jordans and Jodies of the world thrust in our faces over the last decade, it seems the world is growing weary of lingerie cups that runneth over.

Breast enlargement surgery has hovered around the top of the most popular cosmetic procedures list for many years, but The Harley Medical Group has recently reported a “marked rise” in the number of clients opting to have breast reduction surgery.

It appears that women have discovered that bigger and bigger isn’t always better, with experts from the group citing wanting to look slimmer and relieving back and neck disorders caused, in part, by overly large breasts as major reasons for the shift in surgical habits.

Research has shown that the average British woman’s dress and cup size has been steadily increasing over the years, and Lisa Littlehales, a consultant nurse at Harley Medical, highlighted that changing figures have caused a nationwide rise in suitable candidates for the procedure.

“Oversized and heavy breasts can be a huge disadvantage on women’s lives,” she explained. “Decreasing breast size helps women to look and feel thinner, and also helps them in their quest to regain form and lose weight.”

If you feel your bust is a burden and are considering a breast reduction, take a look at the treatment page here at Wahanda for some more useful info.

We all know that walking can help you to maintain a trim waist and healthy heart, but did you realise it could also benefit your brain?

A study published yesterday in the online issue of science journal Neurology, found that walking approximately 6 miles each week appears to prevent brain shrinkage and may also prevent the onset of dementia in later life.

A team led by Dr Kirk I. Erickson at the University of Pittsburgh examined data provided by 299 dementia-free people with a mean age of 78 about the distance they walked every week. Nine years later, the team scanned the participant’s brains to measure their size and a following four years later, the participants underwent tests to look for any signs of cognitive impairment or dementia.

When examining scans at the nine year point of the study, researchers found that those who walked the equivalent of between 6 and 9 miles a week had a higher volume of grey matter in their brains than people who didn’t walk as much. When they were monitored again four years later, 116 participants (40% of those taking part), had developed cognitive impairment or dementia, but those who walked the most over the years appeared to have cut their risk of developing memory loss by 50%.

“Brain size shrinks in late adulthood, which can cause memory problems,” explained Dr Erickson. “Based on our results, we can conclude that there is a relation between the amount of walking earlier in life and brain volume in later adulthood and that greater volume of tissue related to walking is associated with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment.”

Previous research has also found that even moderate amounts of exercise can improve the connections between important brain circuits, helping to prevent age-related declines in cognitive test performance.

Salvage those cells and help keep your wits about you by taking a stroll instead of a drive whenever possible. You could even join a walking group to make sure you maintain your commitment to the cognitive cause. Forward march, Wahanderers!

It may sound a bit sci-fi, but a 3D walk-in body scanner that maps fat distribution could soon be replacing scales and height charts in the toolkit used for diagnosing obesity.

The seven-foot high Body Volume Index (BVI) machine scans a patient’s entire body in six seconds and then creates a detailed computer generated model that shows areas of accumulated fat. It is said to be far more accurate than the traditional methods used to determine BMI, and a more reliable indicator of obesity levels.

During a scan, 32 cameras and 16 sensors use white light to build up the image in layers, before it is anonymously saved on a secure server and examined by a doctor. The BVI also takes into consideration factors such as age, weight, height, shape, sex and medical history to more accurately assess any risks to the patient’s health. The analysis takes just under three minutes and has been tested on more than 2,000 men and women during trials conducted by its manufacturers, Select Research in Worcester.

“BMI was never meant to be used as an individual assessment for obesity and we believe that each patient deserves to be measured in a way that takes their own body shape and lifestyle factors into account,” said Richard Barnes, MD of Select Research.

“Most people in the world realise that carrying extra weight around the stomach means that they do have a greater health risk, commonly known in healthcare as central obesity,” he continued. “What BVI now offers the world is a brand new way of measuring the abdominal area which BMI simply cannot do.”

An added benefit of the BVI system is that it can also track and monitor changes in the bodies of patients over time. Dr Asad Rahim, Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, which helped to develop the system alongside Aston University and the Mayo Clinic, revealed that a three-year trial involving 53 patients had shown positive results and that scientists hope the BVI machine could be used to track body shape trends across whole populations in the future.

“'It is really just a multi-faceted machine which provides info that can be used by a lot of different people,” he enthused. “We see this being adapted on a widespread basis. Not just within the medical industry, but also in the retail sector.”

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is due to review the equipment in November and will compare its functionality to the BMI system, before deciding whether to roll it out in health centres nationwide.

What do you think- could this new technology could help Brit’s wake up to the dangers of obesity and stop us making excuses that could potentially have life threatening consequences? Does the thought of ditching the scales in favour of 3 minutes spent being ‘photocopied’ in your underwear make you cringe, or will you be happily heading down the gym in preparation for your first check up? Let us know!

If you’ve been enviously ogling the tanned and toned limbs of this year's X-Factor stars, then it’s time to celebrate, as their sumptuously sun-kissed look is no longer out of your reach.

Vita Liberata, the official tan of the 2010 competition, is being launched in the beauty departments of House of Fraser, Debenhams and Selfridges in the coming months, allowing you to stay beautifully bronzed throughout the winter party season. Contestants and judges alike have been sporting different shades from the range, which contain varying levels of tanning activator DHA in order to suit different skin tones, and have been diligently using three complementary Vita Liberata skincare products before and after tanning to keep their glow going.

There are seven different tanning lotions available and three different spray tan options: Hawaiian (favoured by fair skinned Erin O’Connor and used on contestant Rebecca Ferguson before Saturday’s show), Ecuador (the most popular shade, frequently used by Kelly Brook) and Brazil (a more intense colour designed to give warmth to naturally olive and darker toned skins).

As an added bonus, Vita Liberata has been specially formulated with DHA obtained from organic sugar cane which has been blended with silk protein extracts, pomegranate and seaweed, making it totally odourless. No more living tanned life in a stale biscuit haze! It’ll also leave you skin silky smooth and is more likely to fade evenly as it doesn’t contain any alcohol, parabens or perfume- perfect for those with sensitive skin that tends to dry out in the days after tanning.

If you are blessed with rich, dark skin, Vita Liberata also makes a 24 carat wash off tint that can be a lifesaver during less sun-drenched months. Simon Cowell’s right-hand woman Sinitta swears by the stuff, saying that it gives her skin ‘a lovely golden glow’ and banishes all traces of grey undertones.

Look out for the range in stores soon and check out our listed venues to find out where you can be spritzed with liquid sunshine in the meantime.

If you’re longing for a baby, but timing and trusted techniques have failed to help you and your partner conceive, then it may be worth heading east.

Where western medicine fails, it seems that traditional Chinese methods may provide an answer. Speaking to The Daily Mail, gynaecological nurse Dawn Paddock reveals that following months of failed attempts at conception and on the brink of resorting to IVF treatment, acupuncture helped her to eventually give birth to a healthy baby boy.

Mrs Paddock suffers from blocked fallopian tubes and after exhausting the resources of typical western medicine without falling pregnant, a friend suggested that she try the ancient treatment.

“I was sceptical,” she explained, “but I thought if nothing else it would help me to relax and de-stress.”

Dawn, from Wrezham in North Wales, underwent three sessions of treatment, with each lasting 30mins. She describes the decision to put her faith in acupuncture as “the best £60 [she’s] ever spent”.

“People are sceptical about treatments they cannot explain,” she added, “but I think of the months we tried to conceive and nothing else worked.”

The effectiveness of the traditional Chinese treatment can be put down to the way it stimulates nerves around the ovaries and uterus, as well as its ability to relax the patient and increase blood flow to the area according to Mike Cummings, a member of the British Medical Acupuncture Society. Celebrities have also sworn by acupuncture as a fertility aid, with Helena Bonham Carter and Celine Dion both crediting it with helping them to conceive.

Seems like it’s time to stop needle-lessly worrying about bedroom baby battles, so if you’re wanting a little one ASAP, check out Wahanda’s top acupuncture venues and deals here.

If you’re unhappy with your stomach or are forever feeling self-conscious about your posterior, it’s likely that you’ve tried all manner of diets, regimes and routines in an effort to re-contour your curves. However, if no matter how hard you try, your overall shape won’t seem to shift, then your DNA may be to blame.

Researchers at Oxford University and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge have discovered 13 new sets of genes that influence an individual’s tendency to store fat around either their abdomen or their hips and thighs. Although the genes affect the build of both men and women, seven were found to have more of an impact on the overall shape of female carriers.

Scientists studied the genetic make up of nearly ¼ million people and are now hopeful that these results may pave the way for the development of drugs that alter fat distribution. Past research has revealed that people who possess an ‘apple’ shaped body are more at risk of developing Type II diabetes and heart disease than ‘pear’ shapes, even if their BMI is taken into account. The proposed fat re-distribution drugs could therefore transform high risk apples into pears, reducing the number of people who go on to suffer from both diseases.

Despite the potential for future breakthroughs, medicine has a long way to go before it manages to unlock all the genetic reasons for differences in body shape and mass throughout the population; the 'apple and pear' genes only represent approximately one per cent of the variety in waist-to-hip ratios that have been observed in patients around the globe.

The study shouldn’t be seen as an excuse to throw in the towel when it comes to gym visits or automatically feel resigned to your shape either. As Dr Ruth Loos of the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge points out: “While the genetic contribution to obesity is substantial, a large part of obesity susceptibility remains down to our lifestyle."

