A woman had an unfortunate fashion blunder when a tiger print dress from PrettyLittleThing ended up making her look like Fred Flintsone.
26-year-old Avril Wood, from Northwich, Cheshire, bought the printed satin midi dress for £8 when her boyfriend offered to take her out for dinner over the weekend.
She says the size 8 cowl dress hung off her ‘like a tent’ or a ‘handkerchief’.
She said: ‘I didn’t have anything like this in my wardrobe so thought it would be great to add.
(Picture: AVRIL WOOD / CATERS NEWS)
‘But as soon as it arrived I was shocked, and immediately knew it wasn’t going to fit me – but I didn’t realise it would be this bad!
‘When I tried it on I couldn’t stop laughing, it was as big as a tent and made me look like Thumbelina if she wore a handkerchief.
‘After I tried it on I immediately packaged it back up and returned it to them.’
For obvious reasons, Avril didn’t wear the dress out for the meal.
She continued: ‘As soon as I saw it I was laughing so much, I even called my mum into the room to look at how ridiculous it was.
(Picture: AVRIL WOOD / CATERS NEWS)
‘The dress was huge and absolutely drowned me, but part of the reason I tried it on was because I knew how funny it would look.
‘I even tried to tie a belt around the dress like the model did, but it didn’t make a difference.
‘Anyone who’s seen it has had a good laugh – my boyfriend even said I looked like a Flintstone.
‘Even though this isn’t the first time I’ve had a fail from PrettyLittleThing, I know I’ll never learn and continue to order from them.’
The world’s first specialist dementia trained barber is helping his clients travel back in time to the 1950’s thanks to his ‘old school’ techniques.
38-year-old Lenny White, from Derry, Northern Ireland, spent one year training to become a qualified dementia barber after becoming determined to help those affected by the debilitating disease.
He achieves a calming environment for his elderly clients by ‘time travelling’ them back to the 1950’s with the help of an illuminated barber’s pole, a vintage jukebox and lemon cologne.
Lenny has so far cut the hair of more than 4,000 clients since he started helping them to relive their youthful haircuts three years ago.
The dad-of-five said: ‘The impact is massive – I don’t just cut hair, I trim noses, eyebrows, ears and facial hair.
‘My clients look better and feel better, people come and compliment them on how they look which always has a positive effects.
(Picture: Philip Magowan/Caters News)
‘My customers with dementia suffer with their memory but they still remember me.
‘They come in and say ‘I’ve been here before’ – it’s definitely heart-warming and pulls on the emotions because they remember how I made them feel.
‘My training has taught me how to take care of, and act around the clients.
‘I also had hands on experience of people with dementia, being an ex-care worker myself.
‘Nobody else in the industry seems to be doing this – it’s unique. I have a passion for it and I thoroughly enjoy what I do.’
Lenny worked in a dementia care home aged 17 before going into sales for 20 years.
Aged 35, he decided to retrain as a dementia barber – initially undergoing a two hour ‘Dementia Friends’ course to learn more about the condition.
Now, the 38-year-old is found travelling to specialist nursing homes, day centres, and hospitals as well as to individual clients’ actual homes – setting up his retro salon wherever he goes.
Lenny said: ‘I set my salon up so I could bring customers back to their youth.
(Picture: Philip Magowan/Caters News)
‘It just allows them to open about their life, I can find out more about them and in turn – it means they can relax more whilst sat in the chair.
‘They get the full service whilst being treated, I give them a good cut, and they get a nose hair trim, and an ear hair trim and a full wet shave – something they wouldn’t normally get.’
Lenny charges £15 every six weeks for his service, although he does participate in voluntary work.
He has just returned from New York, where he volunteered with a missionary to cut the hair of people suffering with dementia.
Lenny, whose 97-year-old grandmother was recently diagnosed with dementia, added: ‘She has lived the most amazing life and her form of dementia is age related.
‘I hope to inspire other barbers to train to help those with dementia as getting a fresh trim really does help them feel better.’
We can only maintain five intimate relationships at once (Photo: Getty)
Social media has revolutionised the way we’re socialising.
Applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram can be credited for creating many new and different ways of bringing people together from all over the world, but they are also stopping us forming and maintaining friendships.
On Facebook the average user has 338 friends yet, according to my research, we can actually only maintain relationships with less than half of that amount.
We can easily keep up to date with hundreds of people’s lives through social media without having to invest our time and mental effort in them. However, the limit of meaningful relationships you can maintain is set by your capacity to invest time and mental effort in them.
I found that most people’s social networks are layered and that we can only maintain five intimate relationships at once with both our family and friends. It then moves to outward and less intimate circles of about 15, 50 and the 150 contacts.
Our lifestyles and the way we communicate with friends have particularly changed in the last five years.
Sustaining and developing meaningful relationships really comes down to a question of how much time and energy you can and are willing to devote to each person. You have to invest very heavily in your social circles if you want them to be close friends, the kind who will be there to support you when you are in crisis.
That’s why people who are in love typically can only cope with four other close relationships – because they’re already investing a lot of time and effort in their partner.
Our studies have also shown that if you reduce the amount of time spent with a friend, the intimacy of that friendship will decline very quickly – within a matter of months.
