Student Price Pampering

Michelle Allan



It is important to take time out for yourself to relax especially after exams and coursework deadlines, and what better way to do this than by spoiling yourself with a spa treatment. As we all know beauty treatments are an essential part of maintaining a healthy body and good skin. However, the expense makes it hard to keep up a pampering regime, especially on a student’s budget. But there is a way that you can pamper yourself regularly at a fraction of the price.

Top quality treatments are on offer to the public in luxurious hair and beauty salons and drop in nail bars. These services are provided in hundreds of beauty schools and colleges across the UK. All treatments are carried out by students trained in the industry’s latest techniques by experts resulting in professional treatments at prices which are hard to beat.

Hairdressing, make-up, Beauty and holistic therapy students need models to provide extensive practice to gain competence as a vital part of their training. So you can lend a freshly manicured hand to students like yourselves and the future of the beauty industry, while pampering yourself. The services are provided under the strictest supervision of lecturers and are only performed after the student has undergone training and practice on each other. All treatments on offer are carried out according to industry standards giving us the opportunity to take advantage of a wide range of usually expensive luxurious treatments.

They offer everything from waxing, manicures, pedicures, brow and lash tinting and perming, to facials including body treatments, tanning, make-up, acrylic nails and not forgetting hairdressing treatments. All is available for a tenth of the price. Some of these salons also offer the latest technical advances in skin care like non surgical facelifts, microdermabrasion, laser hair removal, ‘skin light’ and even body lifts. These are all new highly sought after treatments available to all. There are also saunas, steam rooms, tanning booths and gyms in some of these salons for you to use.

You can get a 75 minute massage, manicure and pedicure, body cleanse and facial for under £30.00, and no I’m not forgetting a zero. Although bare in mind that prices may vary in each college salon, and for the level of therapist you may book with.

There is a tiny downside though, it’s not a huge deal, but treatments are usually given in a large room in curtained areas rather than a single beauty room, the treatments may take a little longer than in a spa, and appointments are only available Monday to Friday. But who cares about that when you’re being pampered without a pull on your purse strings?

Some places you may want to book in to:
London College of Beauty Therapy 0207 208 1302
East London Beauty Academy 0208 981 2558
South Thames College 0208 918 7075
Hammersmith and West London College, Voila 0207 565 1265
London College of Fashion 0207 514 7400
London School Of Beauty, Esthetique 0207 580 0355
Lewisham College, T’ien 0208 320 2901

Dont forget the SPF!

Michelle Allan




With the temperature soar lately many of us students have been relaxing in parks and generally taking our skins in to the forbidden outdoors. During the winter we have been like hermits inside in the warm cooped up away from the outside...studying of course. As lovely and unusual as it is relaxing in the sun, it could be damaging our skin.

A recent survey by SunSmart says that 9 out of 10 people in the UK could be putting their lives at risk by not using sun screen correctly. In fact in the UK 42 percent of people do not reapply sunscreen every 2 hours or do not apply any at all. Many students apply sunscreen while on holiday but simply forget to apply it whilst at home despite the fact that the sun in the UK is just as damaging. Elsa Buchanan 22 London Metropolitan student from France proved this theory “I don’t usually wear sunscreen in London, the sun doesn’t feel hot enough to burn me.”

Sunscreen is a product that reflects some of the suns harmful UV radiation from the skin exposed to sunlight and thus protects us from sunburn. 46 percent of people are confused by what SPF actually means and think that SPF 30 offers double the protection of SPF 15, the lowest protection advised to wear. This is a common misapprehension and in fact SPF 30 only filters out 3 percent more harmful UV rays.

Many students interviewed used SPF 10-12 which does not give sufficient protection from the sun at all, even if re-applied hourly. Charlotte Sundburg a journalism student at London Metropolitan University said “I only wear sunscreen sometimes if I know I’m going to be outdoors all day. If I remember I usually apply sun factor 12 a few times in a day.”

The SPF is a libratory measure of the effectiveness of the sunscreen. SPF is not directly related to the time of solar exposure but the amount and so must be re-applied no matter how high the SPF is to avoid sunburn. Caroline Cerny, Cancer Research UK’s SunSmart manager, said “It’s really concerning that people don’t know how to use sunscreen properly. Sunscreen only works if you put enough on. You can’t make up for a thin layer by increasing the factor you use”.

There are two types of harmful UV rays that we must protect ourselves from. UVB is responsible for the majority of sunburns and UVA penetrates deeper in to the skin causing ageing. There is also another UV ray called UVC which is even more harmful but thankfully we are protected from that by the ozone layer, for now. Again many students including Kelly Jones 27 drama student at Central argue “my mum never wore sun protection when she was my age and she has great skin and hasn’t got cancer”.

The fact is that when our parents were our age the ozone layer was a lot thicker and so protected us more than it does now and unfortunately melanomas can lie dormant showing no signs for years. Sunburn is a clear sign of sun damage to the skin cells DNA from UV rays. Damaged DNA can cause cells to start growing out of control and this can lead to skin cancer. Getting a painful sunburn just once every two years can triple the risk of a melanoma, which is the most serious type of skin cancer.

Caroline Cerny added “Rates of the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, are on the rise in the UK, so we really want people to take note of what they can do to protect themselves. Applying sunscreen regularly and generously is a start, but don’t forget to take other steps to reduce your risk as well, such as covering up with clothes, sunglasses, and spending time in the shade when the sun is at its hottest. Whatever you do, don’t let sunburn catch you out.”

So students’ great and small I urge you to remember that the sun is harmful and to protect yourselves against deadly sun damage!