Vintage Beauty Spa: La Belle Jolie

Paint 'em red, jungle red..

There have been a raft of cottage industries, little businesses and concerns that have opened up on the back of a so-called vintage boom. A few are excellent, many are so so and and not a few are rubbish. In any case we now seem to be over served in some quarters, we need no more fascinators, little patchwork brooches or cupcakes. An area in which this is not the case is in hairstyling and beauty where we have to scrabble around to find good hairdressers.  A fair few can style hair for a night out or apply make-up, but far fewer can actually colour and cut hair. Most of us can manage to style hair (or sort of in my case) out of necessity not having the time or the lucre to pay someone to do it for us but only the brave would cut their hair. The rarity of retro friendly hairstylists boils down to the need for real skills, practice and commitment, it is not enough to be a bit crafty, unlike most retro inclined businesses. As for vintage beauty, it has very much become a self-help area, with men and women sharing tips and harassing their elderly relatives for advice.  But beauticians, rather like good hairdressers need good qualifications and training. They also need an understanding of science, anatomy and hygiene systems. I'm afraid a couple of NVQ's don't cut it. Three years of college does. A cowboy salon can, quite literally, harm you. Not surprising then that rather like hairdressers, vintage inspired beauty therapists have been hard to find.

Fortunately though an actual beauty spa with a vintage inspired ethos and theme has just opened in Anerley, right around the corner from Crystal Palace Station (mainline and overground) and very close to the vintage hub that is the Palace these days. It is called La Belle Jolie.

Le Belle Jolie reception.

The proprietor is Ruby Rose who is fully trained and accredited masseuse, beautician, make up artist and hair dresser (although the salon will only offer hair styling for now). She has years of experience in the field. All well and good, London is heaving with beauty salons, so what?

The difference as you walk in is immediate, decorated in soft minky tones using wall paper with Swarovski crystals you are greeted by a burst of Cole Porter from speakers disguised as old wireless sets. The dressing table is Deco, vintage pin boxes and a mini-museum of an antique hair styling apparatus and cosmetics decorate the shelves.  The tendency (also delightful) with retro hair salons has been to adopt a candy coloured late forties - fifties ethos. Ruby has gone more for a 20s/30s age of glamour feel helped by the fact that her shop is in a victorian building. If you were the kind of girl who liked fiddling with her gran's pots, potions and curlers you'll love it. 

Treatment room.

Treatment room.

The treatment room in the back whilst still retro has the feel of a luxe boutique hotel, flickering nightlights and dusky plum walls create a very relaxing space. I am already imagining an aromatherapy massage, with a carefully selected oil, perhaps something redolent of a hot Hollywood evening and Ella Fitzgerald singing gently in the background.  

Reception area.

Deco dressing table.

Bits and pieces.

Ruby is adamant, and I think she is correct, that her aim is to provide high quality, personalised treatment to any customers, whether they are involved in the retro world or not. There is nothing in the place that would intimidate or deter your average South London lady. However from the point of view of someone like me the appeal is largely the fact that I can use the words pincurl, half-moon manicure, Harlow, victory roll, marcel wave, betty bangs and vintage scent without having to embark on a 20 minute explanation. Also I know I am not going to be assaulted by Rihanna warbling in the back ground or eye grinding lighting. I took the pictures with my mobile phone and they don't do the place justice but they give you an idea. I'll admit that Ruby is a friend of mine, and I suspect quite a few people reading this also know her as she has been on the scene, as far as there is one for years. This is therefore not a bandwagon jumping exercise but the fulfilment of a long cherished dream.

Ruby kindly turned me into a ginger Betty Draper.

Future plans include the opening of a further treatment room downstairs and a workshop area so Ruby can teach groups. The back garden/terrace will be turned into a hot tub space. She will also be launching a range of skincare, some of which employ vintage elements. The scented deodorant that comes with it's own little powder puff, the paraffin/petrol free creams that kept our granny's skin so clear, along with modern ingredients.  Ruby is hoping to hold workshops teaching people how to make their own skincare using ingredients from their store cupboard and elsewhere. Not sure I could do that, I don't think soy sauce, taco chips and wine gums would get me far! I must admit there is something very anglo saxon about me so I have never had a facial in my life. However I believe that a little pampering goes a long way. The problem is I don't like salons, the type I would like are often out of my price range and I cannot relax in a room full wipe clean formica and a photographs of adolescents smiling sweetly at me from the walls. Photographs of pin curled starlets, 20's jazz and glasses of champagne I can cope with masochist that I am!

