Teen makeover in West London – including a fish pedicure

The miserable weather makes it hard to find ways to amuse the kids – and teens are no different. So I planned a “Makeover Day” for my teenage daughter and we had lots of fun.

She’s a nail biter. And boy are her nails painfully short. We’ve tried “Stop and Grow” and willpower without success. So we started at one of the three nail salons in our local High Street. I don’t know why we have three nail salons but there you go. Whilst a manicure can be relatively cheap if you shop around, on this occasion we went for the full works – as applying gel nails seemed the best approach to both stop the biting and provide fingers that looked pretty but natural. (A couple of days later and no biting so the £30 looks like it was worth it).

Then came the hair. She had found a funky programme on the Internet which allowed her to “try on” the hairstyles of celebrities and had chosen her favourite two and sent them to her phone. We marched into Headmasters in Twickenham without an appointment and were delighted that the lovely Jude was assigned to us.

She was thoughtful in her discussion about what was required and looked carefully at my daughter’s chosen style picture. As well as washing and cutting her hair in the required style – checking at each stage that not too much was being taken off the length – she also explained the basics of blow drying. And even I learned a lot about basic hair care. I was really pleased when we emerged – especially as they had charged only £15.

We took the bus to Hounslow and had a browse around the shops there. There were sales in New Look and Debenhams and we picked up a couple of fashion bargains. We also couldn’t believe our luck finding some of those canvas flat tennis shoes in a store at just £8 for two pairs – so she got a black pair and a white pair.

In the Treaty Centre I had previously spied a Dr Spafish – one of those fish pedicure places. After careful health checks and confirmation that there were no veruccas, Athlete’s foot or other nasties she placed her feet in a preparatory foot bath. Then came the moment when she lowered her feet into a tank of about 40 of those little Turkish fish.

Despite her trepidation – which was increased as the little fish all swam to the surface in anticipation of some foot munching – once her feet reached the water and the fish started their nibbling she couldn’t stop laughing. She said it felt like bubbles. The staff there were incredibly friendly and took the time to explain all about the fish – and told us about Bruce, a larger specimen who spent most of his time at the bottom of the tank. At £5 for 10 minutes this was a real bargain - What an experience. And apparently they even arrange kids parties – as long as the children are over six years old.

We returned home happy and with a very pampered daughter who couldn’t stop talking about how soft her feet were after the attentions of those little fish.