So the message is ‘don’t hang up those running shoes just yet’! Remember that regular aerobic exercise also helps to strengthen and improve heart and lung function as well as blasting away wobbly bits, so keep checking the Wahanda fitness deals page for the latest offers.

Mental health is unfortunately still a subject that few are comfortable approaching.

One in four people will experience mental health problems at some point in their life and at any one point in time, one in six of us will be having to deal with a mental health condition. Yet stigma and discrimination are still huge problems that many with mental health problems are forced to face on a day to day basis in the workplace, at school and in public. In fact, 90% of those who experience mental health problems say that persistent stigma is one of the biggest barriers to their recovery, wellbeing and ability to lead an active life.

As part of their Time to Change campaign, charities Mind and Rethink have helped members of the public to organise special events up and down the country this week in an effort to challenge the negative perception of mental health problems. Following on from the hundreds of activities that took place on World Mental Health Day yesterday, fitness centres, as well as exercise and awareness groups are holding free ‘active’ days and sessions until 17th October as part of ‘Time to Get Moving’ week.

Around 80,000 people are expected to join in with the sporting events across England alone and the activities are as diverse as they are widespread, with large group boxercise classes and a special ‘One in Four’- legged race having already taken place over the weekend.

“By coming to a Time to Get Moving event you can show your support for the growing movement for change, as well as having fun, meeting people and getting active for your own mental wellbeing,” explained Sue Baker, Director of the campaign. “Last year thousands took part and the events helped to get mental health out into the open and change attitudes. This year will be even bigger and better."

The National Lottery and Comic Relief have donated millions of pounds towards the drive to end mental health prejudice and Cricketer Marcus Trescothick, who last year spoke out about his own struggle with depression, is also backing the campaign.

"I know firsthand how difficult it can be to open up about your mental health experience,” said Trescothick, “I’m encouraging others to support Time to Get Moving week. There are hundreds of Time to Get Moving events taking place across England so why not find one near you. Together, we can show the world that mental illness is nothing to be ashamed about and help end mental health discrimination for all."

To find an event near you, visit time-to-change.org.uk and if you are a venue who’s hosting activities, why not let Wahanda] know about your endeavours by posting a blog or firing us a tweet: @Wahanda

Ever present tension seems to be considered a normal part of life these days. Headache-inducing, sleep-depriving and muscle-aching stress invades both home and work life and increasingly, people are turning to an array of therapeutic treatments in an effort to shift the strain. Leading the way is the trusted favourite, massage (in its many forms), and it now seems that there may be more to the hands-on therapy than an ability to physically loosen tight muscles.

A study carried out by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles has revealed that a single session of massage can lead to immediate and significant chemical changes in the blood and brain. The research, published in The Journal of Alternative and Contemporary Medicine, involved 53 adults who were fitted with intravenous catheters. The blood of the volunteers was tested before, during and up to an hour after they received deep Swedish or light massages, with hormone and neurotransmitter levels recorded.

29 of the participants were given a 45 minute Swedish massage treatment and results showed a small drop in the level of cortisol (a stress hormone) in their blood, as well as large decreases in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that increases cortisol production. The remaining 24 subjects were given a light massage, and they experienced a rise in the level of oxytocin (a neurotransmitter that promotes a feeling of contentment) that was actually greater than that measured in the Swedish massage group.

President of the American Massage Therapy Association, Kathleen Miller-Read, said that the preliminary results were great news for the massage therapy industry and that she wouldn’t be surprised if further studies (to be sponsored by the American National Institute of Health) show that the positive health effects of the treatment last for up to a week.

The stats speak for themselves, so why not set aside some R&R time and help your health without breaking the bank by checking out today’s London MobDeal. Your body and your mind will be forever in your debt.

Fashion barometers revolve around two things: celebrities and the couture runways around the globe. The second half of 2010 marked the return of muted tones to stylish wardrobes following their earlier fashion week debuts, but if there is one hair colour trend that has the fashion world abuzz, it’s grey.

Unhelpfully dubbed ‘granny chic’ by its detractors, sterling strands have been cropping up on the heads of fashionistas since spring and the spread of the phenomenon shows no signs of stopping. Gaga has embraced platinum hues, as have Kelly Osbourne, mini blogging phenomenon Tavi, Kate Moss and Pixie Geldof, but at the start of the year, model Kristen McMenamy went one step further by proudly stepping out with a naturally metallic mane.

The 46 year old debuted her brave look during New York fashion week and then appeared on the cover of Dazed and Confused and in a spread in Vogue sporting pewter locks, explaining that she thought ‘all that grey hair would make a beautiful picture.’

"I think there's beginning to be a backlash to this eternal quest for anti-ageing that has led to so many celebrities looking falsely nipped, tucked and squeezed," says Nicola Moulton, the beauty and health director at UK Vogue. But with younger stars jumping on the blue rinse bandwagon, just how do you fake grey tresses if yours still have some colour left in them? And more importantly, will re-creating the look cause any long term damage?

If your hair is naturally dark and you want to join the argent army, there’s no hiding that a lot of peroxide will be involved. There is no such thing as a grey dye and so after bleaching your barnet, the stylist will “put in an ash tone to stop the brassiness, and [then your hair] goes a slight grey-blue,” explains Neil Moodie, of Bumble and Bumble. The effect usually fades over the course of five to six weeks due to the weak concentration of the colour, and a good conditioning routine is a must to prevent breakage and keep hair looking glossy and healthy rather than dusty and dowdy.

Edward Darley, colour director for Vidal Sassoon recommends that natural blondes and those with paler colouring opt for washes of fiery pinks, oranges and yellows amongst the grey to help lift their complexions. Anyone with warmer skin tones should veer towards slices of cooler blue, green and charcoal colours in order to preserve the strength of their hair. Those who are defying convention and leaving their natural grey on show should also visit their salon for regular taming treatments, as hair that has lost pigmentation is often coarser and drier than average.

Whether you pick bubblegum pink, violet or a less vibrant steely hue, let Wahanda know if you plump for a pearlescent coiffure and how you found the shift to silver.

Have some ill-conceived (i.e. drunken) ink that you are dying to get rid of? Perhaps a certain name remains etched on your skin that you’d really rather forget. If you’re unlucky enough to be lumbered with a tattoo that you’ve fallen out of love with and are determined to do something about it, you’re not alone.

Celebs have also made body art choices that they’ve grown to regret and in the last week, both Kelly Osbourne and Peter Andre have spoken up about their disastrous designs and the steps they are taking to be rid of them.

Kelly’s entire body is peppered with tattoos, but following a recent image overhaul and career change (a foray into acting) she has decided that many of them are less than desirable. Kelly got inked when drunk most of the time, and so it’s no surprise that she quickly grew tired of her tipsy tatts. After covering a number of them up with make up during the making of her latest film, she realised that she would be better off without a couple of creations:

“I want to get rid of the keyboard on my forearm,” she explained in her latest column for a weekly celebrity magazine. “ I can’t even play the piano. And I don’t like the heart and bones on my wrist [either],” she added.

Rather than opting to continue with a body make up regime (as 50 Cent has to before each film role) or to have the emblems adapted, Miss O has plumped for laser tattoo removal. It will probably take a course of treatments spanning a few months for her motifs to fade away and although treating her forearm area is bound to sting, she is taking comfort in the fact that someone has promised her it will hurt less than the original needlework. You could have easily spared yourself lots of pain, Kelly...

Peter Andre made the classic mistake of getting a lover’s name tattooed on his person. Now that he and wife of three and a half years, Katie Price, have gone their separate ways, he (wisely) made the decision to remove the ‘Katie’ that encircled his ring finger. Like Kelly, Peter chose laser removal and his finger is now almost completely Jordan-free.

He has said he couldn’t be happier with the results and it certainly looks neater than the remains of his ex’s ‘Pete’ tattoo - Katie opted to simply have a crudely scribbled cross inked over the top of the name instead of covering it with a more intricate design (the preferred method of other stars like Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears). We suppose it acts as a reminder of her decisions and accurately portrays her emotions when it comes to the matter though!

If you’re serious about saying goodbye to your skin scribblings, then have a read of our Wahanda guide to tattoo removal and browse our list of venues that offer the treatment.

Have you heard of yoxing and piloxing? How about koga or pologa? No, they aren’t the names of the latest celebrity adoptees, but four of the growing number of combo treatments that take the best bits from several exercises and smash them together.

Hybrid classes are designed to provide an intense but effective full body work out, as the incorporated exercises often target different areas. Stretching and strengthening routines are often paired with aerobic exercise and many high impact activities work well off the safety of dry land in a muscle testing aquatic form.

Due to the rigorous nature of the majority of combo exercise classes, they are not for the faint hearted. If you feel like taking on the challenge of a bumper body blitz, then deal your inner sloth a double blow with one of the following:

Feel The Boxing Vibe

More than just a verbal encouragement to slip on those gloves, Feel The Boxing Vibe is a 45 minute fat burning frenzy that brings together boxing, kick boxing and the infamous Power Plate® machine. Group classes take place solely on the vibrating plate platform and aim to tone and tighten whilst providing a hardcore cardio work out. To float like a butterfly and... er, shake and buzz like a bee, check in at The Power Studio, Canary Wharf.