Our lifestyles and the way we communicate with friends have changed particularly in the last five years.
The most common way we connect with people today (for 63 per cent of people) is via electronic messages – emails, texts and WhatsApp, so we clearly rely on the instant (often anonymous and emoji-filled) methods of staying in touch, rather than in person or via voice calls.
New research from Pernod Ricard found a majority (79 per cent) of people admit they had shunned seeing friends or family in person to stay at home to stream a film or TV programme.
Despite this, more than half of those surveyed (56 per cent) felt that sharing genuine moments of connection with family and friends – was the key to maintaining close friendships.
Time spent online often means time you are not spending bonding with your friends and the quality of all your friendships will be poorer as a result.
Without those moments of connection, we don’t have the resilience and support provided by a network of close friends that are our essential buffer against ill health – both mental and physical.
Even couples out for a romantic dinner will often both be sitting opposite each other, busy on the phones (Photo: Getty)
The higher the number of close relationships you have, the higher your levels of happiness are.
With this in mind, making small changes to our lifestyles, such as cutting down on screen time, can give us more time and space in the ‘real world’ to embrace convivial moments with friends. And doing this is what creates close, fulfilling and happy friendships.
A 2017 study found the more that people eat with others, the more likely they are to feel happy and satisfied with their social and emotional support networks.
It is clear that this is a regular social ritual, an enjoyable moment in our often busy lives. It’s an important place of conversation, storytelling and closeness, which is why I am surprised by the number of people who spend time on their smartphones when they are in company. Even couples out for a romantic dinner will often both be sitting opposite each other, busy on the phones.
Conviviality, and all of its benefits, arise from more moments of connection with family and friends – eyeball to eyeball.
Isn’t it frustrating to spend a load of time and money on the perfect wedding dress, only to wear it once then pack it away to gather dust?
It’s the best dress you own, and you only get to wear it once. Not fair, right?
One bride decided to remedy this niggling concern.
At Audrey Moore and Jesse Luman’s wedding in LA, guests were encouraged to wear their old bridal gowns, so they’d have another chance to show off their gorgeous outfit.
Guests who were unmarried borrowed dresses from their parents and relatives, so every wedding dress would get another outing, or they were advised to wear any dress in their wardrobe they had only worn once.
If guests didn’t have a dress that had been worn once and never again, they could come dressed in black and white or wear a costume.
The groom and his party wore tuxedo printed hoodies.
(Picture: CircumpunctStudio.com)
The bride wore a beautiful blue dress, but entered the venue with a light-up veil and a blonde plait to complete her Elsa from Frozen costume.
Audrey shared a photo of herself with some of her dressed up guests on Reddit, writing: ‘We thought it was sad that most women only get to wear their wedding dress once, so we invited all the women coming to our non-traditional wedding to wear their old wedding dresses again!’
She went on to explain: ‘Our friends spent such incredible money on their dresses and never wear them again.
‘I would hear them frequently say how sad they were that they don’t get to wear it every year.
‘My one friend and her husband wear their wedding outfits every year on their anniversary and go to dinner. We live in LA so walking into a restaurant in your wedding dress barely gets noticed.
‘Some women borrowed wedding dresses from their mothers or other family members.’
‘A couple people in the bridal party rented wedding dresses.
‘They were all VERY concerned about upstaging me.
(Picture: CircumpunctStudio.com)
‘I knew I was wearing blue but kept it a secret from everyone except my dressmaker, and my hair and makeup artist.
‘I’d been to almost all their weddings and knew they’d be in white.
‘Plus I’m five-foot-ten. In heels I was six-foot-one. I told them, “I DARE you to upstage me”.’
The dress code wasn’t the only brilliantly unconventional bit of the wedding.
There was a french fry bar for snacking, an awards ceremony – with categories including best costume, best dog not in attendance, 18 wedding cakes decorated by guests, and a Simpsons arcade game.
As you might expect, the wedding photos were pretty popular on Reddit, with 90,000 upvotes and thousands of comments.
‘We threw the wedding we always wanted to go to,’ said the couple, ‘and we think it was a great success!’
My own alignment as a feminist is based on a woman’s right to choose (Photo: Stacey Clare)
My name is Stacey Clare and for over 12 years I have worked as a stripper. I’m also a feminist.
The fact that these two features of my life may seem completely incongruous and out-of-step to some women, and yet so obviously compatible to others, reflects the ongoing deep divides within the gender equality movement over the sex industry.
As 21st century feminism advances through the #MeToo movement and the Time’s Up campaign, unless we can have meaningful, circumspect and evidence-based dialogue around the facts and lived experiences of sex work, this discord will only become more uncomfortable.
All too often, the subject is hijacked by hysteria and stereotyping, making such conversation impossible and counter-productive.
I have identified as a feminist for as long as I have been a stripper. I began dancing as a student to pay my way through higher education, which nowadays is an expensive pursuit.
My own alignment as a feminist is based on a woman’s right to choose.
‘My body, my choice’ sounds like an obvious paradigm, but it shouldn’t be underestimated how fundamental it is to the feminist movement.
The right to bodily autonomy is what gave women access to safe abortion and birth control.