The stylish lady herself.

La Belle Jolie is open Weds - Sunday, with late nights on Weds and Thurs. Ruby is keen to meet any vintage ladies or gents on the loose in the area and their non-vintage chums. So if you are around pop in, she has lots of introductory offers, and tea. To find it. leave Crystal Palace Station, turn left when you get to the main road and it is about 3 mins walk.

She can be contacted here: info@labellejolie.com
Tel: 020 7018 1209
website: http://www.labellejolie.com

Hours	Wed - Thu: 11:00 - 21:00 Fri: 11:00 - 19:00 Sat - Sun: 10:00 - 18:00

Parking	Street

Red heads under the bed (and everywhere else......)

Lily Cole brunette and light red hair.

Recently Lily Cole swapped her trademark copper tresses for a dark brunette shade. Being an inveterate hair hue shifter myself I realize you get bored of the same old colour. Some don’t feel this way and happily leave their hair to its own devices. Not a bad idea, au naturel naturally matches skin tone and everything else. Some dye their hair and hang on to the same old shade of blonde forever. This is a little more difficult to understand, if you already zap your hair the condition is whatever any stylist tries to sell you, kaput. Condition is highly overrated; it’s the way it looks that matters. So if you hair is coloured how do you resist the temptation to then tinker with it?

There is no other thing (short of amputation which seems a bit extreme) that overhauls your appearance as effectively. I have personally been just about every shade some of which were ill advised. Jet black or rather Recital blue black was my default in my youth. Then it set off my pallor and I had the youthful patience to paint on my Goth warpaint every morning but I cannot really carry it off now or rather I can’t be bothered. I have had all kinds of blonde from the light and brash (which I liked )to some ill advised ‘classy’ high lights (yawn), I lived in Bath and I think I was trying to match the architecture. Brunette is my natural shade, in my case a darkish chestnut the same hue as fenland soil. I have had lighter browns and personally I like mouse brown. A true mouse brown should be more fairly labeled sable or mink, a lovely tone I wish I had. Currently it is a coppery red but this has veered from marmalade to pinkish in the last year alone.  I do understand Lily Cole’s motivation but the change has somehow or the other managed to make a very tall slim woman with unusual features look duller. This is probably because red hair is so flamboyant, like black and peroxide blonde you can’t escape from it short of wearing a large wooly hat or being decapitated (what is it with me today? I have a very bloody turn of phrase).

Red haired Rita

Brunette Rita

Blonde Rita...

There seems to be a kind of pecking order with hair colour changes. Blondes reverting to their natural brunette works well if the blonde is the high maintenance ‘natural’ type. The brown hair brightens eyes, improves skin and just makes people look more interesting.  A peroxide blonde or that incredibly rare creature the natural blonde can however risk becoming heavier and older; swamped by the brown hair. Somehow or the other moving from red to another colour always seems to involve a kind of ‘giving up’. Moving from a vibrant bright unusual colour into a kind of monochrome. Last time I moved from red back to my natural brown the reaction from many was of dismay. My claims that I needed to save money and time were not sufficient to make up for losing the red tresses which I had become identified with.

Kristen McMenemy's beautiful grey hair.

I’m not always sold on my red hair, my colourist is one of the best in London but when tired or manic I have the suspicion that I resemble Vivien Westwood in one of her stranger moods. Red can be brassy, like black and peroxide blonde it demands some cosmetic effort and it does stand out. It has the advantage of being associated with positive values in a woman: fieriness, passion, strong character  and independence. I also like it's associations with celts, pre-raphealites, jewish proto godesses and romantic heroines. Also it can  absolutely sing when combined with particular colours in a way that blonde never can. Blonde can only be complemented. Lily Cole has been red for a long time and the quiet more mysterious image of the pale skinned brunette must be fun to play with, I would be surprised if she maintains it for a long time. This natural brunette may revert to her brown hair but cannot help thinking that after fiery locks  brown  alone may not be enough and a silver/white streak bleached through the front may be required.  I had to go blonde to go red, and peroxide blonde was tempting for a mad moment but I doubt I'll ever go for a tasteful blonde again.

