Weird and wacky celebrity treatments
This week's newspaper headlines were awash with celebs trying out weird and wacky treatments. Editoiral intern Shona Owen investigates
When Harry Styles, youngest member of the boy band One Direction, recently admitted to having joined the likes of Simon Cowell in getting a sheep’s placenta facial, I envisioned a sturdy woman named Helga, holding the end of the umbilical cord and essentially beating it about his young and unmarred face. However, the treatment is not as unusual as I had thought.
Stem Cell Beauty Innovations uses similar technology in its products, which were developed when founder Robin Grey fell chronically ill and discovered that supplements which harnessed stem cell technology improved her health. Partnering with dermatologist Dr. Harold Lancer, Grey created her own range of skincare products that use stem cells harvested from New Zealand sheep post birth.
As Grey says on the brand's website, “My goal is to change the science of skincare to become more natural, so we can have a partnership between science and nature. I want to distribute the best products to heal the skin and make it look more radiant.”
Clients swear by the anti-ageing benefits of the SCBI products, which prompted me to wonder about other beauty treatments celebs are willing to try to turn back the ageing clock:
Bird poo facial
Endorsed by Victoria Beckham and Tom Cruise, nightingale excrement, collected from the Japanese island of Kyushu, has been hailed as a wonder product as the unusual ingredient acts as an exfoliate, while the poo has special enzymes that break down the dead skin on the upper layers. This authentic treatment was originally practiced by geishas but is now available closer to home at places such as Hilton Park Lane's Spa To You, which markets it as the Japanese Nightingale Dropping Facial.
Bull semen hair treatment
Hari’s hairdressers in Knightbridge uses fresh sperm from an Aberdeen-Angus bull on a Cheshire farm. Popular in London and LA and with actress Lindsey Lohan, the hair treatment is said to penetrate deeply into each follicle, leaving the hair nourished, shiny and thick. “It will be an ongoing treatment as long as the bull’s perform”, Hari's owner Hari Salem told the Metro.
Snail Gel
Again, not what I imagined. Snails are not allowed to wander up and down the faces of Rita Ora or Katie Holmes. Instead snail trails are collected, most in a laboratory in Chile, and combined to make a gel-like serum and skin cream that has powerful biological properties said to help relieve skin conditions like acne, as well as reducing wrinkles. The benefits were uncovered when Chilean snail farmers noticed their skin healed quickly when they handled snails that were being exported to the French food industry. Since then, the skincare ingredient has boomed and is even available in stores like Holland & Barratt.
So whether you are going to stand about trying to get a pigeon to drop one on you or follow snails around the garden collecting their slime, these bizarre and sometimes truly gross ingredients are natural, age defying and apparently covering the faces of our favourite A-list stars.