It therefore seems contrary for one woman to campaign against another woman’s right to agency over her own body. We shouldn’t get to cherry-pick which groups have the right to which freedoms, we either all have it or we don’t.
But of course, I get it. It’s on the question of genuine agency that we all fall down. Do strippers really have agency in a job where they have virtually no employment security or workers’ rights?
There isn’t a stripper in the UK who will claim there are no problems with the way sexual entertainment venues are run. I’ve worked in clubs that are incredibly unfair to their female workers.
Equality of the sexes when the economy of a strip club is stacked against the predominantly female workforce and in favour of the venue operators (the majority of whom are male) is a running joke.
But this is not a unique problem to our workplaces. Current UK regulations fail self-employed contractors in many industries, with gig economy workers being exploited in droves.
Plumbers, delivery drivers, cleaners, and security workers have all joined the battle against exploitative business practices over recent years. And if the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns have revealed anything, it’s that sexism is not limited to my industry, but an endemic problem that women in all areas of society face daily.
The genie won’t go back in the bottle – sex work is here to stay (Photo: Stacey Clare)
Throughout my dancing career, I have worked in a range of venues, from high-end ‘classy’ establishments, to more down-to-earth bars.
I found myself working in The White Horse, a traditional East London boozer, for a few years, run by a family of women. Working conditions there were surprisingly amenable to the dancers, but in 2016 it closed due to the relentless gentrification of Shoreditch.
One night, a feminist customer took up camp at the bar, and after a couple of hours glowering at the dancers and staff she decided to ‘stand up’ for the sisterhood.
Having identified the female business owner, she started yelling accusations of trafficking, pimping, exploitation and abuse.
As she was being escorted outside by security, she even went in for a physical assault on our boss, managing a slap in her face before being booted off the premises.
This is a classic example of feminism in crisis. Had this moral crusader bothered to stop and ask us about our experiences, she may have been surprised to hear that the women working there were treated more fairly than almost any other venue in London.
The moral panic over sexual objectification of women has gone on for too long, and it’s not progressive.
The 21st century feminist movement needs to update the agenda to include people (of all genders) who consent to sexual objectification in return for money, within a capitalist system that turns all labour into a commodity.
We need to have serious conversations about what happens when strip clubs are shut down and sex work is criminalised.
We must accept that putting women out of work and taking away their methods of financial independence puts them in even more precarious circumstances.
I’ve seen for myself how ‘agencies’ and rogue operators crop up in place of clubs, taking full advantage of the financial insecurity young women face.
I’ve felt the effects of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, a law that was fought for by the radical feminist left, but has in fact had a devastating effect on working conditions for strippers.
That law was supposed to end exploitation and ‘clean up’ the industry, but in reality exploitation has increased thanks to unreasonable licensing conditions, club closures, and a systematic failure to address the issue of dancers’ employment rights.
We must understand how, by driving stripping and sex work off the high street and underground into private, unlicensed and unsafe flats and hotels, we actually feed the patriarchy.
We must not forget that male power and dominance has thrived for thousands of years by denying women their self-determination, and so by removing women’s choices, even to do sex work, we undermine true feminism.
The genie won’t go back in the bottle, sex work is here to stay. The real debate is how safe or dangerous do we want it to be for those of us who choose it?
The simplest task feels impossible, making any decision is unfeasible, and you feel strangely disconnected from everything that’s going on, as if you’re dreaming, or living in the middle of a dense fog.
But what we’re talking about here isn’t a meltdown of catastrophic proportions or a reaction to overwhelming stress… it’s just a feeling that you’re trying to move through sludge.
What causes that feeling? Why does it happen? And what can you do to stop it?
It’s often down to cognitive fatigue.
Cognitive fatigue is, essentially, tiredness. Not physical tiredness, but mental exhaustion.
It happens when we have to work with our minds for prolonged periods of time, whether it’s writing an article, figuring out a schedule, doing research, or reading a book. Essentially, any time your brain is busy, you’re building towards cognitive fatigue.
When you reach cognitive fatigue, even the most basic mental task becomes a struggle.
Dr Catherine Huckle, clinical psychologist at the University of Surrey, tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Cognitive fatigue happens when we have a number of demands on our thinking that go on for a sustained period.
‘The result is that we become less able to ignore distractions, we need more time to plan and our thinking becomes less flexible. We also become less able to carry out high level information processing (tasks that require us to absorb information, apply a process to the information and then deliver a transformed piece of information – tasks such as complicated maths problems).’
It makes sense when you ponder it – the same way your muscles would get tired if you ran around for hours, your brain struggles to keep going if you’re engaging it constantly.
But, you might think, isn’t everyone’s brains constantly working? The answer to that is yes.
Signs you're experiencing cognitive fatigue:
You find it difficult to concentrate
You’re forgetful
You’re easily irritated
Tasks that should be simple feel difficult
You feel overwhelmed
You’re struggling with sleep
You have physical symptoms of stress such as headaches, tension, and an increased heart rate
You feel disconnected from the world, like you’re in a dream or in a fog
You experience a ‘mental block’ – when you simply can’t do any thinking
Cognitive fatigue happens when that work becomes too much; when too much is packed into a short amount of time, when there’s pressure to do that work, and when you’re not making time to relax and unwind.