Of course a white 'mallen streak' might might age me, but that is one of the advantages of styling yourself for yourself; I don’t feel the need to look youthful. I’d rather aspire even if I invariably fail, to look distinctive.  I have also discovered people being surprised by my advanced years recently, I suspect this is because the fake tanning, hair highlighting, figure hugging jersey and modern jewellery default of looking more youthful is perversely becoming ageing. Or maybe it is just down to my immature personality.or dressing like people's grannies. Of course talking of grannies, white and silver tresses are the last frontier of hair colour and if I am fortunate enough to turn a nice shade of pale grey or silver white I may finally hang up my hair dyeing hat forever.  I  am particularly inspired by model Kristen McMenemy's fantastic wintry locks but suspect by the time I get these I may have stopped bothering!

Comments are welcome, especially if you have just had or are planning to change your hue. How about you redheads, how do you feel about your flame coloured tresses?

beehiveration.

It’s good to try something new. On Saturday I was heading out to first of all the Bram Stoker Dinner and then afterwards to quickly hook up with friends at the Mouthful O’ Jam night in Haringay.  I wore a vintage early fifties black satin crepe bolero with my emerald satin Vivien of Holloway circle dress and anticipated the usual long hair set. However it was blowy, possibly damp and I was feeling lazy and tired. So I popped into Soho on the way out and got Amy at Powderpuff to give me a ‘do’.  I resisted the usual pull of victory rolls and thought channelling Madmen might be a good change, and hopefully I’d end up looking like Joan Holloway’s ageing great aunty. I have that lady's embonpoint and hair alone sadly. This really left me with a choice between up-flicks at the end or an up do and I plumped for the queen of all retro-updo’s: the beehive 

Audrey's Hive

 My do was a medium height soft  puffy beehive, of the French pleat variety. I wouldn’t go for it if I had a short fringe and haven’t worn one for several years. You do feel like you are wearing a beehive, it is such a statement. That would have needed to be on someone younger or you risk looking like an actress out of an early sixties kitchen sink drama. I like this style when it is long enough to sweep across your face or tuck behind your ears. There are examples plenty of the beehive looking elegant, my favourite is Dusty Springfield although the most famous hive is the strangely conservative one donned by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I recall that in 2008 Amy Winehouse’s beehive was voted the worst celebrity hairstyle. I was cross about that, our Amy might have her skanky moments but that hair is a big style statement. I’d have voted in a whole army of R & B star mingingness or Wag ironed extensions. The Beehive I believe has a retro appeal of it’s own and infers retro glamour and class, or soul diva, or sixties starlet or uber housewife or at it’s very worst (which is still appealing) Bet Lynch Barmaid chic. If this hairstyle had a sound track it would be an all girl Motown one.

Amy Winehouse dons a wig yet the beehive is not actually that difficult to style. Much easier than rolls or a set and I can make a decent fist of it when I try. A lot depends on the texture of your hair. If it is normal to thick it will stay up well once back combed and shoulder length hair works well. Mine requires no rollers or volume beforehand   The trick is in the backcombing, this style is a ‘construction’ and it is all in the preparation. This isn’t for those who treat their hair like a precious piece of cashmere. Begin looking like beetlejuice with you hair on end and it is easy to pin and the back and then gently brush and smooth back into the hive shape at the front.  It takes less hairspray to hold in shape than a 30’s or 40’s set and was remarkably impervious to blasts of wind. Brushing out at the end of the evening has to be brisk and tough and you do end up looking like Beetlejuice again.

Yours truly captured on mobile phone.

 It attracted far more attention when I was out than my usual sets or styles, we forget how ubiquitous thirties and forties styles have become. The beehive is still largely relegated to repeats of Heartbeat and the odd sixties revival event. Quite a few people wanted to pat it, a couple of others wondered if it were my own hair and this is despite the fact it wasn’t the full Marge Simpson. I wouldn’t have it all the time, but for a night it was fun to have big hair. I liked the fact it was so dressy and it sets off earrings, necklaces and long necks beautifully. It also entertains anyone lucky enough to see you at the end of the night in the process of brushing it out. Or scares them. Depending…

xxx

The aftermath!

