fashion

By LESLEY KENNEDY
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A $400 haircut? Preposterous! declared a barber in the Quad-City Times. Crazy! claimed a stylist in the Arizona Republic.

Actually, not all that surprising, say three Denver salon owners when asked if the price paid by presidential candidate John Edwards for a couple of recent haircuts seemed exorbitant.

The cuts came from Beverly Hills, Calif., stylist Joseph Torrenueva, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Torrenueva reportedly took his styling skills out of the salon and to Edwards. Torrenueva's regular in-salon fee is $150.

That sounds about right, says Sara DeLuca, co-owner of Berenices, in Denver. A man's cut at the Congress Park salon averages around $40.

"It's industry standard that whatever the stylist or artist charges on site is typically double the salon charge, and sometimes there's a travel fee added, as well," she says. "Factoring in a 20 percent tip, that doesn't seem insane."

Charlie Price, co-owner of Click, also in Denver, was recently named the 2007 International Stylist of the Year by The Canadian Mirror Awards. His styling resume includes bold-faced names from Naomi Campbell to Joan Rivers.

His charge for a haircut (which includes a straight shampoo, cut and style): $105 in the salon and $210 to travel to you. That price is the same for men and women.

"It's every bit as big of a deal to cut a man's hair as it is to cut a woman's," Price says. "Men are extremely vain, but they don't want to talk about it. I don't believe in charging different prices for men and women. It's equal rights."

Matthew Morris, owner of Matthew Morris Salon in Denver, says a $400 haircut is totally feasible.

"If it's a life-changing thing, it's worth $400," he says. "If done the right way, a haircut can make a man look like he's worth more."

Morris charges $95 for haircuts for both men and women.

"Men sometimes take a lot longer because the hair's shorter and it shows every little cut," he says. "With longer hair, a blow dry can hide a lot of things."

Whatever the charge, it's time to move on, Price says.

"We need to stop getting offended by everything all the time," he says. "We have much bigger things to worry about than whether someone paid $400 for a haircut or why Britney Spears shaved her head."

By HELEN MALANI
shopzilla.com
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Prom dress. Penny pinching. The two just don't go hand in hand. So what's a prom-bound teenage girl to do when her perfect prom dress doesn't match her mother's bottom line budget?

You can imagine the estrogen-fueled arguments. So I went online to bring the love back to one family ripped at the (ahem) seams.

Daughter: lover of strapless, figure-hugging, cocktail-length pink gowns, finds her dream dress in a glamour magazine, disregards $300 price tag.

Mother: wants to make her daughter happy at a third of the price, offering $100 for a dress she knows will only be worn once.

Armed with tear sheets from magazines and the responsibility of a young girl's happiness, I go to work on a comparison shopping site looking for the basics. I enter "pink," "formal dress," "prom dress." Results are hardly surprising. This time of year, expect anything marked "prom" to be at its peak price.

Next, I let the creative juices flow and I start searching keywords like "cocktail dress," "evening dress" and the magic word the fashion industry hopes you never learn: "juniors." Whenever you're looking for apparel of any sort, be it formal, casual, or trendy, the Junior Department in a retail store is a wonderland of steals. Oftentimes those departments copy the latest looks and drop the price points to make them teen-friendly.

Once I enter the world of junior dresses, I narrow my search to specific attributes, or features. It's back to "strapless" and "pink, and now I bring in mom's mandate of $100. Searching by attributes is a nice shortcut to what your true options really are.

Since I like happy endings as much as anyone, I arrive at one with the discovery of a pink strapless Ruby Rox princess-lace, cocktail-length dress at Nordstrom.com, with the fairytale price of just $78. That is the retail price, my friends.

Daughter: falls instantly in love with the Ruby Rox dress, and naturally, never looks at the price (true story).

Mother: loves the sweet look of the dress and falls even more deeply in love with the price.

The moral of this story? Be creative in your search terminology, shop by attributes, and prepare to have some money leftover for shoes.

Helen Malani is the chief shopping expert for Shopzilla.com, an E.W. Scripps company, and the largest comparison shopping search engine on the Web. For more columns visit www.scrippsnews.com

By ARTHUR I. CYR
Scripps Howard News Service
Thursday, May 10, 2007

The election of French free market presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has been welcomed by many Americans, including the Bush White House. The assumption that this leader of the political right in France is automatically right for U.S. interests is commonly held -- and wrong.

American media focus heavily on Sarkozy campaign promises to privatize industry and energize security-conscious workers. His party, the Union for a Popular Movement, is also the party of retiring French President Jacques Chirac. The new president's emphasis on change created distance from his relatively unpopular predecessor, but he also did not advocate a shift in France's stance toward Iraq.

Sarkozy tough talk contrasted with Socialist Party nominee Segolene Royal, who stressed softer themes of caring for those in need and values beyond all-consuming competition in the marketplace.