‘There are different theories as to the cause of cognitive fatigue,’ Dr Huckle explains. ‘Some researchers view cognitive fatigue as a result of reduced energy resources – the idea that your batteries are running out or that you can’t continue any longer.
‘There is suggestion that the number of tasks and the difficulty of tasks impacts on how quickly one becomes fatigued, but there is also strong evidence to suggest that the time that is given to get tasks done makes a difference.
‘So if you have some difficult tasks on your to-do list but a reasonable amount of time to do them you are less likely to experience cognitive fatigue than if you are time pressured.
‘There has also been discussion of the role of motivation and effort – that is, it feels difficult to keep going with a particular task because your preference is to be doing something else – resting, or other activities that are less demanding.
‘What we do know is that cognitive fatigue is a distinct phenomenon from sleepiness – in fact, research shows that as cognitive fatigue increases sleepiness is not affected.
‘One explanation of this is that, when a task is demanding, we have to keep all cylinders firing to manage, and the effort of this means we are wide awake (perhaps that experience of feeling “wired” when we are trying to get through a busy and demanding day).’
Overworking is an issue, of course, but a real problem occurs when we discount other forms of mental work and the impact they can have.
We’re experiencing cognitive fatigue, and as a result, errand paralysis, because we tend to ignore the mental effort required for the non-work parts of life that can be just as draining.
Think of life admin: having to remember plans, book in appointments, email people back, and clear our notifications. These don’t feel like proper mental work because they’re not part of being in an office, but they add up and take their toll.
When we dismiss the impact of life admin, we’re at risk of exhaustion, thinking we don’t need to rest up because we haven’t really been doing anything.
(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)
Comparison makes things worse – we look at everything other people are doing and feel that we should be doing the same. But in reality, there are hidden factors that impact our capacity to handle our cognitive load.
Mental or physical health issues run down our mental battery, making a heavy cognitive load feel that much heavier.
‘As well as inherent individual differences, capacity can be affected by a number of neurological conditions,’ Dr Huckle tells us.
‘It also makes sense that if we have a high level of cognitive load on an everyday basis (perhaps we have to keep in mind a number of responsibilities and appointments, such as those associated with childcare or caring for someone) it will take less demands to invoke cognitive fatigue.
‘Even concerted efforts towards breaking a habit (such as smoking) or adhering to a new resolution (think exercise or dieting) – anything that requires willpower – increases cognitive load and makes us more susceptible to cognitive fatigue.’
So let’s say you’re more prone to cognitive fatigue, whether due to the demands of your job, the level of life admin you have to undertake, or because you have an illness that impacts your capacity to handle your cognitive load – what can you do about it?
The first step is recognising that cognitive fatigue is real and valid.
Don’t allow yourself to feel like failure for struggling, or think you can just ‘power through’. You can’t.
We all need to make time to fully unwind with an activity that lets us stop our minds working on overdrive. That may be meditation and yoga, or it can be as simple as watching mindless TV and playing with a pet.
It’s also vital to reevaluate our lifestyles. Our current emphasis on productivity and hustling means that we’re overloading our minds and failing to cater to our own needs.
Dr Huckle advises: ‘Strategies might include cutting back on the number of tasks that you are trying to achieve, increasing the timeframe in which you aim to get things done or lowering your standards (accepting a lesser performance and saving your best for when it is absolutely essential).
‘It can also help to feel more in control, which can be achieved through planning and scheduling of tasks, delegating where possible and by being assertive about what you can and cannot take on.
‘Organisations can help their staff to achieve this through encouragement of regular breaks, shorter working days and flexitime.
‘There is also some thinking to be done in terms of the satisfaction of everyday tasks – if tasks are interesting and enjoyable (and even if they are still demanding and time pressured) they are less likely to cause cognitive fatigue.’
It’s vital to look after yourself to ensure that when your cognitive load increases, you won’t collapse underneath it. That means sleeping and eating well, talking through your feelings, and asking for help when you need it.
You shouldn’t have to put up with feeling in a fog, with being irritable, forgetful, and struggling to do things you actually care about. A feeling of total overwhelm cannot and should not be our basic state.
Take cognitive fatigue seriously, and give yourself a damn break.
A reason so many people recommend premarital sex is so you can know exactly what you’re dealing with.
One woman says she found that out the hard way.
Yep, a woman took to Reddit to share that she discovered that her husband has a micropenis… on their honeymoon.
The woman posted on the AITA subreddit to ask whether it’s unreasonable for her to be annoyed that her husband kept the size of his penis a secret by refusing to have sex before getting married.
She writes: ‘Newlywed husband (32M) wanted to wait til marriage for sex and just surprised me (27F) with micropenis on the honeymoon.
‘So, we only dated for six months. We’ve been engaged for another six and just got married on Saturday. I literally just got back from my honeymoon a couple hours ago.
‘My husband isn’t a religious guy, he just says he is “old fashioned like that.” We got close to fooling around a couple times but it never went far. I tried, but he always stopped after it went “too far”. Anyway, fast forward to now…
‘Am I the asshole for reading into this and being upset that I waited until my wedding night to find out that he probably isn’t as “old fashioned” as he says he is?