Being 'Bettied'..vintage hair with flair.

I have never, ever, hankered after natural, healthy, unstructured hair. I grew up in the age of the Partridge Family, tabards, space-hoppers and David Cassidy. Therefore I actively dislike the 'Virgin Suicide' style. I am bored by the concept of blande, beige, dun, muddy coloured hair flopping down one's shoulders. It is the styling of my grandmother's generation that appeals, the curls, the up-do's, the rolls and flicks. The first thing I did upon becoming 13, and in my eyes a 'teenager', was to buy a bottle of jet black L'Oreal Recital and eliminate the dull brown locks I was cursed with. My father said I resembled a witch; I was delighted.

In a world of Kate Moss wannabees, Cheryl Cole add-ons and vast swathes of blonde highlights it is very difficult to find a hairdresser that gets, what you want them to get. For a couple of years now my locks have been tended by Miss Betty whose salon is in Kingly Court. I found her by word of mouth. I was complaining that I had to order hairdressers to cut my fringe, and that when they did, they would soften it, to make me look 'younger' grrrr. So determined was I that I marched into Betty's with hair half way down my back and demanded a chin length bob. Which I got, excellently cut and with no prevarication. I went back last Saturday to get my (now fiery red) locks touched up and my hair styled. I have bravely posted the before and after pictures below:

RED LEGS PRE-BETTY...

BETTY WORKS HER MAGIC...

The Salon itself is a pleasure, no sterile reaches of white ceramics and mirrors, so you don't feel like you are being coiffed in an abbatoire. Rather Miss Betty's parlour is highly feminine, all red velvet and black chandeliers. The pictures on the walls of glamorous screen legends and rockabilly hussies are better than rows of asinine pictures of gormless looking models. What stands out the most is that you do not feel isolated from other users of the salon, on Saturdays it is busy but you feel that you can chat with others, or not, as you wish. It also makes a difference that whilst you wait you actually get to listen to good music. I repeat GOOD music, it's a bug bear of mine, the classic modern hairdresser's obsession with Beyonce, Jamiroquai, Girls Aloud and Robbie Williams arrrrggghh! I end up wanting to grab the clippers from the hairdresser and run out with a shaved head just to get away from the noise.

Interior of Miss Betty's

Betty's main interest lies in styling rockabilly/fifties hair and previously having had a salon in Toulouse she is well known in that subculture. I also like the fact, and I don't think this is because English is her second language, that she is clear and straightforward and will tell you when she thinks something will or won't suit you. No flim-flam. I'm not, perhaps, her classic customer but she knows how vintage glamour works. You come out of the salon with seriously glamorous grown up hair. After leaving her salon I went off to meet Torquil Arbuthnot and Katie Chutzpah http://katiechutzpah.blogspot.com/ in Mayfair. In New Bond Street I heard someone say as I passed 'she's probably here for London Fashion Week'..entirely down to Betty's styling.

Another view of the interior of the beauty parlour.

An element of the salon that I enjoy is the fact that Betty shares it with her partner, retro/rocker barber Mr Ducktail. In fact his barbershop 'Something Hells' takes up the front part of the establishment. His expertise attracts a steady stream of gentlemen (and the occasional lady) who wants the perfect quiff or DA. This means there are usually a few nice looking young men hanging around, never a bad thing. In fact there was a very special young man in the salon on Saturday, Betty's 10 week old bulldog puppy Elvis; the cutest thing ever.

Interior of Something Hells, Mr Ducktail's barber shop.

One of Betty's up do's (taken at the Chap Olympics), it stayed up for days...

Now that's what I call a fringe!

Retro-hair is not for everyone, you do get looked at (surely the point?) and when not around experts like Betty you end up battling with rollers, stuck with more pins that a zombie doll and drenched in Elnett. However stylists like Betty make life a lot easier, and you know where to go for that knock-out hairstyle when you need it. I have sent several friends to her and they have always looked fantastic. So if you are in London and want killer hair you know where to go. No excuses!

Miss Betty's Beauty Parlour.

Tel: 0207 287 0241

Home page: http://www.myspace.com/something_hell

Interview with Betty: http://www.queensofvintage.com/ooh-la-la-vintage-hairstylist-miss-betty-shares-her-style-secrets