The answer to that question is, I would imagine, probably not. However, the Bird Poo Face Mask is not too far removed from doing exactly that.

A Nightingale - the bird whose droppings the facial solution is derived from

It originated in Japan, when Geisha Girls found that Nightingale droppings helped keep their skin clear from blemishes and spots (although why they were putting bird poo on their faces in the first place is another question entirely!).

The treatment is apparently popular amongst the A-list, with Victoria and David Beckham having reportedly long been fans, alongside the likes of Tom Cruise.

The droppings are collected on the Japanese island of Kyushu, and dried under an UltraViolet light. It is then mixed with Rice Bran and water in the spa, before being applied to the face as a mask.

The treatment is said to leave your skin glowing and refreshed, as well as unclogging pores and smoothing fine lines. However – at a price tag of £135 per treatment – for a facial, it’s not cheap.

There are vast numbers of facial treatments and ‘miracle cures’ available for a wide variety of different skin ailments, and if you’re looking for a treatment that works, you may not know what to choose.

The best starting point is to decide what your main area of concern is. If it is just that your skin is looking a little tired and dehydrated, and in need of a bit of a ‘pick-me-up’, then the bird poo facial may just be for you. But if you’d rather not travel to London, or the £135 price tag puts you off, why not try a HydraFacial? This has all the same benefits the bird poo facial boasts, but without the guano – and at just £100 per treatment will make a considerably smaller dent in your wallet.

However, there is just no getting away from the fact that there really is only so much that a superficial facial treatment like this can really achieve. If your main area of concern is frown lines, pigmentation, thread veins or acne, then a facial alone will not be enough.

The best thing to do is book a consultation to talk about all the options, and allow us to help you make an informed decision about what is best for your skin.

Justin Bieber is best known for his particular brand of Americanised teeny pop, his crazed fan base (also known as the ‘Beliebers’) and, more recently, his inflammatory comments in the guestbook at the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam.

However there are a number of people – ourselves included – who also avidly follow his ever growing tattoo collection.

Just some of Justin Bieber's tattoos

For such a youngun’, Bieber has certainly amassed an impressive collection of ink, rivalling many seasoned tattoo lovers. There’s the praying hands on his calf, adorned with roses some months after it was initially etched. Then there’s the Greek symbol for Christ on his left forearm – understated by comparison – and the sketch of Jesus’ face on his other leg.

Bieber, a deeply religious individual, has a number of very symbolic tattoos. But they are not all dedicated to his love of God.

What about the owl on his forearm? Or the seagull on his hip? His debut album title on his forearm? His mother’s birth year in Roman numerals? A native American chief on his shoulder? All of these, and more, adorn various parts of this youngster’s body – and he shows no signs of stopping.

His most recent addition is an angel on the top of his left wrist which bears a striking resemblance to a photograph of his on-off girlfriend Selena Gomez.  Obviously, doing what we do, we see a lot of people wanting to have tattoos of ex-partners’ names removed. Sometimes we even see portraits. The good news for Justin is that, should he change his mind about his ink in future, it should be relatively straightforward to remove being mostly black ink and shading.

However, Bieber’s growing collection of tattoos raises more serious questions. His first tattoo was etched onto his body, following family tradition, at just 16 years old. It is illegal to tattoo anyone under the age of 18 in the UK – but the majority of Bieber’s fans are young and impressionable teenage girls.

A young fan shows off her newly inked Justin Bieber tattoo

The decision to get a tattoo should not be taken lightly. You are making a decision to permanently change your body – with the process of tattoo removal often proving costly and lengthy.

Whether Justin Bieber will grow to regret any of his tattoos remains to be seen – but our advice when considering a tattoo would always be to think long and hard before going ahead. In our experience, an individual who has amassed so many tattoos by the tender age of nineteen will almost certainly grow to dislike at least one of them.

After all – would you make the same decisions now that your nineteen year old self did?

To find about more about tattoo removal – click here.

I’m back! I’ve not done a blog for a while as really things have been ticking along nicely on the hair front, but I thought I should really do little update as it’s now been over a year since my transplant!

Andrew and wife Jane on a recent trip to Drayton Manor

I can’t quite believe it has actually been over a year, it’s just gone so fast, they do say your life speeds up when you have children and it certainly has for me. Since the transplant last April things have been going really well and the fact that the procedure worked so well has given me the confidence to try things I’ve always wanted to. Most recently I’ve rediscovered my passion for boxing and I took part in a charity boxing match, sounds crazy I know and my wife wasn’t keen but I was determined to do it. I did 10 weeks intensive boxing training and took part in a fight in front of a large audience – raising money for Help for Heroes and improving my fitness! It was a great event and I’m pleased to be able to say that I won, and more importantly no one was hurt in the process.

My confidence in my role as patient co-ordinator at Mapperley Park Clinic has also grown as I have been talking to an increasing number of men interested in having hair transplants and am pleased that my advice has encouraged some of them to have the confidence to go for it! We’re now trying to talk to more hairdressers and barbers about transplants with a view to them referring suitable candidates, it’s exciting to be able to speak to my peers about this as I’m very passionate about it and firmly believe it is something many of their clients would be really interested to hear about – I know mine are!

I’m still planning on a second transplant for my crown area which I’m hoping to do sometime next year, knowing how well my front area has taken I’m really excited about this. So I guess I’ll sign off for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my journey and that it’s given you some insight into the life of a hair transplant recipient!

I’ll write again in six months. Until then, if you need any questions answered, why not call the clinic on 0115 9692323?

Sometimes it seems that barely a week goes by without some bizarre new story cropping up in the gossip magazines about what facial treatments the celebrities are reportedly favouring.

The Vampire Lift is one such bizarre story – but it’s not all that new.

Kim Kardashian after undergoing a Vampire Facelift

The treatment – also known as Dracula Therapy – involves having blood taken from your own arm, spun in a machine to separate it into red blood cells, serum and platelets, enriched with amino acids and vitamins, before being reinjected back into your skin to plump it up.

The treatment is reportedly favoured by Kim Kardashian and Anna Friel – as there is little ‘down-time’ associated with it.

Dr. Daniel Sister, the first doctor in the UK to offer the treatment, says: “It’s safe because you’ll never have a reaction to your own blood, in the way that you might with BOTOX or filler. It’s popular with women who don’t want a facelift that involves downtime.”

It’s certainly an interesting concept. Dr. Sister claims that by combining our own blood with Vitamin C and Amino Acids (proteins that help to build collagen), damaged skin cells are encouraged to repair themselves more effectively – thereby rejuvenating and refreshing the skin.

Of course, stimulating collagen production is the ultimate endgame of any rejuvantion treatment, and can be achieved in a wide variety of different, and less invasive ways. The Nlite laser, for example, stimulates the skin’s natural collagen production without breaking the skin.

There are also deeper resurfacing treatments like the CO2 laser which work by removing surface layers of skin to a specified depth – a treatment which Dr. Sister is actually using in conjunction with the Vampire lift.

And it also should be noted that the reactions to BOTOX and Filler mentioned by Dr. Sister are extremely rare. In the time that we have been carrying out these treatments we have not seen any serious reactions to these products and only a small handful of minor skin reactions.

The main thing to remember is that there are different horses for different courses, and just because something is being endorsed by celebrities or splashed all over the tabloids, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the right treatment for you.

The best piece of advice we at The Mapperley Park Clinic can give is to do your research. Make sure you are going to a trained provider who knows what they are doing. Care Quality Commission registration, although no longer obligatory, remains a good benchmark of quality of care.

Above all, trust your instinct. If something makes you feel uncomfortable, walk away.

We all frown from time to time – some more than others – and we all know that the long-term effects of a lifetime of frowning are those pesky wrinkles…

Patterns of facial movement are determined in early life

Patterns of facial movement are determined in early life – as we age and our skin loses elasticity, it stops snapping back into place, and we develop wrinkles over the muscles.

Some people aren’t bothered by this, while some choose to have the muscles relaxed with Botulinum Toxin, thereby reducing the wrinkle and giving the face a more youthful appearance.

However, recent research has suggested that the wrinkle-busting treatment may be doing more than just making us look younger – it might actually be affecting our moods.

Researchers at the university of Wisconsin asked a group of 40 volunteers to read out a series of statements ranging from happy to sad, to angry, before and after their BOTOX treatment. When reading out the negative statements, those who had received the treatment took slightly longer to do so after they had had their treatment. You can read more about this here.

So it seems that, if the ability to frown is removed, then our experience of the emotions that are associated with frowning is lessened – which makes negative emotions seem rather like a chicken and egg situation…

Isn’t the brain a funny thing?

You’ve probably heard of ‘Vajazzling’ – the craze for decorated Vaginas originating in Essex…

Tittooing - the latest aesthetic craze

And you probably know someone who has had semi-permanent make-up, perhaps their eyebrows, or maybe even the lip-line?

The latest craze to sweep the Socialite Crew is nipple tattooing – nicknamed ‘tittooing’ – and word is spreading.

Of course, medical tattooing of the nipples has been around for many years, usually used after a woman has had to undergo reconstructive surgery of the breast, so it is nothing new. However, the treatment has recently become popular with young, healthy women in the quest for ‘perfect boobs’.

Of course, doing what we do here at Mapperley Park Clinic, it hasn’t escaped our notice that younger and younger women seem to be seeking cosmetic procedures. It is a phenomenon that has been becoming more and more apparent over recent years as the media has more of an influence over young people and their body image.

Every breast is different, and there is no such thing as a ‘perfect pair’ – indeed – as we all know – beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Aesthetic qualities such as asymmetry, difference in nipple colour, size, pertness, all vary hugely from one woman to another. The images portrayed in the media are often not a true representation, so to long for your breasts to look like the page three model’s is a bit of a false economy…

Having said all of this, there is no doubt that certain women can benefit hugely from the confidence that medical tattooing can bring them, but you should approach a treatment like this with caution. Ensure you are seeking treatment from a reputable practitioner who specialises in medical tattooing, and not just a regular tattooist. Do your research, and make sure you know all the facts before you embark on the treatment.

It’s also advisable to bear in mind that fashions change – darker nipples might not be the fashion in three or four years time, and semi-permanent make-up inks don’t always fade in a predictable way, and are difficult to remove with lasers, should you change your mind.