‘I’m not going to shame him and honestly I don’t even know how I’ll broach the topic (and I’m not seeking advice).
‘I honestly just acted like nothing was out of the ordinary and went to town with him, but…I dunno.
‘I kind of feel lied to. Like a halftruth…or something was intentionally withheld from me. This was unexpected, to say the least.’
(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)
So, a couple of things going on here.
The issue isn’t that the man has a micropenis – that isn’t a bad thing that destines someone to a life without sexual pleasure.
The issue is that he kept it a secret, and that he may have been lying about being ‘old fashioned’ because he didn’t want his wife-to-be to know about his penis size.
That means that the wife got married without knowing the entire truth – which doesn’t seem right.
Reddit roundly agrees, as the woman has been voted ‘not the asshole’.
One Redditor commented: ‘This is a serious trust issue. it’s not the size that’s at issue here, it’s the fact that #1, he didn’t trust her enough to tell her, and #2, now she cannot trust him not to be dishonest.’
Another said: ‘This was a very deliberate move to keep her in the dark of his “flaw”. He might as well have said “I think you are shallow and will leave me for this so I will only reveal it once you can’t leave me”, that is some serious manipulation. Even if he did it to protect his own insecurity, he doesn’t trust OP and that is a bigger problem than his… problem.’
And finally: ‘This is why we test drive cars before we sign off on the financing.’
When thinking of ways to spice up your sex life, scent is probably fairly low on the priority list of senses to focus on.
So long as there’s a generally fresh or pheromone-filled odour, both parties tend to be more than happy to get down and dirty.
Surprisingly, smell can play a big part in your sexual pleasure, and in enhancing climax.
A German study from last year, in which researchers measured ‘odour thresholds’ with sniffing sticks, showed that those with a stronger sense of smell have more orgasms. Given the study only had 70 participants, the results are open to interpretation, but it raises questions around the relationship between sex and scent.
If you can increase the quantity of orgasms, can you do the same with the quality of them?
Is it possible to smell your way to a stronger orgasm?
‘The short answer is yes, aromas can help you achieve more intense orgasms,’ said Stu Nugent, sex expert at Lelo.
‘Food might be an aphrodisiac, but smell is the most powerful and emotive of our senses, and it can be coached to offer much more satisfying sexual sensations. The taste of food can heighten the anticipation of sex, but smell can actually put you there.
‘It can be used to intensify all of our other senses, too. When you’re blindfolded, for example, your sense of taste, smell, touch, and hearing all become elevated.’
Majority of people can appreciate good chocolate – a known aphrodisiac – as the cocoa tricks your mind; it contains phenylethylamine (a chemical that mimics the feeling you get when you fall in love), as well as the ‘happiness molecules’ tryptophan and anandamide.
But scent is a divisive sense, much more so than that of taste, for instance.
Just imagine if we were as picky with our foods as we are with our choice of perfume or cologne, for instance (odds are we’d struggle to that find dishes that appeal to us when dining out).
The two – taste and scent – are interconnected, but the latter is much more individual – a musky odour will appeal more to one person, while another prefers a citrus or floral base.
(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)
‘Certain smells can affect our mood, buying habits, mental alertness and are used extensively by the fragrance industry, even if we don’t consciously notice them in our environment,’ Karen Gilbert, a fragrance expert and teacher, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘To understand why this is the case, we have to look at how our brain processes scent molecules. Whereas most senses send nerve impulses to the region of the brain known as the thalamus to be processed as physical sensations, odour molecules flow to the limbic system and the hypothalamus instead.
‘The limbic system of the brain is where feelings, moods, emotions, sexual behaviour and memory are processed.
‘Scent is also a powerful attraction factor and despite lots of research we really don’t know a lot about human pheromones and how they work.
‘It is possible that we are still using our primitive senses to sniff out a mate more than we realise.’
According to the results, nearly 20% of those who had a lessened sense of smell experienced some degree of ‘sexual dysfunction’.
The study was conducted solely with male participants who were given a range of scents to sample including floral and colognes, which were controlled through the smell of baked cinnamon buns – apparently the buns had a stronger effect than all other smells.
Cinnamon buns do smell divine and baked goods do tend to invoke happy feelings – property agents often utilise scents such as freshly baked bread as a sales trick when showing prospective tenants a new home.
‘In a later study, using a wider variety of samples they found that the number one olfactory stimulus for increasing penile blood flow was a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie,’ said Karen.
‘The second was a combination of doughnuts and black licorice, and third was doughnuts and pumpkin pie.
‘They also did studies in women and measured vaginal blood flow in a double-blinded randomised fashion. They found that the number one odor that enhanced female arousal was a combination of the liquorice candy Good & Plenty and cucumber, although Good & Plenty and banana nut bread also had positive effects.
‘With men, every single odor they tested enhanced penile blood flow but with women that was not the case, and there were some odors that inhibited sexual arousal.
‘The smell of cherries, barbequed meat and men’s cologne all acted to inhibit female sexual arousal.’
Similarly, a study from last year, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, also suggests that if you have a stronger sense of smell you might find sex to be slightly more pleasurable and that women with a stronger sense of smell have more orgasms.
What scents could make your orgasms that much better?