Aqua Yoga

Aerobics has been adapted, water dancing has been around a while in the form of synchronised swimming and now it’s time to move your yoga class to the pool. Aqua yoga takes the familiar poses and movements of yoga and applies them to a distinctly wetter environment. The buoyancy of the H₂O apparently has the effect of reducing the gravitational pull on the body, allowing it to stretch further and with less stress felt on the connective tissues.

Gentle aqua yoga classes are ideal for pregnant women, people recovering from surgery or those nursing an injury and can provide a useful resistance work out for anyone who wants to limber up. At the moment, established classes are mostly confined to the USA, but keep a look out for venues popping up on Wahanda in the near future.

Pologa

The more adventurous among you might want to be the first to try out pologa. If you’re trying to work out what’s involved (other than yoga) from the name alone, here’s a clue: it’s not pole-vaulting.

Another US invention, pologa is said to help add definition to bums, tums, calves and abdominal muscles, whilst building strength, endurance and increasing flexibility. Ballet, rhythmic athleticism and yoga stretches are combined to create a slightly saucy yet fun work out that will keep even the most confident of yoga experts on their toes! When this import reaches our shores, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Piloxing

Piloxing (Pilates and boxing- you’re getting the hang of this now, right?) is a combo workout that packs a punch. Comprising of power, speed and agility training as well as flexibility and body-sculpting work, its Swedish founder Viveca Jensen says her mission is to physically and mentally empower women through the sport.

Sessions are run like a fun and sexy aerobics class rather than a boot camp, but weighted gloves add an extra challenge to the balance and fitness developing work out. Piloxing can now be sampled in the capital at Gymbox in Holborn.

Aquacycling

Move over spinning, there’s a new two-wheeled craze in town. Germany is slowly but surely introducing the world to aquacycling (riding a specially adapted bike underwater); a work out that improves circulation and heart performance as well as working the spinal support muscles, legs and stomach through increased movement resistance.

The bikes used have been specially developed with semi-enclosed foot pedals and weigh about 20 kg. They are made of electrolytically polished stainless steel so that they don’t rust in the water and allow you to participate whilst sitting on the saddle or standing up.

If you’re up for making a splash with your combo class, head to Cottons Health Spa, Cheshire to give aquacycling a (hydro) spin.

What do you think will be next- cheerlates? Equine yoga? Maybe a spot of aquajudo? Keep one eye on the Wahanda website; you never know...

Have you heard the news? If you’ve recently decided to smooth out your brow with Botox™ or flatten out some furrows with fillers, it’s about time you did, so listen up! Earlier this year, a government backed initiative was launched in the UK in an effort to help regulate practitioners who dish out injectable cosmetic treatments and to stop you needlessly fearing their needles.

The Treatments You Can Trust directory has been developed by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) Working Group and is designed to help consumers who are considering injectables make an informed and considered decision about where they go for their procedures.

As well as ensuring consumer wellbeing, the publicly accessible registration system aims to give reputable treatment centres a clinically certified mark of quality that proves that they meet national safety standards and clearly distances them from unqualified providers.

For an annual fee of £50 plus VAT, practitioners or sites can register their business on the list and after filling out the necessary forms and passing a scheduled facility inspection and interview, they will be listed online and permitted to use the certification mark in their clinics and promotional literature.

Choosing a registered provider doesn’t add any extra cost to treatments and the scheme covers the whole of the UK. Qualified doctors, dentists and registered adult nurses who have the professional experience required to administer injectables and have trained to meet the principles of the shared regulation scheme are being added to the list all the time, with 156 clinical sites appearing in the records as of September and a further 113 partway through the registration process. Practitioners from another 439 locations have formally registered an interest in the scheme, bringing the total figure of applicants close to 50 per cent of those eligible for registration.

After six years in the making, it is hoped that the Treatments You Can Trust initiative will put an end to bad practice and botched procedures in the injectable cosmetic treatment field. “[It] is all about assuring best practice,” said Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, chairman of the IHAS Working Group. “We therefore [ask] the public to make a conscious decision to look out of the IHAS Quality Assurance Mark when choosing a provider, to ensure a safe treatment and good results."

Both patients wishing to search the directory and practitioners who would like more information on the registration process and what it entails should visit treatmentsyoucantrust.co.uk. The IHAS is also offering paper referrals, telephone support and email assistance for businesses looking to be listed.

Forget fawn and cast aside camel; the hottest colour to be seen in this October is pink.

Across the country, spas and salons are offering special pink themed spa days with profits going towards Britain’s breast cancer charities and an easy and elegant way to show your support is with a touch of pink polish as part of a pink manicure or pedicure. Many nail varnish brands have released special edition shades to mark the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, including OPI and Jessica, who have teamed up with six celebrities to produce a range of custom pink polishes that are available in salons now.

If you fancy flashing some fuchsia fingertips in aid of a good cause, head to one of the following venues and help raise awareness whilst contributing to the fundraising effort:

• Peak Health Club & Spa at the Jumeirah hotel, Knightsbridge are offering Pink Pop manicures throughout October. The treatment includes a limited edition pink manicure as well as a complimentary glass of pink Pommery champagne and a portion of the £52 price tag is donated to Breast Cancer Awareness.

• For a fabulous set of falsies, pop in to The Nail Lounge in Northwich, Cheshire, where special pink glitter bow designs are available on acrylics until the end of the month. £1 from every manicure purchased will be donated to the Pink Ribbon Foundation.

• West Country women should flock to Pure Beauty in Chard, Devon for some pinkie pampering. The salon is offering free pink manicures on Wednesday October 13th between 9am and 12pm as long as customers make a donation to Breast Cancer Awareness.

• The Sanctuary has put together £99 Pink Pamper Days packages that will be available until the end of October. Lucky recipients of this offer will receive full use of the spa facilities, a rejuvenating 25 minute treatment (including the choice of a Jessica promotional pink manicure or pedicure), a glass of Pink Prosecco and a delicious pink cupcake. As a bonus, you will also get to keep your chosen Pink Jesicca nail polish (worth £8.95) and £5 from every booking will go to Breast Cancer Care.

Whether you plump for a subtle rose or a riot of hot pink, display your nails with pride. Be sure to spread the word about the various campaigns designed to beat breast cancer and please help provide ongoing support for those affected by the disease by donating all you can.

Desperate for a detox? Wishing there was a way to help proscribe those pounds without putting in another gruelling slog at the gym? Maybe it’s time to turn up the heat when it comes to weight loss.

It’s all too easy to let the odd indulgence slide, but if summertime treats have left you feeling more sluggish than spritely as the winter party season approaches, then now is the time to take action. With more than a few holiday cocktails and bumper beachside breakfasts under my belt, I decided to help Wahanda tackle wellness lying down by hopping on the train and trying out the Iyashi Dome at the Waldorf Hotel’s LA Fitness in Aldwych.

Venue

Beneath the bustling streets of Holborn (a mere five minute walk away from the tube station), lies the Waldorf’s LA Fitness, a clean and modern fitness centre. Hidden away up two flights of stairs at the back of the basement building are the treatment rooms and it is here that my Iyashi Dome experience took place.

The dome itself resides in a compact, modern room furnished with a marble-topped wash basin, chair, large wall length mirrors and a set of biometric scales. I was guided through the ins and outs of the treatment by the polite and friendly practitioner and had a good snoop round the interior and exterior of the sci-fi looking equipment before I got started.

Smaller than I expected, but by no means claustrophobic, the Iyashi Dome looks a bit like the end of a giant whiteboard marker. It is composed of two carbon fibre-lined white half-cylinders (that slide inside each other when not in use) and a pristine, covered wooden bed and foam pillow. Once inside, lying on a towel and with your head poking out of the top, a second towel is draped over the entrance and your shoulders to stop the heat escaping (though you can lift this and the top cylinder at any time to release some heat or climb out if things become a little too much). All that remains then is to lie back and sweat it out as the temperature rises.

Treatment

Before clambering into the Japanese contraption, I had to drink 250ml of mineral water in order to prepare for the intense heat and profound amount of toxin-busting sweating that was to follow.

Once I’d gulped down half of the provided bottle, it was off with my shoes, socks and jewellery and onto the biometric analyser (essentially, a very clever pair of scales). My age, gender and height were fed into the machine before it took a reading of my weight and calculated (amongst other things) my BMI, body fat percentage, metabolic age, visceral fat levels and bone density. This information was later to be compared to post-treatment statistics in order to show how much of an effect the dome had had on my overall body composition, but more about that later…

After my weigh in, I was left to remove my make up, strip off and lie inside the dome (you can either choose to have the treatment whilst fully naked, can slip on a pair of paper knickers that the centre provides or can brave the perspiration in your own underwear), before giving the therapist a shout to let her know I was ready.

I was instructed to lie on my front for the first half of the treatment to help my body adjust to the heat levels, so flipped over, closed my eyes and tried to relax as the practitioner gently turned up the traditional Japanese background music as well as the heat setting on the dome. I was left on my own to sweat it out for fifteen minutes and although my head was uncovered, I could soon feel the sweat glistening on my face as well as the rest of my body. While not unpleasant, the sensation was that of sunbathing in intense sunlight, without the glaring rays of the sun stinging your eyes.

