Are you a vintage fanatic? Do you wish you were born 50 or 60 years earlier? Are you obsessed with 40s and 50s hair dos? Then there’s a chance you might find the place for you without a time machine.
On Columbia Road, one of the loveliest places I’ve recently discovered, the Powder Room keeps on charming more and more visitors. As you walk along the street, you notice it straight away: it’s a small shop all furnished in pink and red and it makes you think of candy. The girls who work there are all dressed and made up in a retro style and, if you have a treatment in there, they will offer you some tea with some lovely pink biscuits.
Despite being a very stylish boutique (selling high-quality products such as Mavala and Paul&Joe), The Powder Room’s prices are quite reasonable. They don’t have student discounts, but treatments such as an Eyebrow Re-Shape cost only £12. It’s at least two pounds less expensive than other places, and the way they re-shape your eyebrows shows you it’s worth it: they’ve been able to give my destroyed and asymmetrical eyebrows a wonderful 50s shape.
What I’ve found really amazing though was the Speedy Hair Do. All you have to do is wash and dry your hair at home and then go to the Powder Room: they’ll do everything else, and in less than half an hour. You just have to tell them which style you want and you’ll go out ready for any 50s party.
Columbia Road is in Shoreditch. You can get there with the bus number 55 from Oxford Circus, getting off at Columbia Road.
Images: Author’s own and Sketchbook