According to Karen, you should pick a fragrance that works with your body scent.
Ylang Ylang and Jasmine, and other exotic florals are good options.
Musky scents, ‘creamy woods’ like sandalwood and oriental fragrances are also useful, as these imitate your skin’s own scent. They’re also connected to your inner animal and basic human sexual needs – a primal scent, if you will.
Don’t go crazy with the perfume though; overpowering your own and your partner’s senses could have a negative effect.
And avoid any smells that are linked to painful or sad memories.
The difficulty with intensifying orgasms with scent is that it’s so individual, and for women, there are other factors that can affect what scents we like at different stages of the month – the birth control pill for instance.
Lana Citron, author of the aphrodisiac foods book, Edible Pleasures, tells Metro.co.uk that women look for a man with ‘opposite immune systems proteins to their own’, but this applies less so to women who take birth control pills.
‘They [women] rely on their nose to attract a mate with opposite immune system proteins to their own – ensuring the strongest possible biological pairing and optimum genetic makeup. This theory was scientifically proven by Claus Wedekind, a Swiss researcher, who found it to be true.
‘However, there was one proviso: it only worked on women who were not taking the birth control pill, as those who were tended to select men with the most genetically similar traits to them.
‘This was because the pill hormonally mimics the state of pregnancy and during pregnancy, a woman feels vulnerable and so feels safest with family rather than a stranger.’
For women, periods also play a big role, due to the change in hormones in your body. It might be worth noting where you’re at in your cycle before you decide on a candle for when you want to get freaky.
According to Dr Aarti Denning, a registered GP who mapped hormones in a project with Fragrance Direct, you might find yourself drawn to citrus scents such as grapefruit, bergamot and juniper with notes of rosemary during the first phase of your period.
After the initial two days of your period, known as the ‘follicular phase’, your body will adjust to finding a mate and suddenly, your senses switch to headier fragrances such as amber, sandalwood and patchouli (notes often used in male colognes).
Sounds like an excellent excuse to buy several perfumes, if you ask us.
In the meantime, if you’re struggling with gift ideas for Valentine’s Day and want to impress your lover with a scent, coffee in your underwear or peeled apples mixed with sweat are apparently the way to go.
‘During my research for Edible Pleasures, I came across a Brazilian custom where women could forever enchant their intended with coffee made by straining the liquid through their dirty underclothing,’ said Lana.
‘In 16th century England, the habit of some courtesans was to saturate peeled apples with their sweat by keeping a piece tucked under their arm.
‘They would then give these scent tokens to their sweetheart.’
Scent can make a difference in the bedroom.
The best way to find out which one makes you moan is simply to test it out.
Make it a fun game with your lover (or yourself) and see which fragrance takes you over the edge.
Today is National Pizza Day, a time to celebrate the very concept of pizza, which is wonderful.
To celebrate, KFC has teamed up with Pizza Hut to create something that’s either monstrous or brilliant: The Gravy Supreme.
It’s a fried chicken pizza, obviously, but it’s more than that.
On a Cheesy Bites base sits a layer of KFC gravy, topped with popcorn chicken, sweetcorn, mozzarella, and garlic sprinkles.
So no traditional pizza sauce – there’s gravy instead. Sounds… interesting, right?
Now, if you’re looking at this and drooling, we do have some bad news.
(Picture: KFC & Pizza Hut)
The Gravy Supreme isn’t available for purchase.
Aren’t brands cruel, to tempt us with a mash-up and then snatch it out of our grasp?
KFC and Pizza Hut say they’re currently testing and trialling their creation to make sure it’s as tasty as possible, and that if demand is really high they’ll look at adding it to their menu.
A spokesperson from KFC UK & Ireland commented: ‘Dreams really do come true. Pairing our signature gravy and Popcorn Chicken with Pizza Hut’s famous base and toppings is a match made in heaven. Believe us when we say it’s a thing of absolute beauty.’
Guess we’ll have to take their word for it, seeing as we can’t eat the pizza ourselves.
The good news, though: You can easily create a makeshift version. Just order a pizza, drown it in popcorn chicken and gravy, and revel in what you have done.
Occasionally, there’s the type of news that truly baffles you.
It makes you rethink your entire existence and question how much you truly know about the world.
Like prawns versus shrimp.
For years, you’ve been happily munching away on deep-fried shrimp, prawn cocktails and battered tempura prawns, not noticing that the two aren’t actually the same thing.
Perhaps you, like us, thought the seafood was merely known by two different phrases in the English language (one American, one British).
The two may seem identical but they are, in fact, not.
Let’s start with the similarities – both are decapods (a marine term for crustaceans with ten legs, including lobsters), have external skeletons and are omnivores.
There are also hundreds of species of each, found in both salt and fresh water, though farm-raised prawns such as the giant tiger tend to stick to fresh water.
And only a few varieties are used in cooking.
After that, things get complicated.
They come from different families
Prawns derive from a suborder known as Dendrobranchiata, while shrimp derive from the suborder Pleocyemata.
They’re different in size
Overall, the prawn is bigger than its competitor. But because of its size, the prawn is not as bendy as it’s flexible cousin, the shrimp.
Their body structure is vastly different
Prawns have branching gills, as well as longer front legs and claws on three pairs of their legs. The back pincers are also bigger than the front ones.
