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Andrew Kay lies back and enjoys a morning of pampering at Enzo in Kemp Town Village

Pampering is something that I came to late in life. When I was younger, grooming meant a comb and a jar of Brylcreem. Not any more. I have taken to it like a duck to water and I have, for the last few years enjoyed many relaxing and therapeutic treatments that have lifted both my spirits and even the bags under my eyes.

I particularly like Enzo in Kemp Town Village because it has a relaxed atmosphere and lacks pretense. The team there has always made it clear that Enzo is a genuinely unisex space and that the treatments on offer are, overall, suitable for men and women. Not that that would worry me, but it does make it a more enjoyable experience to not be made to feel like a square peg…

This visit I was having a massage, facial and manicure. We started with my back and I have to say that delicate hands set about doing a firm job. I have had massages that felt like lethargic tickling and ones that felt like I had been beaten up. Neither effective. This was powerful but sensitive, I knew I was having it and felt great after, but not sore or bruised.

The facial was amazing and intense. I don’t have bad skin and never have had, but really, the effects of this treatment left me glowing and my skin felt refreshed for some time after. I am a big fan of Guinot treatments, they work for me and this Aromatic process really hit the spot.

I managed to slip in a quick but very effective eyelash and eyebrow tint before nipping back upstairs for a manicure. I love my nails looking good and when carefully treated they not only feel great but look smart and in no way feminine.

Three hours later, I leave feeling buffed and blissed out. It’s a treat that I can highly recommend but so can many other regular clients of all ages and walks of life. Enzo is not just a salon, it’s a lifestyle choice for a growing number of happy customers – who believe in feeling good by looking great.

Enzo is now approaching its fourth anniversary and MD stylist Bill Stewart is proud of what they have achieved. Each year he visits his native USA. He returns with new perspectives, new products and stunning new techniques to add to the Enzo experience. They have a loyal client base that returns time and time again to enjoy what has to be one of the city’s friendliest and least intimidating hair and beauty specialists. Bill also sees that it is vital for him to stay at the cutting edge by continuing to attend training and educational workshops – this is something that all the team are encouraged to do.

They constantly update the services that they offer and their strong transatlantic connections mean that they supply an excellent range of new products that are hard to find elsewhere. Their website also offers an excellent online shopping facility for customers who do not have time to pop into the shop. They are also specialists in Japanese hair straightening and hair-up for weddings and special occasions. Enzo is also a leading hair colour salon, specialising in multidimensional colours (highlights and lowlights), natural coverage of grey and corrective colour. Using the finest products available, clients leave the salon with great ideas, professional products and expert tips on how to maintain their looks at home.

Much as I love my time at Enzo, I also wanted to talk to some of their regular clients. In the salon I found two women who are Enzo lovers and I asked themn what it is that makes this place so special for them. Their team strive to make every visit exceptional. Exceptional services. Exceptional results. Exceptional attention.

Candida Warrington

Candida is a vibrant woman in her thirties. She has been coming to Enzo for eight months for a variety of hair and beauty treatments.

“I was introduced to Enzo by my mother, who had discovered Bill, and we both come now. I have very, very curly hair and it was important to find someone who knows how to cut it. I have spent years tying my hair up after disappointing cuts but now I wear it down all the time because it always looks great. I also use their new line of Bumble & Bumble hair products from America, which are great, and certainly maximize and define the curl in my hair and keep it looking good.

“Enzo is a friendly and happy environment to spend some relaxing time in and they are all so good at what they do. I come every six weeks now for my hair and I look forward to it, nice coffee, home-made cookies – I look forward to sitting back and getting pampered.”

Candida is a woman in her mid thirties and able to afford a little luxury in her life. She runs her own business Hounds About Town, looking after peoples pets when they are at work.

Susan Marlowe

Susan Marlowe is a Hotelier and propietor of Paskins Town House, one of the citys chicest small hotels. Now in her mid fifties and a busy working professional she still manages to make time to come to Enzo. “I need to look good at reception and Enzo make sure that I do. I have manicures, pedicures, facials… the full works. I come at least twice a month. And I have been coming since they opened which is nearly four years. It’s great that they are right on my doorstep, very convenient.

They really care about my hair and looking after it well. It is really important for me that my hair looks great. I also have really curly hair, like Candida, but I love having it straightened. I really don’t mind which of the stylists cuts my hair at Enzo, they all seem to understand what it requires. Once, when I had been unwell, one of the Enzo team saw me in the street and realised that I was feeling a bit down. They gave me a treatment and styled my hair for free. It made me feel so good that they cared that much. Enzo is such a relaxed and friendly place, I really enjoy coming here, and I love the cookies.”

Opening times – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:
9:00 am - 6:00pm, Wednesday: late evening open until
7:30 pm and Saturday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
16 St George’s Road, Kemp Town Village, Brighton,
01273 622 200, www.enzohairandbeauty.com | Map

Andrew Kay lies back and enjoys a morning of pampering at Enzo in Kemp Town Village

Pampering is something that I came to late in life. When I was younger, grooming meant a comb and a jar of Brylcreem. Not any more. I have taken to it like a duck to water and I have, for the last few years enjoyed many relaxing and therapeutic treatments that have lifted both my spirits and even the bags under my eyes.