Pointedly, however, she did not stress socialism's traditional twins of class warfare and economic nationalization. Steadily expanding long-term prosperity mutes the former, and state enterprises are viewed more with frustration than fascination.

Domestic policies in France, however, have relatively little direct impact in the U.S., while foreign policy is a different matter. We should remember, first, that France is among our most durable allies. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin played an historic role in wooing and winning French public as well as royal opinion, which led to crucial military as well as financial assistance.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 French aircraft joined those of other NATO allies in patrolling the skies over North America. The struggle against al Qaeda and the Taliban remains a comprehensive collective enterprise, authorized and supported by the United Nations as well as the NATO alliance. This commitment transcends party lines in France.

Second, conservative regimes in Paris have often challenged Washington. Throughout the 1950's, generally cooperative socialist governments in Paris facilitated American leadership in Europe and elsewhere.

More recently, long-time Socialist President Francois Mitterrand was pragmatic in dealing with the United States. President Ronald Reagan's autobiography, "An American Life," portrays Mitterrand and his wife essentially in warm terms, with emphasis on how interpersonal rapport overcame specific disagreements on trade and deployment of missiles in Europe.

By contrast, France's conservatives have often been self-consciously independent of U.S. policy. Most notably, President Charles de Gaulle was at odds with the Kennedy administration on every major strategic policy, including French nuclear weapons, the future of European integration, and the very structure of NATO.

De Gaulle was also in power during Eisenhower's second term, but similar clashes were avoided. Ike developed reasonably good rapport with the sometimes insufferable French leader during the Second World War. While planning the Normandy invasion, American and British air commanders argued against heavy bombing that would kill many French civilians. Gen. Eisenhower was able to turn to Gen. de Gaulle for crucial support. Both deemed such bombing essential for success of the inherently very risky sea-based invasion.

American leaders should avoid advising our French friends on their domestic affairs, while oversimplifying their politics, and instead focus on rebuilding our alliance relationship, badly strained by the invasion of Iraq.

(Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of "After the Cold War" (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He can be reached at acyr(at)carthage.edu)

By PAIGE HERMAN and MARIE KUECHEL
newbeauty.com
Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Redness

Often caused by acne, broken capillaries, sunburn, stress, diet or the result of a cosmetic procedure like a facial or chemical peel, redness in the skin is the body's way of sending a message that it is fighting inflammation and irritation from within.

While it can be soothed with over-the-counter skincare or camouflaged with green-tinted makeup, light-based treatments such as Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and GentleWaves are effective for reducing persistent redness. IPL delivers a series of light pulses that can feel like rubber-band snaps, with no side effects or downtime.

GentleWaves involves sitting in front of a light source, and this comes with no discomfort, side effects or downtime as well. Both stimulate your skin's natural rejuvenation process, so as an added bonus you'll also see a reduction in fine lines as well as irregular pigmentation. Starting at about $100 per treatment

Rosacea

While the cause of rosacea remains a mystery and we have yet to find a cure, medical help can provide relief from the symptoms. Affecting more than 14 million Americans, this skin condition manifests as redness of the face and is sometimes accompanied by acne-like symptoms.

Over-the-counter and prescription options

Many dermatologists find that starting with over-the-counter lotions containing sodium sulfacetamide may be helpful for treating symptoms of rosacea, although patients with hypersensitivity to sulfa antibiotics and women who are pregnant or nursing should not try this method. Depending on your individual symptoms, a dermatologist can also recommend myriad prescription treatment options, ranging from retinoids and azelaic acid gels to oral and topical antibiotics. Newer, low-dose oral tetracycline antibiotics as well as long-acting doxycyline and metacycline antibiotics are other ways to get your skin out of the red zone by alleviating inflammation. May be covered by insurance, depending on your provider and plan

Light-based treatment

For patients whose schedules don't allow for downtime, light-based treatments eliminate flushing since the specific light spectrums in IPL, pulsed-dye and diode treatments can attack and neutralize the redness of the vessels associated with rosacea.

These light-based treatments are fast becoming the primary rosacea treatment because they are generally downtime-free, although topical and oral medications may need to be continued to manage symptoms and sustain remission.

IPL is generally recommended in a series of three treatments spaced six weeks apart, and maintenance treatments may be necessary every few months to sustain results. Much like any IPL or diode, you'll feel a quick snap and possibly heat. The treated vessels will darken, or look like a bruise, before eventually fading away, but this can be covered with makeup. You may need more than one treatment. Fair skin can develop temporary dark staining or a brown spot after the vessel or vein is treated. This is the result of blood being absorbed back into the tissue and may take several weeks to months to fade away. Starting at about $200 per treatment, may be covered by insurance

Paige Herman and Marie Kuechel are editors of New Beauty, a semi-annual magazine about cosmetic enhancement. Reach them at editors (at)newbeauty.com. For more columns visit www.scrippsnews.com