Shrimp on the other hand have a lamellar gill structure (delicate, alternating layers) and shorter front legs with larger front pincers.
Their baby-carrying ways differ too
The prawn carries its eggs inside its body, near the tail.
In difference to the prawn, shrimp carry their eggs on the outside of their body (which sounds uncomfortable) and the eggs are smaller.
Shrimp are A-listers
When it comes to popular culture, the prawn has been living in the shadow of the shrimp for quite some time, according to Food & Wine.
In 1984, the shrimp was mentioned by Crocodile Dundee in an ad for Australian tourism and the phrase ‘put a shrimp on the barbie’ is now eponymous with the continent.
A decade later, the shrimp made another big appearance in Forrest Gump, when character Bubba Blue exclaimed that it was ‘the fruit of the sea’. The word shrimp was actually mentioned approximately 80 times in the film.
Though neither is that popular in religion, as the bible states that while you can eat animals from the sea, these should have fins (which crustaceans don’t).
Both are delicious
In the end, it doesn’t really matter if you prefer prawns or shrimp, since both are delicious.
After giving birth to her daughter, Chantelle Clarke from Alberta, Canada, had developed stretch marks on her stomach.
In an attempt to fade the lines, the mum of two-month-old Sophia Lee decided to smear her breast milk on the left side of her body, and after two weeks noticed a substantial change. The lines had faded dramatically, going from ‘dark red to light red’.
Chantelle shared the news, along with a photo, on her Facebook page and the post has since gone viral, with over 11,000 likes and comments, as well as 13,000 shares.
She has been applying the breast milk to her ‘tiger stripes’ every time she nurses her baby, and said it not only helped lighten the marks, but also reduced the depth.
Chantelle, who is in a relationship with her partner Dustin Crawley, explained her process to other mums, after her own mum encouraged.
On her post, she wrote: ‘I rub it into my tummy while nursing and lather it on so it’s almost dripping off. I let it air dry and just pull my shirt over after. I put it on everytime I nurse. Been doing it for about three weeks now. My baby is now two months old.
‘I noticed a big difference, not just on colouring but also in depth of my stretch marks. I posted this after my mom convinced me too share with other moms. I cannot promise it will work 100% for everyone but it definitely helps. There’s is nothing wrong with stretch marks but it is nice to know they can fade faster.’ [sic]
(Picture: Chantelle Clarke)
(Picture: Chantelle Clarke)
Others have also tried the method, such as Facebook user, Ellie Shuffit, who was tagged in the post by a friend and commented: ‘Yes! That’s why my stretch marks are so light!’
Another woman commented by offering sales of her own milk.
Jennifer Simmons said: ‘I have tons of breat milk for sale if anybody would be interested in buying some. Every bag is dated, timed, and amount for easy tracking. I just have wayyy to much!’ [sic].
She was quickly shut down by another user who claimed it’s illegal to sell breast milk, but that it can be donated.
However, according to a spokeswoman from the Food Standards Agency, who spoke to the BBC, it isn’t illegal, though local authorities can take action if they feel the milk hasn’t gone through safety checks required for this type of sale.
Chantelle’s Facebook post in full:
Breast milk has been proven to have beneficial factors; a study from 2016, published in Mucosal Immunology, showed that breast milk can assist in healing infections, and reduce pain and inflammation.
But before you start applying the milk to your own stretch marks, it’s worth speaking to a dermatologist or other medical professional.
In another post, added a few days later, Chantelle expressed how happy she was that the story has taken off.
‘This is awesome!! Can’t believe how fast things travel,’ she said.
And, as you probably expect at this point in our shrinkflation journey, the price won’t be shrinking to match.
According to The Grocer, the average size of Cadbury’s most popular Easter treats will drop between 7% and 11%, while the price will only drop by an average of 2.5%.
Mini Eggs are hit the hardest. The usual 90g pack has been replaced with an 80g pack – that’s a drop of more than 11%, maths fans – but the price is only dropping by 5p, going from £1.20 to £1.15. Dismal.
The family pack, meanwhile, has decreased from a 328g bag to 296g.
We don’t have the exact weight of an individual Mini Egg for you, but we know that reduction is at least a handful gone from our lives.
Cadbury’s says products need to shrink to keep them affordable.
A spokesperson for Mondelez, which owns Cadbury, told The Grocer: ‘Like all food manufacturers, we sometimes have to make changes to ensure that people can continue to buy their favourite Easter treats at affordable prices.
‘We’ve worked hard to ensure we’re still offering families great value for money across what we believe will be popular products this Easter.’
We get that, but we’re still devastated by the loss of even a single chocolate egg.
Mini Eggs aren’t the only deliciousness to be affected by the shrinkflation curse. The Crunchi Easter Egg will go from 278g to 258g, a Heroes egg will go from 282g to 262g, and the same reduction will happen to the Twirl egg.
‘Ordered a dress from @OfficialPLT, SIZE 10 BTW N THE F***ER ONLY JUST FITS MY LEG. f***in nice one guys hahaha.’
(Picture: @taptheturtlee)
The online description for the dress doesn’t suggest it’s to be worn on your leg, shockingly enough.
