Olympia Beauty 18-19 May 2008

Free tickets, worth £15.00, are available for Olympia Beauty if you register online up to 16th May. Click on the link above and complete the form if you want to get tickets. I also have a few registration cards if you want to apply for tickets by post, but you need to get these off by 7th May, so if you want one of these you need to hurry. Details of how to get to the event can be found on the link and as it starts on a Sunday you will not need to miss college.

The Olive Awards

Which company was the winner of the 2007 Olive Awards

(click on link to previous blog post for details) in the beauty, wellness and integrated health industry? Click here to find out the answer to this question and also to see other information such as the salary ranges of respondents. It might be something to keep in mind when you are looking for employment.

Enter The (English) Dragon...

April 23 is St George's Day, the patron saint of England -and a few other countries. If you want to read more have a look at this BBC web page , the St George's Day website ,

or to see details of events around the country try this link

Another English person of note, William Shakespeare, died on this day in 1616, and is said to have also been born on this day. As far as I know he has no connection with St George, but is always worth a mention (in my opinion, anyway).

To tie in with the English/British theme we have a loan copy available of Good hair days: a history of British hairstyling and for anyone who needs information in this area we have just added loan copies of the following books to our stock An Illustrated History of Hairstyles 1830-1930 and Women’s hats, Headdresses and Hairstyles.

Another recently added title is the latest edition of (in the Yellow Zone) First Aid Manual: the authorised manual of St. John Ambulance, St. Andrew's Ambulance Association, and the British Red Cross.

One final mention of things English/British is The British Journal of Sports Medicine a journal which is on several Sports Therapy Reading Lists and available in print and online via Athens in the BMJ Group database. I've just had a query for 'taping and bracing' books, so if you are looking for further information in this area you'll find this journal includes relevant articles.

Online access to journals is always popular, and many of the titles that we subscribe to are available in this way. If you have been checking your online reading lists for recommended titles then you should know which lists The British Journal of Sports Medicine is on- if not, this might be the time to have a look at lists for the modules that you are currently studying to see what is available.

A Reading list title that you might have missed..

Don't forget to check your reading lists (either from Blackboard or the Online Catalogue) as you might miss new additions.

One book that has been added recently to several Salon Management lists is Passion: a salon professionals handbook for building a successful business. Included in this book is advice on how to improve your image, setting goals, marketing and building a team, so it's well worth having a look at. It's a US publication, so you'll need to keep this in mind when reading it, but it's an 'easy-read' and has lots of useful tips. There are copies at both Richmond House and Summer Row- click on the title link for details.

New Reading List book in stock
Good news for anyone who has been asking about a loan copy of
Prevention Practice: a physical therapists guide to health, fitness and wellness
( the 'SLACK', book as many people refer to this title)
There are loan copies now in stock at Richmond House; the Summer Row copies are on order and should be available soon.

Thai New Year - Happy Songkran 2551!

The Thai New Year is held between 13-15th April. For information about rites and rituals, have a look at this website
http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/rites_of_songkran.html .

Anyone who wants to improve their knowledge of Thai Foot massage or Thai Herbal Compress massage can drop in to Richmond House Library where they can watch a DVD on the Library screens. For those who would like to read about Thai Massage, we have a new book on order- The Art of Thai Massage:a step-by-step guide , so don't forget to check the catalogue to see when it's available.

There is also an article in the September 2005 issue of Positive Health on Thai Massage- click on the link to see online or read the article in the Library copy.

Content of Print Journals and Magazines
Although many of the journals that we subscribe to have online access through Athens, the hairdressing and beauty journals and magazines tend not to be available online. If you want to look in a print journal or magazine for articles on a particular subject, it can be time-consuming going through all the different issues. One way to help find what you need is to look on the website of the journal or magazine, as sometimes they have articles on line from previous issues. One title worth looking at is Today's Therapist, (on both the Ethics and Accountability and The Spa Concept reading list) as when you click on the back copies link on the left-hand menu you can see a brief description of articles included in issues going back to February 2006 (although not the full-text of the articles). This may cut down on the time spent looking for the info as you will be able to go straight to the print copy in stock that has the article that you are interested in. However, you can click on the articles link on the same menu to get free access to articles on subjects that will be of interest, although you will need to register first.

Cosmetics Ingredients
For online information about cosmetic ingredients, try looking at Paula Begoun's CosmeticsCop.com website. Paula Begoun is an (US) author of several books on the beauty industry. You can access an ingredient dictionary, and also read reviews, skin care facts and make-up tips and tricks

Hairdressing Students 'cutting it in the workplace'...
There is an interesting feature on the cover of this week's Times Education Supplement, FE Focus about the skills that employers are looking for in college leavers, which may not necessarily be the vocational skills that they have studied on a course.
'Cutting it in the Workplace', implies that students taking hairdressing courses may not actually go on to work in a salon, but that the professionalism, customer care and other skills that they acquire is what employers are looking for. Click on the link if you want to read more or if you call in the Library and read the print copy of 'FE Focus' you'll be able to see the full article, plus a photograph of hairdressing students at work in a training salon.

Online Beauty Magazines
If you like to read journals online, you can download online pdf versions of the current issue of three beauty magazines from the Beautyserve.com website. To access these, click on the Beautyserve link and select the title from the 'magazine downloads' option on the page. The titles available are:

Guild News - trade journal for the beauty industry

Tanning World- professional indoor tanning industry magazine

The Nail File- newspaper for nail technicians