When the time came to lie on my back, the therapist returned to check I was OK, provided me with a special pillow and made sure I was comfortable. I then stuck it out for another fifteen minutes, before she entered once more and the machine was switched off. I was handed a towel and left alone to emerge from my heated cocoon (whilst ‘glowing’ profusely).

After a quick wipe down and tidy up, it was onto the scales again in a change of clothes to see what I had managed to achieve during my half hour sweat-a-thon. When readings had been taken, I was allowed to drink the remainder of my mineral water to prevent dehydration as I cooled. I then rapidly made my way to the showers to freshen up (unfortunately the general gym showers located back by reception as there aren’t any conveniently situated by the treatment rooms) with instructions not to have the water too hot (which would heat my body temperature further) or too cold (which would cause rapid cooling and apparently halt any fat burning after effects).

Results

According to the print outs, I had managed to lose 400g and had reduced my body fat percentage by just over one per cent- not bad for a short lie down!

Although it was not uncomfortable, it did take me a few minutes to relax whilst in the dome and I’d advise tying long hair back to keep it well out of the way before you get going. I made the mistake of leaving mine down, assuming that my head would remain relatively cool and it soon turned into a bit of a damp mess.

Once my experience was over, the warmth stayed with me and my muscles felt a little more relaxed. Whether as a result of the treatment or my commute home in the rain, I felt ready to curl up and sleep as soon as I got home too. Over the next few days, my skin did feel especially cleansed, my body energised and my system detoxed, although next time, I’d be sure to drink enough fluids in the hours following the treatment as I found that I developed a dehydration related headache later in the evening.

Key Facts

• The Iyashi Dome is based on an ancient Japanese technique called Suna Ryoho, which involved participants burying themselves in hot sand to detoxify the body through perspiration.
• The average modern treatment burns 532 calories- the equivalent of an entire Easter egg.
• You will also produce as much as 1200ml of sweat during the half hour session.

If you fancy giving the Iyashi Dome a go and you missed out on our marvellous MobDeal last week, don’t sweat! Simply keep an eye out for future offers on site. In the mean time, why not have a quick read of some customer reviews on Wahanda and see what others thought of the experience.

Crowns, caps, full and half bridges- it may not be long before these words are part of dentistry’s past, if a new study by scientists at the University of Illinois, Chicago is anything to go by.

Researchers at the stateside college’s Craniofacial Genetics laboratories have developed a new way to re-anchor teeth using stem cells and have successfully implanted teeth treated with the cells into living gum and jawbone tissue without the aid of any artificial elements.

The study was carried out using rats, with stem cells taken from the periodontal ligaments of mice. The early stage formation cells, which have the capacity to take on the properties of any other cell type, were expanded in an incubator before being used to treat rat molars that had been removed from test subjects. The stem cell treated molars were then implanted into the empty tooth sockets of rats and observed over the course of a couple of months. To confirm that any newly formed tissue was a product of the transplanted stem cells and not simply generated as part of the animal's own cells, stem cells were flagged with a special fluorescent protein before they were introduced to the rat molars

At two and four month milestones, the scientists found that the stem cells had formed new fibrous tissue and cementum between the tooth and the jawbone, firmly attaching the replanted tooth into the animal's mouth. In a control group, rats that received untreated molars either lost the teeth or formed a weak attachment whilst the minerals in the tooth were being absorbed by their bodies.

Smit Dangaria, a bioengineer involved in the project said that the research ‘uncovered the code required to reattach teeth’, paving the way for human tooth implantation and a revolution in cosmetic dental procedures.“[This] strategy could be used for replanting teeth that were lost due to trauma or as a novel approach for tooth replacement using tooth-shaped replicas," added Tom Diekwisch, professor and head of oral biology at the university.

The natural approach to tooth replacement certainly seems like a more desirable option, with no drilling in order to insert pegs needed and less danger of implants working their way loose. Further studies using human patients will need to be trialled first, but if you feel a dreaded wobble, keeping hold of your own teeth has got to beat being fitted with a mouth full of dentures!

This week it was revealed that days spent at a desk in front of a computer can cause a condition dubbed ‘computer face’; wrinkles from squinting and exaggerated jowls from leaning forward to look at the screen. With millions of us employed in office jobs across the nation, this news is bound to strike fear into the hearts of those who pride themselves on holding onto their youthful glow.

There are bizarre looking exercises that supposedly help keep the facial muscles caught slacking in check, but what if the damage has already been done? Typically, the solution for the appearance of a sagging jaw line is a face or neck lift- fairly drastic and much derided cosmetic procedures that have the added danger of resulting in a ‘wind-tunnel’ stretched skin effect.

If you’re worried about skin that seems to be heading southwards, but don’t like the idea or the conspicuousness of a full-on facelift, a new solution may have hit the UK just in time. The thread facelift (or suture facelift) is a less invasive form of surgery that is designed to lift the muscles and skin as one from within, without the removal of any facial tissues. Better still, it can be performed through the tiniest of incisions that will forever remain hidden under your hairline and has a recovery period of mere days.

The key to the mini-op (which it is rumoured has been carried out on stars such as Madonna) is a simple, non-degradable thread lined with microscopic cone-shaped hooks. Under a local anaesthetic (or if you’re brave, without any at all), incisions millimetres long are made behind the ears, before a needle containing the barbed thread is inserted under the skin of the cheeks. The tiny hooks latch onto the offending saggy areas and the surgeon then pulls upwards, realigning the fat and muscle structure and recapturing the definition of the jaw line.

The ends of the thread are then stitched to the robust tissue behind the ear to hold the lift in place... and that’s it. This simplicity has earned the treatment the name the ‘one stitch facelift’, and means that there is very little bruising and tenderness following the operation or tell-tell scarring in the long term. In fact, positive results can be seen immediately after its completion and stitches are usually removed within a week.

Sound too good to be true? Well, there are some downsides. The effect is not permanent, with results lasting approximately five years before the tissue begins to slacken slightly as the ageing process continues. Complications are rare, but sometimes threads can come loose, effect facial symmetry or cause infection, requiring further surgery. However, if you are unhappy with the results they can easily be reversed (unlike a regular facelift); the threads are simply cut and your face will gradually return to its pre-procedure state.

Thread facelifts typically cost around £2,000 and are not recommended for those with thinning skin, but if you take the plunge and decide that the only turkey neck around this Christmas is going to be the one on the table, do let Wahanda know how things pan out!

Chocoholics: rejoice!

October 11th marks the start of Chocolate Week in the UK and what better way to indulge in the festivities (without having to face the diet-breaking guilt) than to try out some delicious chocolate themed spa treatments.

Here is a rundown of the best decadent delights available on Wahanda that will satisfy your cravings as well as beautify your body:

• SPC White chocolate body wrap

A scrumptious chocolate scent throughout and plump, moisturised skin afterwards; what more could you want from a nourishing pampering treat? For 1 hour, 25 minutes of bliss, head to Spa SPC at Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire.

• Chocolate Facial

As well as a vitamin and antioxidant-rich cocoa facial, this treatment includes a hydrating chocolate mousse masque, a warming foot wrap, a relaxing head massage and a full body massage with warm cocoa butter. When your 55 minutes of serenity are up, sit back and chill out with a cup of hot chocolate, courtesy of Savana Urban Spa, Notting Hill.

• Chocolate Pedicure

Take care of your tootsies with a creamy cocoa mask and if you’re feeling naughty, treat your tum with a selection of luxury chocolates and a chocolate drink. A glass of champagne is also provided to help take the weight off your shoulders as well as your feet. To take advantage of this service, simply skip to The Parlour Day Spa in Shoreditch.

• Chocolate Waxing

Eliminate the pain from this beauty bane by combining it with chocolate! Hot chocolate waxing involves the use of gentle on the skin, low temperature wax that looks and smells just like chocolate. If its aroma wasn’t enough to sell it to you, the product used is super efficient (removing hairs as short as 1mm long) and is said to be much less painful that traditional paraffin wax. Form a queue ladies, we’re off to The Sun Room in Soho to experience this one for ourselves pronto.

• Chocolate Brazilian Blow Dry

Stunningly straight hair and an irresistible scent collide to create the chocolate Brazilian Blow Dry. The cocoa-rich keratin solution used during this heat treatment gives this particular hairdressing wonder its chocolaty edge and leaves your hair with an intense shine. To choc up your locks, visit Eleven Hair, Mayfair.

• Chocolate Spray Tan

Fed up with the stale biscuit smell from store bought fake tans? Walk tall in a subtle chocolate haze with a dreamy XEN-TAN spray tan that will also give you an enviable and almost guaranteed streak-free glow. Stay beautifully bronzed throughout winter by booking in at Heaven at Number 7 Beauty Boutique in Surrey.

In the UK, someone is diagnosed with breast cancer every 11 minutes. Each year, more than 46,000 British women and 300 men will receive the news that they are suffering with the disease, making it the most common cancer in the UK. Unfortunately, just over 12,000 of those diagnosed annually will eventually die as a result of their cancer.

In 1985, October was designated Breast Cancer Awareness month and in its 25th year, Britain’s charities are providing a host of services to help you raise awareness and money for patient and family support, treatments and the ongoing search for a cure.

