Jennifer Aniston had better watch out! (ukhairdressers.com)

Member Name: fizzle

Product:	ukhairdressers.com
Date:	23/07/03 (1528 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use website, Loads of features, Good delivery service

Disadvantages: Not all the sections are particularly useful, Products are aimed more at professional hairdressers

I believe Dooyoo should come with some explicit warnings attached. The most important being that regular use of this site can seriously cost you money. Well, it certainly seems to cost me money anyway. I keep reading wonderful reviews extolling the virtues of simply must have products which always leave me thinking "well, I simply must have that product".

This is what happened to me when I finished a reading a great review on HairTools Ceramic Hair Straighteners (by Goldilox). After reading the review I was certain that this was what my fly away, mind of its own, generally drive me mad hair needed. A pair of hair straighteners that would leave my hair lovely and smooth. Five minutes ago I hadn't realised how badly I needed this product - phew it's lucky that I had Dooyoo.

Now just to make it easy for me to part with my hard earned cash, Goldilox had helpfully suggested in her review (I don't mean to be sexist but I'm guessing Goldilox is a female) that I buy my straighteners from www.ukhairdressers.co.uk as they tended to be cheaper. Ever obedient, I dutifully went to check this site out, credit card at the ready.

On arriving at the site, the first thing that struck me was the pastel colour scheme. The site is two tone, soft black text with baby pink headers and boxes. The baby pink colour scheme reminded me of the rather old fashioned hairdressers in my hometown; this image is reinforced by the old fashioned font in the site's brand name. However, everything was very clear to read and there were no annoying pop up ads appearing every two seconds.

A quick glance at the content on the homepage revealed to me that this was a veritable playground for hair styling fans. There's a style gallery, a virtual makeover/hairstyle room, a database for finding hair salons and a "crisis measures" section (I was hoping that I wouldn't be checking this out as a result of burning my hair with my new
straighteners).

There's loads more - horoscopes and news (the hot off the press news when I visited was "how to use your straightening iron" - they must have known I was coming). There's also a handy "Ask the Experts" section and useful styling tips.

There was an intriguing link entitled "Revenge" which of course I had to click on. For those of you who are also curious, Revenge gives you the opportunity to manipulate a celebrity"s image so that they end up looking like rather less attractive (I was rather heavy handed with the controls and poor Jennifer Aniston ended up looking like a Salvador Dali clock face). I think I failed to appreciate the point of this feature but some people might like it.

However, enough of these distractions, this wasn't why I had come to the site. I was on a serious mission. I had come to SHOP! Luckily enough, on the homepage, there is a big link to their "Online Store" and impatiently I clicked on it.

The store is very easy to navigate around. On the left hand side there is a menu of all the main products: straighteners, hairdryers, brushes etc (these are accompanied by handy pictures, in case like me, you don't know the difference between a waving iron and a curling iron - all I know is they're different to a brush!).

At the top of the page is a pink banner, listing all the major product brands. This was handy for me because I already knew I wanted some straighteners by the company HairTools so I simply clicked on the HairTools link. This brought up the exact product I wanted straight away.

There is a clear picture of each product, with a detailed description telling you about the specifications etc. There are also links from the product description to helpful features such as "What temperature would suit my hair?" and "How do I use my straighteners properly?".

Particularly useful is t
he comparison table, which allows you to compare the product you've selected with all similar products on the site. A quick glance at the chart lets you compare the make, price, features, size and suitability for your hair type. I thought this was a really good feature.

Anyway, back to business. I added my straighteners to my cyber shopping basket (my particular purchase included a free bottle of Infratreat Oil - not quite sure what that was exactly but I love anything that's free). Postage and packaging is free on the site which is something I always like, that way you can see what you are paying for straightway without waiting till you get to the checkout.

However, in the delivery notes it said you should allow two weeks for delivery, well impatient lass that I am, I wanted to have them straight way. Recklessly blowing caution to the wind I selected the guaranteed next day delivery option (this costs an additional five pounds).

I breezed through the checkout without any problems (it says that the site is on a secure server and transactions are coded using an encryption process to keep them safe - this is always good to hear although I don't understand a word of it).

After completing my transaction I received a confirmation email. Later in the day I received an email telling me my order had been despatched. I was slightly worried at this point because it said in the email that it had been despatched via 2nd Class Royal Mail. Now unless Royal Mail had dramatically improved their service, I didn't think my purchase was going to be arriving the next day.

I promptly reached for the phone and phoned their order line (there was no way they were going to swizzle me out of my 5 pounds). The phone was answered immediately (no annoying call waiting) and an assistant looked up my details and assured me my product would be arriving the next morning. I was highly dubious but meekly said "thank you" and de
cided I would be straight back on the phone the following day if there was no sign of it. My doubts were ill founded as it arrived by nine o'clock the next morning. What a great service!

In conclusion I think this is a wonderful website. The prices are reasonable (I did a bit of shopping around to compare the price of my product before buying it) and it seems to offer quite a wide range of professional brand names (the only one I had heard of was BabyLiss but I'm not very knowledgeable about the hairdressing world).

In addition to this, the site is very quick and easy to use. Although I doubt I?ll be going back to check out the hot hairdressing news or to manipulate some more celebrity faces, I would definitely use the online shop again if there was something I needed (there's also a feature which allows you to upload a photo of yourself and then add different hairstyles which might be worth a visit on a quiet day at work!).

****

One note of caution, I think the products in the online store are aimed at professional hairdressers - the items I ordered had the worrying order "for professional use only" emblazoned on them. I don?t think this is too much of a problem but do make sure you read all instructions very carefully before use.

Summary: