New to Van Clarke? Subscribe to our newsletter for 15% off your first order. Start your haircare journey today.

All

What's Your Healthspan

What's Your Healthspan

April 20, 2024

The word ‘healthspan’ has been absorbed into our daily lexicon. It pops up as often as lifespan now as the movement to maximise health progresses. Healthspan is the length of time a person is healthy, not just alive, and was coined by gerontologists in a 1987 Science article. A period of life in which you are healthy and free from chronic disease or disability.

Continue Reading

Gaby's Bakery - Almond & Lemon Pesach Cookies

Gaby's Bakery - Almond & Lemon Pesach Cookies

April 20, 2024

This delicious gluten-free Passover treat is a variant to many of the sweet recipes from the Mediterranean and Middle East. Best of all it's quick and easy to make.

Continue Reading

What Makes a Great Facial

What Makes a Great Facial

April 19, 2024

Clean, bright, age-defying complexions take regular time and effort. But there's never been as much help as now to deliver noticeable and meaningful results. I’ve worked with beauty therapists for over 40 years, testing whenever I can both here and on travels. What’s so impressive today is...

Continue Reading


HELP! I Have Split Ends

HELP! I Have Split Ends

April 18, 2024

Those fuzzy white dots really spoil the look. But if it’s any consolation they’re even worse under the microscope.

Continue Reading

Gaby's Bakery - Sfogliatine Glassate

Gaby's Bakery - Sfogliatine Glassate

April 13, 2024

Easier to make than pronounce, with just four ingredients, this classic Italian biscuit has fine layers of puff pastry that airily dissolve on the palate.

Continue Reading

In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Rosie

In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Rosie

April 04, 2024

Sometimes a more dramatic change is called for and Rosie was clearly in the mood for something different.

Some days she thought about a very short crop but I thought that was a look we could ease towards gradually. We could start today with a short transformation into a sassy, chic, shorter layered 

Continue Reading


In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Fringes

In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Fringes

April 01, 2024

Some clients have never had a fringe and yet others wouldn't be without one. But most people like to experiment and fringes can make a dramatic difference to your look, whether long 'curtains-bangs' or all the way up to 'suicide-fringe'.

Continue Reading

Gaby's Bakery - Mini Egg Easter Nests

Gaby's Bakery - Mini Egg Easter Nests

March 29, 2024

The twins hijacked the kitchen this week as they're now off school for the Easter break. I love it when they get involved as they're both keen cooks and make an entertaining double act. This recipe involves a lot of chocolate and shredded wheat. The shredded wheat playing a large role in the textural experience which really makes this both an attractive and taste-bud titillating treat. 

Continue Reading

You Can Burn Your Bra - but here's an easier way to feel liberated

You Can Burn Your Bra - but here's an easier way to feel liberated

March 28, 2024

You can burn your bra. But here's an easier way to feel liberated. In the 1960s women were also freed from their weekly roller-sets under a hood dryer, by Sassoon’s short flat bobs. Those short bobs have now become long bobs and the hood dryer exchanged for...

Continue Reading


The Great Bonding Hoax

The Great Bonding Hoax

March 26, 2024

Were people misled or did they helpfully misunderstand? About ten years ago a great whirlwind of marketing was created about a new bonding product. Something that could reconnect some of the bonds broken by bleaching. This seemed to gift a 'get out of jail free' card to colourists the world over to jet-hose peroxide with gay abandon. Hundreds of other copycat products followed...

Continue Reading

Myths & Misunderstandings - Can I over-protein my hair?

Myths & Misunderstandings - Can I over-protein my hair?

March 23, 2024

Can I over-protein my hair? Did you think that too? It’s a myth whizzing around the internet and popping up in forums, so let me explain. Healthy hair is essentially 97% protein and 3% water. Hair cannot be overloaded with protein but it can become so dehydrated with

Continue Reading

In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Ashley

In the Chair - Real People Real Hair - Ashley

March 22, 2024

Ashley’s haircut lacked versatility so needed adjusting. The A-Line one-length outline could just about work if it was always kept perfectly smooth. But’s that’s unrealistic and...

Continue Reading