Commencing this Friday (30th September), Breast Cancer Care have deemed every Friday in the month ‘Pink Friday’, a nationwide initiative designed to make it easy for you to organise fund raising events in your schools, clubs and workplaces. Simply pick any activity that you think will help rake in the cash and up that Friday feeling by holding it on the eve of the weekend. Dress up in pink, hold a pink tea party, put on a special pink beauty promotion at your salon or spa or undertake a sponsored challenge- whatever you choose to do, there are only two requirements: it has to be pink and it has to be fun! Inspiration and resources are available at pinkfridays.org.uk, where you can also register your event and view all others taking place each week.

Breast Cancer Care are putting on two glamorous fund-raising fashion shows themselves, one in London and one in Scotland, featuring ordinary men and women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Information on how to obtain tickets can be found at breastcancercare.org.uk and there are reliable whispers that some celebrities may be in attendance...

Breakthrough Breast Cancer are providing materials to help pink events on any day of the week ‘even pinker’ through breakthrough.org.uk as well as specialised pink e-vites and poster templates to help publicise your plans. Their motto is ‘If you can think it, pink it!’ and accordingly their site is packed with pink party ideas and testimonials from those who have held similar events in the past, showing you how best to prepare for any designated pink occasion.

In the media, look out for The Pink Ribbon Foundation’s inthePINK online magazine launch which celebrates the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The swanky, star studded event will be covered in OK Magazine, and is accompanied by a UK-wide print advertising campaign that spreads the word about the month-long focus on the fight against breast cancer.

Cancer Research, the largest single funder of breast cancer research in the UK, is now selling special breast cancer awareness products via cancerresearchuk.org so that you can show your support at home or on the go. Against Breast Cancer, a charity trying to develop a vaccine to combat the disease, also has its own shop at againstbreastcancershop.co.uk and pink ribbon merchandise that is supported by multiple breast cancer charities will also be available up and down the high street. Check out:

• Asda, for Tickled Pink clothing, bags and jewellery in association with Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care.
• Marks and Spencer, for ribbon pin badges produced by Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
• Estee Lauder counters, who will be donating a portion of product sale profits to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation as well as distributing information on the disease and pin badges.
• Dorothy Perkins, who will be stocking pink charity products such as nail files and t-shirts as well as a collection of shoes designed by Kelly Osborne, Alexandra Burke and Sophie Ellis-Bextor for Breast Cancer Care. The line will be known as the ‘Stand Tall’ collection and £10 from every pair purchased will go to the charity.

Online, wearitpink.co.uk is supplying items supported by Breast Cancer Campaign and TV shopping channel QVC will also be devoting broadcast slots to the sale of luxury (pink) charity items. Donations to registered breast cancer charities can be made at any time by post, online or over the phone, and for details on how to do so, please visit the charities individual website.

Over the course of their lifetime, one in nine women will develop breast cancer. Join us at Wahanda in making a difference this October: turn your wax pink for a week, design a special pink manicure or organise a sponsored dress-up-in-pink fitness drive, with proceeds going to charity. Simply do what you can to help spread the pink message; you will be making sure that families, friends and loved ones across the UK do not have to suffer and will hopefully push research efforts towards finding a cure for this life-threatening disease.

Fluffy, Bounder, Spot and Lassie- just some of the names of the latest fitness gadget to excite the industry. That’s right dog owners, it turns out walkies may be benefitting more than just your four legged friends and whatever shape you canine companion takes, they could be improving your health.

The emotional and psychological pluses of owning a dog have been well documented, but recently published research has shown that dog ownership leads to a significantly more active life for children, with canine owners’ daily physical activity levels registering higher than those without pets. 2,065 school children between the ages of 9 and 10 from London, Birmingham and Leicester took part in the study by St George’s, University of London, which found that on average, those with dogs spent 325 minutes undertaking physical activity every day (11 minutes more than those without pups). The dog-owners also took 360 more steps each day, an increase of 4% on the step count of pet-less pupils.

A separate Australian study by Deakin University also suggested that in the long term, this increased level of exercise could prevent the onset of childhood obesity (with a pet pooch reducing a child’s chances of being obese by 50%).

Adults are noticing the positive impact their tail-wagging tykes are having on their health too. Scotland’s The Daily Record interviewed Clair Cherry and Fiona Cooper, two friends who have managed to lose 9 stone between them in a year after taking Clair’s new West Highland terrier puppy, Alfie, for daily walks.

"At first I was out of breath but I got used to it. I'd become a couch potato so the walking helped get me active again,” Fiona told the paper. "Clair and I would keep each other going and we started walking further and further. Instead of spending my evenings watching TV, I now go dog walking with Clair five nights a week. We must have walked over 1000 miles in the last year and I feel more energised, fitter and slimmer."

Taking 10,000 steps a day (the equivalent of a walking for about five miles in total) can be instrumental in reducing body fat and greatly improves your cardiovascular fitness, with past studies even showing that pet owners have higher survival rates following a heart attack. Pet owners have also been found to need to visit the doctor less often, so a few short strolls with Fido could amount to a serious investment in your family’s health and longevity. Now where’s that lead...?

There’s no doubting that the common cold is a menace. Every year it appears like clockwork, signalling the start of the snivelling, sneezing and coughing season in schools, offices and public transport across the country. However, new research from the US has suggested that a cold’s bite may be worse than its bark(-ing cough) by correlating childhood obesity to previous incubation of the virus.

Doctors from the University of California and paediatricians from nearby San Diego hospitals recently studied a group of 124 young people and found that those who possessed antibodies for a specific strain of the cold (known as AD36) were also more likely than their peers to be overweight. Tests revealed that nineteen children in the study were AD36-positive (15% of the entire test group), but only four volunteers who fell within the healthy weight range showed signs of having previously had the virus. The remaining fifteen AD36-positive subjects were clinically obese, leading scientists to believe that there may be some connection between the effect of the virus on the body and fat storage or fat cell production.

The leader of the study, Dr. Jeffrey Schwimmer, was enthusiastic about the potential consequences of the research and the capacity for further, more detailed studies. "This shows that body weight regulation and the development of obesity are very complicated issues," he told MSNBC. "It's not simply a case that some children eat too much and others don't."

At this early stage, it is impossible to say whether there is a definite link between the AD36 cold virus and obesity, or whether it may simply be that obese children who have poor diets are more susceptible to viruses. Even if future research does indeed demonstrate a clear relationship, there are currently no treatments available to help children hold off AD36 or methods to track or screen for the illness.

"People want a magic solution," Dr. Goutham Rao, clinical director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh explained to U.S. News & World Report. "Unfortunately, we don't have one. What people can do is focus on a child's behaviours and eliminate the unhealthy behaviours."

What do you think? Will these developments make you focus more on improving all round wellness in an effort to hold off the pounds, or do believe that a diet and exercise are the only things that will really have an impact on your weight? Let us know.

London based shopaholics: listen up! If you’ve managed to reel in a few bargains but have most definitely shopped ‘til you’ve dropped, then slip off those ‘eels and vow to make one last stop on the high street this week.

Lucky Selfridge’s customers can now soothe and revive the soles of tired tootsies right on the high street thanks to Aqua Sheko’s shop floor pop up fish spa. The luxury fish spa specialists have teamed up with the capital’s famous department store to help celebrate the re-launch of their shoe department and confirm that the third floor of the flagship Oxford Street branch is the plaice to be this month.

Featuring two tanks that have been crafted in the same elegant oriental design as those used in the company’s Kensington spa and the famous Garra Rufa ‘doctor’ fish (a breed of tiny, toothless carp that gently lift away dead skin from the feet), the specially created mini fish pedicure provides a spot of painless A-list pampering amongst the shelves . The exfoliating sensation has been described as a pleasant and tingly like a light massage and is said to leave your feet feeling fintastically smooth.

You can net a tester ten minute treatment at the pop up spa for £12 or extend your toe-dip to 15 minutes for £17. If you find yourself hooked, a full scale 45 minute deluxe treatment at Aqua Sheko, Kensington (including 30 minutes of fish therapy and a post-plunge foot massage) will set you back £45.

This temporary fishy fixture is only in place until next Wednesday 30th September, so curious fashionistas had better get their skates on!

If you want to get your claws into the latest looks these days, you simply can’t scrimp on the details. From catwalks and covers to carpets (red ones, naturally), celebs have been sporting elaborate and eye catching nail art in the build up to the party season. The nude tones that Britain embraced throughout the summer have given way to blinged out fingertips and there is no quicker nor easier way to make a manicure statement than with Minx.

The California based company’s designs have already been spotted on the trendy talons of Rihanna and Lady Gaga, but numerous salons up and down the country are now offering the glam fix to the likes of me and you. Waterproof and lightweight as well as speedy and original, Minx application takes a fraction of the time devoted to traditional varnish-based designs and there are hundreds of different colours and patterns, ranging from chequered prints and vinyl finishes to infinitely detailed illustrations and text.

Whether you feel like flashing an impossibly shiny metallic set on your next night out (á la Beyoncé) or have your eye on some intricate, retro florals similar to those snapped in a Twitpic by Katy Perry, take advantage of our latest Nirvana mobdeal, 25% off a Minx Manicure or Pedicure at The Spa Co Urban Oasis, or one of our other Minx offers by booking an appointment and enjoy perfection right down to your pinkie. You’ll walk away sporting even, stylishly decked out nails which simply cannot be recreated with polish.

