Me and my sister used to read a magazine called
Jackie (1964-1993), published by D.C. Thomson in Dundee. In my mind's eye,
Jackie has
Leslie Ash (wearing a checked shirt) on the cover and a special pullout centrefold of
Leif Garrett (wearing a checked shirt) inside.
Jackie had a splendid, mordant advice column, called
Cathy and Claire, true life photo stories featuring true life (ie boyfriend) dilemmas, and fashion and make-up tips, many of which inserted themselves in my brain so thoroughly that I will never forget them.
never pluck a hair out of a mole
don't brush your hair when it's wet
apply foundation with a sponge
don't wear clashing patterns
horizontal stripes make you look fat
chocolate gives you spots
I was recently invited to an event where the trichologist
Philip Kingsley was going to share his wisdom about hair. I wasn't able to go, but I was longing to be able to ask him about the veracity of some of those
Jackie legends: wash your hair as infrequently as possible (apparently he says the opposite)? Use the hottest water you can bear? These things are modern superstitions. I'll never forget them, but over time I might have worked out that some of them are subject to challenge. Over time I've also added some of my own (from, gasp, other sources):
blot hair with a towel before blow-drying
only condition the ends of your hair, not the roots
dark chocolate contains anti-oxidants and is good for your skin
tomato ketchup contains lycopene (thanks, Men's Health) which ditto
reading a broadsheet newspaper every day is good for your vocabulary (thanks, Mr Campbell)
only floss the teeth you want to keep
Posts
3 comments:
That is beyond spooky - I googled 'Jackie' today because I wanted to see if it was still going.
Me and Poobah used to read Jackie back in the day. I think I still have them all in my mum's attic
I learned a lot from Jackie. I'd be fascinated to read a copy now. I would guess that it's a whole lot more innocent and less celeb-obsessed than teen magazines now. Although Leslie Ash was probably an A-list equivalent then, I had no idea who she was.
Presumably the advice in Jackie never included the instruction to avoid having collagen injected into one's lips.
One of my favourite columnists, and mother of twin boys, Fiona Gibson, used to work for Jackie.
http://www.fionagibson.com/fiona_gibson.html
I think she once said that her job was to make up the readers' letters.
Post a Comment