Hannah Pool: Let me get one thing straight: I rather liked Beckham's braids - while they lasted.

Hannah Pool: Much of what makes me buy a beauty product has little do with the product itself. After all, when it comes to face creams and the like, although you can try testers, you tend not to do so until you've got the thing home.

Hannah Pool: Breaking out of your usual colour palette is like trying to give up any other addiction.

Hannah Pool: The Monday after next may be a bank holiday, but rather than try anything rash such as a trip to the seaside or a spot of DIY, I'll be making my annual pilgrimage to the Afro Hair & Beauty Show.

Hannah Pool: I tried a serum. And now I'm hooked.

Hannah Pool: Men have always lagged behind women in the style stakes (letters to the usual address). This is just as true for black men as it is for their white counterparts. But finally, it seems, black men are catching up - well, at least in terms of hair.

Hannah Pool: not only can Beauty Imaging System, at SK-II in Selfridges, London, tell how your skin is likely to age, but it compares it with that of other women of your age and generic ethnicity (I say generic because the machine was clearly designed with other markets in mind - I had to plump for African-American), then it gives you a mark out of a 100.