Tanning, toning, polishing and pummelling- Olympia Beauty 2010 had it all. One of London’s largest beauty trade events was packed to the rafters with industry insiders, new recruits and the savviest spa and styling salespeople in the land.

Training centres and suppliers were out in full force and pampering products were practically spilling into the aisles. Skincare and make up representatives explained the latest innovations throughout the exhibition centre and a series of informative talks covering topics such as camouflage make up and anti-aging potions took places across several stages throughout the day.

With the Nailympics at the heart of the proceedings, stands were heavily themed around manicure and pedicure tools and treatments, but salons and wellness were still well represented. In the past, Olympia has been the place to keep your eyes peeled for the next big thing in beauty, and this year (after saying hello to some of our old friends, the Garra Rufa ‘fish pedicure’ fish), some of the new treatments and trends that we spotted included:

Lava Shells

Not as prehistoric as they sound, the ‘lava’ in the name of these natural Tiger Clam shells from the Phillipines refers to their heat-retaining properties. Each striped shell is filled with a mixture of minerals, algae, essential oils and water and when all these ingredients are mixed, an exothermic (heat producing) chemical reaction takes place.

The heat given out by the palm sized shells lasts up to two hours and therapists typically use them in combination with massage. Lava shell massage differs from hot stone massage in that the heat penetration is more gentle, making it ideal for treating more delicate areas of the body where the deep, intense warmth of stones would be uncomfortable (such as the stomach and even the face).

Tooth Jewellery

If you’re all vajazzled out, then why not add a little extra sparkle to your smile instead? Following on from a tooth whitening session, tooth crystals can be applied to individual teeth to provide a super blinged-out grin. No holes or drilling are required and as a result, teeth are not damaged in any way. The gems are temporary, the application process is entirely pain free and you can choose from 18ct gold, Swarovski crystal and white gold shaped emblems.

The treatment has apparently gained the approval of several European fashion magazines (including Elle), so if you fancy getting your teeth into a new craze, simply say cheese!

Airlites

If you’ve ever sat in the hairdressers’ chair and agonised over whether or not to take the plunge with a set of highlights, then Airlites will seem like a godsend.

Apparently utilised by the likes of Victoria Beckham and Kylie, Airlites provide a quick and temporary way of testing out styling and colouring options. Airbrush technology that has traditionally been used for spray tanning, nail art and specialist make up has been adapted for use with non-permanent hair colours and is now available in a selected number of salons as a pre-treatment preview or as a rapid mane revamp prior to a special event.

The sprays take mere minutes, should survive a downpour and wash out with regular shampoo, leaving no residue (even on chemically treated hair). If you’re brave enough, some salons also offer ‘hair art’- a more creative colouring technique where 12 more outlandish colours can be used to create an eye-catching design such as leopard print.

PerfectSense Paraffin and Aromatherapy

Love aromatherapy and heat based hand treatments but not the thought of effectively sharing a molten wax bath with a therapist’s entire roster of clients? PerfectSense’s new hand and feet treatment system removes the worry of unhygienic vats of wax and excessive heat and replaces it with a speedy and comfortable alternative.

Instead of having your hands or feet manually encased in poured wax by the therapist, the PerfectSense system involves the use of specially developed, easy to dispose of wax packs and a portable, electricity free heating appliance. The individually packaged hand and feet mitts contain solid wax blocks and are placed inside the heating pod next to a specially developed iron and magnesium heating pack. When a small amount of scented ionised water is added to the heating pack sachet, a harmless chemical reaction takes place which produces a controlled level of heat.

Aromatherapy oils are released during the heating process as the water evaporates, and the specially enriched paraffin wax gradually melts inside the mitts within minutes. After they have been removed from the heating pod, mitts can be placed on the hands and feet and will remain warm for ten to fifteen minutes, locking moisture into the skin and easing aching joints. When the wax has cooled and hardened, you gently wiggle your fingers/toes until the wax shell loosens and you can easily slip your hand or foot out of the mitt. Simple, clean, completely contained and soothing!

Fancy giving any of them a go? Let us know and perhaps keep your eyes peeled for their appearance Wahanda in the near future...

The medical industry is tangled up in a continuing debate about the effectiveness of so called ‘alternative’ therapies. From acupuncture to visualisation, a multitude of studies are commissioned every year to investigate the effectiveness of the treatments that conventional science can’t quite explain yet, and in many cases, there is mounting evidence that they provide a viable wellness option.

Here at Wahanda, we’re all for anything that can improve your quality of life and so we’ve gathered together five of the treatments that have hit the headlines recently for all the right reasons so you can give them a go and experience any benefits first-hand.

Acupuncture

Muscle pain and migraines are just two of the common complaints that acupuncture has been said to help shift.

Studies by York University that were published in medical journal Brain Research earlier this year show that the ancient Chinese treatment deactivates areas within the brain associated with pain processing, helping to dull niggling aches and make chronic conditions more manageable. The results back up previous reports from UCL and The University of Southampton that used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure brain activity during acupuncture. When compared to a placebo faux-acupuncture treatment, the academics found that the pain controlling insular area of the brain was only activated when genuine acupuncture techniques were used.

The effectiveness of acupuncture in treating period pain was also outlined in research involving 3,000 women in South Korea and the treatment could even help with largely psychological complaints such as stress and depression, as a Stanford study involving pregnant women showed that over 60% of participants experienced a significant reduction in symptoms following targeted acupuncture sessions.

The NHS’s decision to recommend acupuncture to patients suffering from lower back pain shows that Western medicine is slowly accepting the treatment as a legitimate alternative and supplement to drug and physical therapies.

If you wish to see if acupuncture can help you to chill out or hold off persistent pain, then check out our offers, including today’s fantastic mobdeal.

Meditation

Now respected rather than ridiculed, confidence in the power of meditation has gone from strength to strength in the last decade.

A joint study by the University of Oregon and Dalian University of Technology that is soon to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently recorded the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a type of meditation technique formulated in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine that is regularly practiced by thousands of people in China. Whereas a control group who received relaxation training showed comparatively little change in brain activity when specialised imaging software was used to monitor neurological function, the group participating in meditation sessions displayed a larger number of connections in their anterior cingulates (the specific part of the brain which regulates emotions and behaviour).

The ability to activate this area of the brain through a non-invasive and simple activity could lead to improvements in the treatment of attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression and schizophrenia- conditions which are all associated with impaired anterior cingulate cortex functionality. Researchers also revealed that during the course of the experiment, those that undertook eleven hours of meditation training exhibited lower levels of depression, anxiety, anger and fatigue when compared to the control group, leading to theories of white matter reorganisation and strengthened brain matter connections (possible improvements in brain malleability) amongst scientists. An earlier study by the same institutions showed that just five twenty-minute sessions of IBMT resulted in a significant reduction in stress related illnesses and blood pressure levels amongst participants.

Other trials have reported that those who practice meditation can concentrate for longer and endure higher levels of pain, with the brain boosting improved focus lasting over five months following a three month meditation retreat.

To relax your body and perhaps even enhance your mind, take a look at our current offers on meditation treatments.

Chinese Medicine

Some of the more questionable ingredients traditionally used in Chinese medicine have meant that its healing credentials have often been played down. However, some of the herbal remedies that have been used to combat nausea in Asia for centuries have been found to not only help with the side effects of intensive cancer treatment, but also to increase its effectiveness.

An investigation by Yale University found that mice who ingested Huang Qin Tang mixture (a formula that contains peony extract, skullcap flowers, liquorice root and buckthorn tree fruit) not only recovered from chemotherapy-induced intestinal tract damage more quickly than those in a control group, but they also felt the benefits of reduced inflammation, increased gut lining protection and amazingly, a boost in chemotherapy effectiveness against colon and rectal tumours.

Autoimmune diseases and eczema may also be treatable with Chinese herbs. American trials have found that drinking Erka Shizheng Herbal Tea twice a day, soaking in a related herbal bath for 20 minutes daily and applying a similar herbal cream to their skin two or three times a day reduced the severity and frequency of eczema outbreaks in fourteen children over the course of two years.

Another herbal extract that was previous developed as a potential anti-malaria drug was found to target and inhibit a specific type of immune cell known as Th17 cells back in 2006. Th17 cells regulate the body’s inflammatory response; a reaction that automatically spirals out of control in sufferers of diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, eczema, and psoriasis. Current drug treatments of autoimmune conditions suppress all immune responses, with no option to inhibit individual over-reactions, and this leaves patients’ systems open to infections and cancer. If halofuginone extract can be further isolated, this may no longer be the case.

To try Chinese herbal medicine for yourself, make sure you check out our list of registered practitioners and centres.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy has certainly had its share of high profile detractors. The diluted substance approach that the therapy adopts is meant to trigger a form of ‘immune response’ within patients, helping them to build up a tolerance to irritants. Sceptics claim that a lack of scientific backing makes homeopathy treatment no more effective than a placebo, but the results of a long term study in Cuba, where yearly Weil’s disease infection rates dropped significantly in a population treated with homeopathic remedies, have stopped those who dismissed the treatment in their tracks.

