The new Mobile beauty doctors
They’re making thousands of patients feel better – armed with just a hairdryer and a nail file. Meet...
Sindy Chikadaya strides across the foyer of the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in West London wearing a demure navy uniform and carrying her equipment in a large black case.
Other staff take her for a medical professional and, at first, up in the ward, her client asks whether she’s a doctor who’s come to examine her. But Sindy isn’t trained in medicine.
inside that black case are compartments containing not stethoscopes and bandages, but row upon row of gorgeous shades of nail polishes — scarlets and burgundies, neon pinks, pretty pale blues and glittery golds — alongside emery boards, cuticle sticks and pots of luxury hand cream.
Sindy, 23, is a mobile beauty therapist. and the beauty treatments she provides are increasingly recognised as having a genuine therapeutic power that, far from being out of place in a hospital ward, can aid recovery.
Upon seeing the contents of the bag, the patient, in her late 60s and recovering from an operation, immediately relaxes and smiles with pleasure.
it turns out her granddaughter, knowing how fretful she is about the state of her nails, booked a private beauty session — delivered at her nhS bedside — as a surprise.
you might think that having your nails polished, your hair styled or your legs waxed is of little importance when you’re ill, but experts increasingly stress the psychological importance of maintaining normal routines — especially a beauty regime — when recovering from trauma.
indeed, there’s mounting evidence to show that the way you look has significant effects on your physical health.
Milk Beauty is just one of many mobile companies that have sprung up around Britain in the past few years — My Personal Sanctuary, for example, or Blossom & Jasmine, which operate nationwide — ostensibly to cater for busy women with no time to make it to the salon.
What surprised the growing number of beauticians on-the-go, however, was how many visits they ended up making to hospitals or to those convalescing at home.
‘We’ve done dozens of hospital visits,’ says Fiona Mcintosh, who founded mobile beauty company Blow Ltd.
‘it’s an incredibly therapeutic, restorative thing when you’ve had a rough ride in hospital and are just starting to recover to have someone come and do your makeup or blow-dry your hair.
‘Touch is important, too, for people who have had painful procedures or spent weeks viewing their body in terms of its illness.’
‘it’s hugely valuable,’ says psychologist Rose aghdami, who specialises in the quality of resilience and how people overcome difficult life events such as surgery or a hospital stay.
‘Patients often say they’re seen first and foremost as their illness and then only secondly, if at all, as an individual. Treatments such as facials and manicures bring the person back to the forefront.’
Mobile beauty therapists don’t only visit hospitals, they also see patients whose health prevents them from making it to a salon.
The elements of touch and massage inherent in pedicures and facials are known to reduce symptoms including pain and anxiety. But the psychological effects are the most clear-cut.
‘i was on crutches for five weeks after having my foot run over by a