I particularly like Enzo in Kemp Town Village because it has a relaxed atmosphere and lacks pretense. The team there has always made it clear that Enzo is a genuinely unisex space and that the treatments on offer are, overall, suitable for men and women. Not that that would worry me, but it does make it a more enjoyable experience to not be made to feel like a square peg…

This visit I was having a massage, facial and manicure. We started with my back and I have to say that delicate hands set about doing a firm job. I have had massages that felt like lethargic tickling and ones that felt like I had been beaten up. Neither effective. This was powerful but sensitive, I knew I was having it and felt great after, but not sore or bruised.

The facial was amazing and intense. I don’t have bad skin and never have had, but really, the effects of this treatment left me glowing and my skin felt refreshed for some time after. I am a big fan of Guinot treatments, they work for me and this Aromatic process really hit the spot.

I managed to slip in a quick but very effective eyelash and eyebrow tint before nipping back upstairs for a manicure. I love my nails looking good and when carefully treated they not only feel great but look smart and in no way feminine.

Three hours later, I leave feeling buffed and blissed out. It’s a treat that I can highly recommend but so can many other regular clients of all ages and walks of life. Enzo is not just a salon, it’s a lifestyle choice for a growing number of happy customers – who believe in feeling good by looking great.

Enzo is now approaching its fourth anniversary and MD stylist Bill Stewart is proud of what they have achieved. Each year he visits his native USA. He returns with new perspectives, new products and stunning new techniques to add to the Enzo experience. They have a loyal client base that returns time and time again to enjoy what has to be one of the city’s friendliest and least intimidating hair and beauty specialists. Bill also sees that it is vital for him to stay at the cutting edge by continuing to attend training and educational workshops – this is something that all the team are encouraged to do.

They constantly update the services that they offer and their strong transatlantic connections mean that they supply an excellent range of new products that are hard to find elsewhere. Their website also offers an excellent online shopping facility for customers who do not have time to pop into the shop. They are also specialists in Japanese hair straightening and hair-up for weddings and special occasions. Enzo is also a leading hair colour salon, specialising in multidimensional colours (highlights and lowlights), natural coverage of grey and corrective colour. Using the finest products available, clients leave the salon with great ideas, professional products and expert tips on how to maintain their looks at home.

Much as I love my time at Enzo, I also wanted to talk to some of their regular clients. In the salon I found two women who are Enzo lovers and I asked themn what it is that makes this place so special for them. Their team strive to make every visit exceptional. Exceptional services. Exceptional results. Exceptional attention.

Candida Warrington

Candida is a vibrant woman in her thirties. She has been coming to Enzo for eight months for a variety of hair and beauty treatments.

“I was introduced to Enzo by my mother, who had discovered Bill, and we both come now. I have very, very curly hair and it was important to find someone who knows how to cut it. I have spent years tying my hair up after disappointing cuts but now I wear it down all the time because it always looks great. I also use their new line of Bumble & Bumble hair products from America, which are great, and certainly maximize and define the curl in my hair and keep it looking good.

“Enzo is a friendly and happy environment to spend some relaxing time in and they are all so good at what they do. I come every six weeks now for my hair and I look forward to it, nice coffee, home-made cookies – I look forward to sitting back and getting pampered.”

Candida is a woman in her mid thirties and able to afford a little luxury in her life. She runs her own business Hounds About Town, looking after peoples pets when they are at work.

Susan Marlowe

Susan Marlowe is a Hotelier and propietor of Paskins Town House, one of the citys chicest small hotels. Now in her mid fifties and a busy working professional she still manages to make time to come to Enzo. “I need to look good at reception and Enzo make sure that I do. I have manicures, pedicures, facials… the full works. I come at least twice a month. And I have been coming since they opened which is nearly four years. It’s great that they are right on my doorstep, very convenient.

They really care about my hair and looking after it well. It is really important for me that my hair looks great. I also have really curly hair, like Candida, but I love having it straightened. I really don’t mind which of the stylists cuts my hair at Enzo, they all seem to understand what it requires. Once, when I had been unwell, one of the Enzo team saw me in the street and realised that I was feeling a bit down. They gave me a treatment and styled my hair for free. It made me feel so good that they cared that much. Enzo is such a relaxed and friendly place, I really enjoy coming here, and I love the cookies.”

Opening times – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:
9:00 am - 6:00pm, Wednesday: late evening open until
7:30 pm and Saturday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
16 St George’s Road, Kemp Town Village, Brighton,
01273 622 200, www.enzohairandbeauty.com | Map

Hollywood A-lister, Patrick Bergin, brings Tinseltown to local Rottingdean pub

If you fancy a chance of some real Hollywood A-list star spotting, head off to a certain pub on a Tuesday night in Rottingdean and you’re more than likely to bump into the Irish actor Patrick Bergin.

The swarthily handsome star made his name opposite Julia Roberts in Sleeping With The Enemy, as the lead in Robin Hood and as the baddie in Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. And he’s been making five or six films a year since in various countries around the world, as well as putting in stints on the stage.