Homeopathy’s ‘like cures like’ principle means that there are a wide variety of conditions that can supposedly be treated using tailored preparations in tablet or liquid form and as the aim is to build strength within the patient to prevent further illness (as with vaccination), both chronic and acute illness may be treated. Due to their low concentration of active ingredients, the majority of preparations may also be taken alongside prescribed drugs to help complement existing treatment programmes.

If you have been blighted with recurrent infections (such as tonsillitis or cystitis), long term skin conditions (including psoriasis and eczema), menstrual or menopausal problems, migraines or stress related symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue and insomnia and wish to try a different approach to healing, take a look at our listings for venues offering homeopathy consultation and treatment.

Tai Chi

Perhaps the most sedate of the martial arts, tai chi’s gentle movements are tied to the ancient Chinese belief that to stay healthy, a smooth flow of energy (or ‘qi’) must be channelled through the body. Originally based on the principal of exchanging energy during combat, the graceful stances and movements involved in tai chi have been shown to improve the wellbeing of many patients suffering from arthritis. Pain reduction and increased mobility have been reported by class participants following as little as ten to fifteen minutes of tai chi and following a course of sessions, strength levels and balance were also found to be improved.

Further studies have also highlighted symptom relief felt by Fibromyalgia sufferers after a series of tai chi classes and asthma patients have noted that their breathing, peak flow and oxygen consumption improved following tai chi training. Those without longstanding conditions can also benefit from the relaxation derived from lessons, as researchers have stated that participants slept better, had more energy, and had better physical and mental health overall after taking part in studies.

To find the nearest centre or instructor offering tai chi in your town or city, browse our listings.

If you decide to give any of the above treatments a try, why not leave a review on site to help others decide whether to check them out. If you’re on Twitter, give us a post-treatment tweet to Wahanda telling us how things went too!

“There’s something different about you… You look good; younger- have you done something with your hair?”

When it comes to cosmetic surgery, a subtle change is often best. Unless you are taking self improvement to Heidi Montag or Jordan levels, you want people to notice that you look fresh and polished rather than hearing water-cooler whispers about just how many things you’ve had ‘fixed’.

As a result, a growing number of people are undergoing less drastic procedures, making slight changes to their appearance over longer periods of time and even hiding the fact that they have gone under the knife at all from their nearest and dearest. According to Transform, the UK’s largest cosmetic surgery group, three out of every five patients ask for discreet alterations or gradual improvements and seventy-two percent of their female customers keep quiet about non-surgical procedures like Botox and dermal fillers around friends and family.

More than half of Transform’s female patients admitted to also concealing treatments from their partners, but a whopping eighty-one percent of men said that they had remained tight lipped about their nips and tucks. Liposuction proved to be the treatment women were most reluctant to admit to having had, with thirty-four percent confessing that they hadn’t mentioned having undergone the procedure to those around them.

Transform spokeswoman, Shami Thomas, told The Daily Mail that customers who query the short term evidence of surgery are becoming commonplace, with one patient asking her surgeon recently “if there would be any red marks or bruising as she had a date with her boyfriend that evening and she didn't want him to know that she had any treatments.”

Many patients are not only concerned about obvious changes to their body and face giving the game away, but often worry that their credit card transactions will reveal that they have had some help achieving their new look.

“When paying for a non-surgical or surgical treatment,” continued Thomas, “it's important for many of our patients to know that the transaction will never come up on their bank statement.”

Industry experts expect flurries of ‘secret surgery’ to become all the more popular in the near future. With some great deals on cosmetic procedures going live on Wahanda in the near future, will you be helping to contribute to the surge? Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us…

Take some time out to try and soothe your sensitive skin. National Eczema Week 2010 runs from 18th to 25th of September, and here at Wahanda, we are backing the National Eczema Society’s bid to ‘Ditch the Itch’.

Eczema is a frustrating and often debilitating skin condition that affects around six million adults in the UK. Painful and intensely itchy flare ups can cover large areas of the body, producing dry, irritated skin that often cracks and weeps, but a growing number of spa treatments have been reported to effectively keep the urge to scratch at bay. Whether you want to banish a flare up to the back of your mind or are on the hunt for a long term restorative cure for the condition, we’ve drawn up a list of therapeutic treats than will hopefully help you escape from dermatological despair in a flash.

Fighting scaliness with scales

If you’re blighted by foot eczema, it might be worth turning to some fishy friends. Fish pedicures utilize the power of a breed of tiny toothless (and harmless) carp called gurra rufa which love to gently feast on dead skin cells. Ticklish rather than painful, a session removes the dry upper layers of affected skin and leaves newly exposed, healthy areas of the stuff in its place.

There are currently 15 venues offering fish pedicures on Wahanda’s books, so you just need to pick a location and pop in at your leisure.

Sea if marine minerals help

Both seaweed treatments (such as wraps and body masks) and those that contain a high concentration of Dead Sea Salts are said to ease inflammation, reduce itching and halt eczema outbreaks. Epsom salts and sea salt-infused seaweed deliver a dose of magnesium (that helps to regulate the body’s enzymes) and calming alkaline minerals to the angry surface of the skin without further dehydration (unlike regular table salt).

Slather or surround yourself with ocean fare and relax at one of Champneys’ Summer Skin Spa Days around the country, with a detox wrap as part of a 2 for 1 Detox Spa Day at Formby Hall Spa or with a series of reduced price Epsom Salt-filled relaxing float sessions at Floatworks in London Bridge. There’s also the option of halotherapy at venues such as London’s The Salt Cave if you don’t fancy slapping anything directly onto sore skin.

Have a swim across The Channel

The Avène Hydrotherapy Centre has been hailed as a miracle treatment spa for eczema. The secret lies in the area’s thermal spring water, which has been incorporated into the dermalogical centre’s products and treatments since 1743. As well as special baths, showers and sprays, the centre offers body wrapping with Avène water emollient cream, Hydroheliotherapy (supervised UV treatments) and workshops for patients to help them better understand the medical side of their condition (in an effort to optimise treatment results).

Wahanda says RELAX

Stress and tension have been proven to worsen eczema outbreaks, so set aside some much deserved me time to rest and recuperate. The leisurely pace of both yoga and Pilates provides the body with a work out, but also a period of contemplative calm. Although you may not be able to immediately meditate the eczema menace away, practicing either exercise regularly may help with the frequency and severity of outbreaks by keeping you mellow.

Pick up a discount on classes at GC Yoga and Pilates Studios in Wimbledon, London on Wahanda today.

Combat the cracks

Eczema sufferers should avoid saunas, exfoliating scrubs, aromatherapy and high heat treatments, all of which are likely to further irritate the skin (drying it out, increasing itching and prolonging healing times).

You can join the National Eczema Society to help with fundraising and raising awareness by visiting their website. Be sure to pass on any top treatment tips you discover, and we at Wahanda hope we can help do our bit to lessen the impact that the condition has on people’s lives by continuing to provide deals on the latest wellness wonders. Let’s scratch out the burden of eczema once and for all!

For years, hydrotherapy has played a vital role in healing humans and animals with physical injuries, but notoriously hydrophobic cats were left well out of the watery wellness equation. Until now, that is.

Meet Nazzaning, a six year old Turkish Van cat who was suffering from partial paralysis in her front left paw.

As her breed are renowned natural swimmers, the animal neurologist who was taking care of the poorly NYC kitty suggested a referral to Water 4 Dogs, a Manhattan-based animal rehabilitation centre that is normally reserved for canine patients, in an effort to help her walk again.

““Her muscles needed to learn how to move the correct way again, and because she’s partially buoyant in water, if she made a mistake it was much less severe than if she was walking on dry land,” specialist vet Boaz Levitin explained.

Apparently Nazzaning was apprehensive at first and, like many of her species, was very vocal about the unusual situation she found herself in. However, nine sessions later, she has mellowed considerably and far from panicking when bobbing about in the specially designed pool, she has learnt to relax and swim with ever growing strength. The benefits can be seen on land too, with her owner Florence Rostami remarking that Nazzaning’s balance has improved and she can now walk unaided.

““I really believe that if she didn’t go to therapy, she may not have found the confidence to walk again,” Rostami proudly continued, before adding that she definitely thought that the $160 sessions were worth the investment.

The centre now hopes that the treatment, which helps keep the body upright and eases pressure on injuries whilst encouraging movement, can be adapted to help other species. Hydrotherapy also provides a great body work out for healthier patients, so humans take note: if a cat can do it, maybe it’s time for you to take the plunge!

Wrinkles; the bane of the beauty conscious. Fillers have long been used to try and erase tell tale lines and creases from inevitably ageing faces, but have you ever considered turning back the years by injecting them into your feet?

Apparently many have, and have taken steps towards younger-looking tootsies by using TEOSYAL Meso filler treatments.

The brand has announced that in the last year, there has been a 60% increase in number of women shelling out for the £150 treatment (in which fine needles are used to insert the Hyaluronic Acid-based substance beneath the surface of the skin).

“Women are becoming more open to the use of injectibles to ensure lines are plumped and complexions are left visibly younger,” said a Teosyal spokesman. “Using fillers for the feet is relatively new, but it’s said hands give away our age and feet do too. Wrinkly feet can certainly let down your appearance.”

The product used can absorb more than 1000 times its weight in water and Teosyal claim that it hydrates feet, leaving them supple and smooth for up to 6 months. The process itself only takes 15 minutes and has been carried out on the underside of patients’ feet for a number of years, with supermodels diligently plumping the balls of their feet to protect them from the pain of killer heels.

