Spraying hairspray on the face to avoid smudging and sleeping on your back to prevent wrinkles are among the weird and wonderful beauty secrets employed by women, it emerged yesterday.
Other tricks of the trade include placing cold teaspoons on puffy eyes to sooth swelling and spraying perfume on a hairbrush to give the hair an alluring scent.
Researchers who carried out a detailed study into beauty regimes, habits and rituals found four out of ten women utilise goods found in kitchen cupboards to look good.
Smearing toothpaste on spots and blemishes and sleeping in bed in socks full of moisturiser are also common.
The extreme lengths to which women go to were revealed following a comprehensive study involving 2,000 women by dairy drink Modern Milk.
Yesterday a spokeswoman said: ''Some of the beauty treatments in this list are more extreme than others and it’s clear the lengths some women will go to to look beautiful.
‘’Having some little hints and tricks up your sleeve is one thing, but trying to constantly sleep on your back to avoid wrinkles or spraying your face with hair spray are quite severe.
‘’We wanted to poll women to find out what alternative beauty treatments they use and whether people make use of ingredients from kitchen cupboards.
"The age old trick of putting cold teabags or cucumber on the eyes to reduce puffiness is still used today."
The research revealed the majority of women stick to tried and tested beauty rituals passed down through the family or gleaned from female friends and colleagues.
They include drinking two litres of bottled water every day and drinking a glass of milk or two when possible to give the body a calcium boost.
The survey also revealed that tomatoes (74%) salmon (59%), olive oil (56%), oats (54%) and avocado (40%) were foods that women consider an important part of diet in terms of beauty. Top of their list was that old favourite milk, which 77% of women in the UK believe is the most important beauty food, especially when it comes to their skin, hair and nails.
This was pleasing news to TV Doctor Dr Hilary Jones, a big fan of milk, who believes women shouldn’t be wasting money on cosmetics but spending it on foods that are rich in calcium and essential nutrients.
Dr Hilary said: "You need milk in your diet for health and as an additional bonus it has beauty benefits and doesn’t cost the earth. I support supermarkets like Tesco putting really great offers on beauty foods such as Modern Milk, which contain added vitamins and minerals and are one of life’s natural beauty products".
He added: "Milk is the nearest thing you can find to a totally complete food containing, as it does, a perfect balance of protein, minerals, vitamins, essential fats and carbohydrates".
Along with traditional methods, the study also revealed a plethora of more modern unconventional habits undertaken by women in the privacy of their bathrooms.
It found many shave their legs with hair conditioner, WHY?????
Others admitted to splashing lemon juice on their hair in the hope it will develop a lighter tint when exposed to the sunlight.
Brushing hair with talcum powder to freshen it up and using lipstick on the cheeks when blusher runs out also emerged as common tricks.
Vaseline is regularly used to smooth out frizzy hair and many women also use toothpaste to soothe insect bites.
Among the other weird and wonderful techniques was pinching cheeks before entering nightclubs, bars or restaurants to give them a radiant red glow, using tea tree oil on ingrowing hairs and steaming the face in herb water.
From today, 26th October, Modern Milk will be encouraging women everywhere to start drinking milk by offering a 50p voucher on their Facebook page
www.facebook.com/ModernMilk. The voucher will be valid until the 9th November. For more details visit
www.modernmilk.co.uk.