His latest films, due for release this year, include playing a senator in the Swedish movie The Black Pimpernel, Strength and Honour with Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones, and the animated Dominator X which is directed by one Tony Luke. Is that the same Brighton Tony who used to illustrate rather good adult comics?

At the moment he’s shooting Connolly, opposite Peter Mullan and directed by Adrian Dunbar.

So which pub did I say? Ah, well. You’ll just have to do a pub crawl of the village to find out.

Serious roles for Alistair

One of Brighton and Hove’s newest residents, funnyman Alistair McGowan, has been cast as the lead role in The Mikado in the West End at the Gielgud Theatre.

The show opens on Wednesday 30 January and runs until 10 February. The man who made John Motson popular is starring opposite Nichola McAuliffe and the show is the start of a big Gilbert and Sullivan season.

The Big Impression comic, who looked very tanned and slim when I saw him at Victoria Station the other day, has turned his hand to more serious roles, appearing in the BBC’s adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House, and has bought a house in the trendy Seven Dials area.

He has just finished working on his first major film role with the team who made My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Brothers in arms

Gary Marshall, the brains behind one of Brighton’s biggest success stories of recent years, the Guitar, Amp and Keyboards Centre in North Road, which has expanded online (www.gak.co.uk) to become one of the biggest musical retailers in Europe, has just returned from his winter break to find he had a famous footballer as a new neighbour.

Gary, who will be known to many of you as one of the leaders of legendary local ska band The Hot Knives, has a house in one of the landmark developments in Dubai and while putting out the trash he bumped into Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes who lives three doors down. A couple of ‘hellos’ later and the pair are now great buddies. Does this mean the Albion season ticket will be traded in for some prawn sandwiches, Gazza?

A fond farewell

And finally a sad farewell to Mike Howard, one of The Argus’s critics, who died recently. A kind man, he’ll be remembered in these quarters for – as well as his reviews – his flamboyant taste in cuff links, his love of Inspector Morse, and his ability to successfully concentrate and review a film at midnight in the Odeon, or a play at the Theatre Royal, despite the loud snoring of his fellow critic Bob Shelton. A rare talent indeed.

Jo Brooks is director of Brighton-based PR company JBPR Ltd
01273 622555, www.jb-pr.com

This week Katie is hunting high and low for somewhere to lay her hat

The first flat I got in London was in Notting Hill.

“Oooo, posh!”, cooed my friends, “Notting Hill! Isn’t that where Hugh Grant lives?”

They looked so impressed with me that I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it wasn’t. Or admit that the only reason I’d moved there was because Notting Hill was the only London suburb I’d heard of – Brixton? Greenwich? Stepney Green? I didn’t have aclue. My knowledge of London ended at W1 – so when it came to flat hunting, if it wasn’t next door to Buckingham Place or round the corner from Selfridges, I was lost.

Limiting the choice to Portobello seemed the perfect solution. Even after I’d chosen an area, I was still to discover that finding a flat in London was a minefield waiting to explode; with OCD flat mates, deposit stealing landlords, houses crammed with Australian backpackers and - stranger yet -people who think it is normal to live by a cleaning rota.

“Arrive at the viewing with cash in your pocket”

When I finally found a place that seemed passable, I moved in quick and resolved never to shift again.

This week I got the bad news: my landlady is selling the flat.

And so here I am again, wandering the streets of London with an A-Z and a heart that is heavy with despair.

Finding a flat in London feels like finding a needle in a haystack. A haystack that someone has set on fire and is generously dousing with gasoline, so that every time you do find the needle it burns through your fingertips and you drop it again.

On my house hunt I arrive at my perfect flat time and time again, only to find someone standing there already and handing over money to move in. No parochial procrastinating here, they work quickly in London.

I soon learn that the modus operandi is to arrive at the viewing with the cash deposit already burning a hole in your pocket. I reluctantly withdraw £ican’ttellyouit’ssoshockinglyhigh from the bank and set up a list of viewings for the day.

Carrying large quantities of cash on your person is not so bad when the flats you are viewing are in smart areas of town, say Knightsbridge or Mayfair – mine aren’t.

I troupe through the streets of Mile End, wondering what the word ‘central’ means to an estate agent and trying to avoid eye contact with the gang of ‘yoots’.

following my progress. You can tell you have arrived in the cr*p area of town when people have moved the contents of their sitting room into the front garden. In Mile End you can hardly see the doors for piles of sofas, carpets and the occasional fridge.

Eventually, just as I’m considering building a shelter from my books on the street, my flatmate makes a viewing for a two bedroom cubbyhole near Hoxton Square.

“It’s new, it’s clean, the bedrooms are almost doubles and the area is really cool,” he gushes over the phone – as I run up and down Old Street desperately trying to locate the place. When I arrive, S is frantic, the last people want to take it, and we must act fast. The estate agent needs a decision. It’s the 15th place I’ve been to this week. It’s not near my work, it costs far more than our last place, is a much smaller space, it’s above a shop on a busy road, and I haven’t even had the chance to look inside.

“Yes,” I jump, like I’ve just won the lottery, “we’ll take it!”