Gina Conway, Wimbledon

I’m afraid this was one of my worst spa experiences, and to add insult to injury also one of my worst haircuts at the same time.

I booked in just before a New Year trip to get my hair cut and my eyelashes tinted.  Now, I think one of the issues may have been that they have seriously extended their opening hours so both the hair stylist and therapist were tired.  This is no excuse.

My hair cut was pretty poor - but I managed to pop in on my way to the station and they found another stylist to fix the unevenness - luckily I have very long hair at the moment so there’s enough room to correct mistakes - but having had very short hair I know that there’s no coming back from some bad cuts (apart from waiting a couple of months with a bag over your head!)

Anyway, I accept my hair stylist was tired and made mistakes, but the treatment from the therapist was not only bad it was also her attitude that made this an exceptionally unpleasant experience.

As you know, I’m no stranger to having my lashes tinted and I did have a great spa, (also Aveda) where I had a wonderful therapist who managed to do this without causing me any pain and giving me a great hand and forearm massage. Unfortunately she moved on and her replacements weren’t great, so I decided to try a new spa.

The issue with lash tinting is that, usually when the dye is being removed, a little of it can get in the eye and cause irritation.  Aside from with this one wonderful therapist this always happens to me.  The therapist gives you some cotton pads soaked in water to help wash away the sting and it usually goes away after a few minutes.  One of my worst experiences previously was when the dye got into my eyes during the process and we had to remove everything and start again.  It was not fun, but the slightly inexperienced therapist was very apologetic.

My wonderful therapist at my old spa told me the tip is to leave the dye on for just a little bit longer so that it deactivates, so it’s much less likely to sting your eyes (don’t try this at home).

Anyway - at Gina Conway the therapist applied the dye - all fine.  When she removed it, despite my telling her about this tip, the dye was still quite active.  What happened next was the unforgivable bit.  When I told her it was stinging she hung back, metaphorically crossing her arms and telling me it would go away in a minute.  After a few seconds I realised she wasn’t getting me any cotton pads and I had to actually ask her to soak some in water and give them to me - which she did resentfully.

I’m sorry, I don’t care what the treatment, if you as a therapist do not do all you can to reduce the pain level (and yes, I include bikini waxes here) or injury then you are letting yourself and your spa down.  You are losing clients for yourself, your spa and the whole industry... and you won’t get a tip either.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these are excellent, but I couldn’t, in good conscience give them a Pearl Recommendation.  Sometimes they were just beaten to the punch, or I couldn’t decide a clear winner, other times they had a lot right, but I felt they just weren’t there.  I don’t really want to give bad reviews, but anything I felt was really best avoided you’ll find in the Jellyfish section.