If you don’t mind needles, it may be time to make sure your toes look your shoe size and not their age!

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found that freezing frown lines with Botox may make you happier in the long run (and not just because you are pleased with your new, youthfully smooth face).

According to scientists from the US Association for Psychological Science, if a person cannot physically frown, their brain registers less feedback and reduces the intensity of negative feelings. This instantaneous reaction then leaves them believing there is less to be grumpy about and improves their mood. Apparently, smiling really does make it seem as though the whole world is smiling with you!

Utilizing the temporary effects of Botox , researchers asked 40 volunteers who had been given small doses of the toxin in their foreheads to read out a series of statements that were deemed to have angry, happy or sad undertones. When compared to a control group and trial runs carried out before they had the injections, the volunteers who received the treatment took slightly longer to read out the statements with negative connotations. This fractional delay indicated that the brain was taking longer to process the emotions behind the statements as it could not relate to them as effectively.

Professor Arthur Glenburg, who led the study, explained: "Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain. But here, that loop is disrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in language is disrupted.”

Before you begin to blitz lines with the aim of banishing bad moods forever, bear in mind some research filed last month by Barnard College, New York. They found that Botox injected into lines in the lower part of the face can actually prevent you smiling and so can potentially have the opposite effect, lowering your mood. If you decide to plump for Botox, stick to the brow and stay wrinkle and trouble free!

Recent indulgences left you feeling ‘ruff’? Is your pet looking more paunch than pooch? Looking for a fitness plan that’ll give you both a new ‘leash’ of life?

Well, you can Thank Dog® because the ideal regime exists. California based dog trainers Jill and Jamie Bowers have teamed up with personal trainers Heath Walton and Cassie Shannon to create Thank Dog!® Bootcamp: a fun one hour exercise and training session that is designed to push both you and your dog to your fitness limits.

Following a health and behavioural evaluation, certified (human and animal) trainers guide you through a strenuous weights and cardio work out class combined with canine obedience training. There is a one dog per person policy, dogs are kept on a lead at all times and are taught to patiently wait whilst their owners undertake strength exercises. You can even take part if you do not have your own furry friend, as Thank Dog!® run a ‘borrow a dog’ scheme for those who feel that their exercise routine would benefit from the inclusion of a canine companion.

‘Paws’ for a minute: sound like something you’d like to try? If you’re in the US, head for the sunshine of LA armed with a set of hand weights, a mat, a towel and some water for you and your doggy sidekick. Classes accept humans and dogs of all fitness ranges and abilities, so there’s no need to worry about being left out and anyone can join at any time. Don’t expect an easy ride though; Thank Dog!® is nowhere near as laid back as pet yoga or a simple dog walking group. The aim is to get trim and the centre proudly displays before and after shots of human and hound weight loss on their website as motivation.

As we are a nation of dog lovers, we’re sure it won’t be long before this canine craze hits the UK shores. Owners had better keep an eye out for news; you’d be barking mad to miss out!

Bored of Botox? Cynical about collagen? Thought of giving carbon dioxide a go?

No, you didn’t misread that - the latest treatment doing the celebrity rounds involves injecting the same gas that forms the contents of fizzy drink bubbles under troublesome skin. The science behind the bizarre sounding (but apparently medically safe) treatment known as carboxytherapy, involves the microscopic bodily processes that underpin skin function.

By inserting tiny pockets of CO₂ into scar tissue or dark circles, oxygenated blood is forced to the area therefore improving circulation. Better circulation results in better (natural) collagen production, reducing wrinkles or the appearance of damaged skin. Fatty deposits can also be eliminated using the process; the gas is injected directly into unwanted cells, causing them to expand until the cell wall is damaged and they break down.

Men who want to try and reverse a receding hairline may also be tempted to check out [[treatment/carboxytherapy/|carboxytherapy], as experts claim injections may help to reopen pores and hair follicles.

Hailed as painless and with the only side effect being tingling, delicately flushed skin and temporary bruising similar to other injection-based treatments, it all sounds a bit too good to be true. There’s only one way to find out whether these miraculous claims have been inflated - so get over that fear of needles, beauty buffs, because they may be the secret to youthful skin…

Yoga fans looking for the perfect getaway - listen up! If you want to soak up some sun, sea and sand without neglecting your chakra alignment schedule, then check out Kayoga™.

Created by personal trainer Tim Ganley, kayoga combines a leisurely kayaking session with regular yoga. Sound like too much hard work? How about if I tell you that said yoga takes place on a deserted and sun-drenched beach, amidst crystal waters, frolicking dolphins and expanses of shoreline waiting to be explored.

If you are interested in indulging in the peaceful pursuit, then you need to get yourself to Ganley’s studio in Florida, where sunset and sunrise sessions as well as kayoga eco-tours are available. Ganley also holds ‘kayakercise’ classes for those who prefer to work up a sweat, where you once again climb aboard your kayak, but partake in a mini boot-camp when you hit dry land. More information and booking details can be found on his Central Ave Fitness website.

If you’re determined to keep your pre-holiday fitness drive going throughout the autumn, why not book yourself in to an apathy-demolishing fit camp programme and help raise money for a great cause at the same time?

46,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and scientists still desperately need funds to aid the continuing search for a cure. Champneys are donating 20% of their profits from all Fit Camp packages due to commence on or after 9th October to Breast Cancer Care, enabling you to simultaneously battle the bulge and fight cancer.

Whatever your fitness level, Champneys Fit Camps can help to give you that extra push towards formulating a regular exercise routine, with the added bonus of the use of their luxurious on-site spa facilities. This is one boot camp that is definitely not built purely on blood, sweat and tears!

The seven night residential camp is led by fitness experts who are on hand to provide advice and much needed motivation as the nights begin to draw in. The ultimate goal is weight loss and toned limbs, so the regime is no-nonsense and based on military style exercises that will really get your heart racing. There are daily workouts and early bird walks at 6:30am, so dedication is a must and dozing divas need not apply. Wellbeing and nutrition talks are also included, and to help you recover in style, accommodation takes the form of a room at one of Champneys’ four luxurious health spas.

Champneys describe the experience as ‘relentless but fun’ and teamwork and challenging yourself are at the core of the experience, ensuring that however gruelling things may seem, any tears will be of laughter rather than pain. Fit Camps are held throughout the year and prices start at £950.

For a gentler introduction to weight loss, the spa runs ‘Weight Matters’ two night nutrition and exercise plan spa breaks and if you simply fancy a self-confidence boost, the life affirming 'Time to Shine' (available at Tring and Henlow) two night package may be just up your street.

If wheels are more your thing, then Champneys also run cycling breaks, where you can meet pro racers, go on guided rides and experience a Thalassotherapy pool session in between up to twenty exercise and relaxation classes daily.

What are you waiting for? Keep your waistline and conscience in check by booking today!

If you’re tempted by the benefits of acupuncture, but the thought of all those needles turns your legs to jelly, why not follow in the footsteps of Jessica Simpson and give cupping a try?

In the past, Gwyneth Paltrow has been spotted with the tell-tale faded circular marks that cupping creates shortly after a treatment, but in the last week blonde bombshell Jessica Simpson has been enthusiastically detailing her experiences of the tradition on Twitter. The American songstress has recently embarked on a health and wellness crusade, and has been combining her ventures into cupping with meditation under the guidance of a Chinese healer.

“Shocked my system with a vegan diet, special Pu-erh tea from China, and cupping since Friday!”, she explained via the micro-blogging site. She continued, “Has anyone ever tried cupping? When you know you are doing something good for your body the meditation creates intense visions. Love it!”

What is cupping?

It may sound like a slightly risqué alternative to traditional approaches, but the ancient Chinese practice of cupping involves the stimulation of the body’s pressure points in an effort to cure a variety of ailments. The name of the treatment comes from the use of glass cups, which the practitioner places on the patient’s back and then gently heats. The heating process is often carried out using cotton balls soaked in alcohol, which are then placed on top of the cups and carefully lit.

As they warm up, a vacuum is created between the base of each cup and the patient’s skin. The skin is gradually sucked a few millimetres inside the cup as a result and blood is drawn to the area, improving circulation.

While meditation is well known for its calming and stress-busting effects, anyone who looks into cupping may be worried about what it feels like. Fear not - in the words of one patient, it ‘definitely doesn’t hurt’- the welts that Gwyneth was sporting are painless, soon disappear and there are no other physical side effects. During the treatment, people have described the sensation as similar to ‘someone pulling at your skin’, which may feel slightly strange at first, but is by no means unpleasant, especially if combined with a relaxing meditation session.

What it’s good for

Health experts agree that cupping is safe and carries no risks, as long as it is performed by a trained and certified therapist. Supporters of the treatment claim that it helps with respiratory problems by opening up the chest and lungs, and can even benefit menstrual and digestive problems, too. However, the most common use of cupping is for localised aches and pains, which can be treated with specifically placed cups.

If you’re looking for something to help zap tension and banish clouds of swirling thoughts from your hectic life, consider a cupping and meditation combo like Jessica – and follow her tweets on @JessicaSimpson to keep updated on how it’s going for the de-stressed diva. You never know, if you take the plunge, it may result in a newly Zen you…