Instead it says: ‘Simple but so sleek, feel good in second skin with this dreamy bodycon dress girl. In a black slinky with this season’s favorite square neck. Just add your barely there heels to complete the look.’
We guess the ‘second skin’ bit is accurate if the dress is that tight.
PrettyLittleThing apologised to Eden and have tweeted offering to resolve the issue.
The lesson here? Sizing discrepancies happen all the time, and if other people’s experiences are anything to go by, you can’t trust ‘your size’ to fit every time.
If you’re ordering for an emergency event, we’d recommend ordering in multiple sizes then returning the ones that don’t fit.
Attention history nerds (said with love) and anyone who fancies escaping to the Scottish Highlands.
You can now book a stay in a former air control tower used during World War II, and now lovingly restored and transformed into a stunning family home and guesthouse.
Nestled in Tain, right next to the North Coast 500 Scenic Route, the HMS Owl Air Control Tower is now listed on Airbnb after a five-year renovation by owners Justin Hooper and Charlotte Seddon.
For £75 a night you get to stay in the top room of the control tower, meaning lovely views out over the countryside.
The room itself is splendid, even if you’re not interested in the building’s historical significance. There’s a massive king size bed, an en suite bathroom with aeroplane taps, and massive windows so you can look out at the wild.
If you ask in advance, you can use the sitting room, too, which has a pool table and TV. You know, just in case wandering around the highlands gets a bit boring.
As the room is at the top of the tower, there are three flights of stairs guests have to climb, but it seems worth doing.
Host Charlotte says: ‘The control tower had been left derelict for decades and we took on its restoration, and much of the labour, as a passion project and the most important thing for us was to preserve the raw, bruised, but not broken feel of the building.
(Picture: Alexis Hamilton/Cover Images)
‘We rebuilt the Black Nissen hut adjacent to the tower which is also newly available to rent.
‘We put them both on Airbnb as we wanted to be open to a large audience from the off and see what happened! It’s gone well so far and guests seem to really enjoy their stays in both the tower and the Black Nissen.’
The renovation still has an industrial feel, with a matte-black exterior, original steel-framed Crittall windows, exposed brick walls, and concrete pillars.
It’s cosy, though, with leather, wood, and a wood burning stove in the living room. Lovely.
That’s a day that doesn’t need much explanation, but in case you need it: National Pizza Day is a day dedicated to celebrating pizza.
And why not? Pizza really is a wonderful thing. Carbs, tomato sauce, cheese, all brilliant.
The good news is this: On National Pizza Day, a lot of brands offer special deals on the good stuff, so you can get your pizza hit a little cheaper than usual.
We’ve rounded up the best deals so you don’t have to ransack every pizza purveyor’s website for those juicy details.
Get 30% off at a load of venues
Foodism’s National Pizza Day celebration offers 30% off (or more) on pizza at tonnes of venues.
Prezzo, Crust Bros, Brooklyn Pizza, and Papa John’s are involved, to name a few.
For today only, Mulberry Street Pizza in London will be offering up giant bagelizzas, 12-inch in circumference and topped with brisket, pastrami, sauerkraut, cheese, and Russian dressing.
(Picture: Matt Alexander/PA Wire)
Oh, and did we mention they’re giving them out for free?
On a first come, first serve basis, people ordering from Mulberry Street Pizzeria in-store or through Deliveroo today will get a bagelizza for free.
If you miss the chance, you can still buy a pizza, so it won’t be all bad news.
33% off when you spend £30 or more at Papa John’s
If you don’t fancy using Foodism’s deal, you can go straight to Papa John’s website and get 33% off when you spend £30 or more.
50% off when you spend £30 or more at Pizza Hut
A better deal than Papa John’s when you look at the numbers, but it really comes down to your pizza preference.
Free dough balls at Pizza Express
No free pizza, but this is pretty good too. Buy two mains and get a sharer of dough balls for free.
Tomorrow, dog owners across London will come together to celebrate the day of love with their pets during the annual Valentine’s dog walk on Hampstead Heath, organised by All Dogs Matter.
Pooches and their people will meet up at the Garden Gate pub at 10am for registration, where the team will serve hot drinks, before embarking on an hour-long walk at 11am.
If you fancy bringing your pooch along and getting some exercise, it’ll cost you £5, but all proceeds will go towards the charity’s rescue and rehoming efforts.
The charity is also encouraging people to get a sponsor for the event to help raise more money.
The most loved-up couple (human and hound that is) will also win a prize – so it’s worth investing in matching Valentine’s outfits to set yourself apart from the crowd.
To give you inspiration, here are photos from last year’s event.
(Picture: Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock)
(Picture: Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock)
(Picture: Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock)
(Picture: Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock)
Even if you don’t have a dog, it’s definitely worth investing in some treats for free cuddles (just make sure you ask the owner first).
Or sign up on All Dogs Matter to adopt a pooch of your own or become a foster carer.
Heading skiing in the Alps is already bound to give you some excellent Instagram pics.
Look at you, all alpine chic and sipping hot chocolate.
Wow, another video of you on a ski lift. And another one.
But if you’re ready to take your ‘Gram game up a notch, it might be worth heading to this mirrored cabin, called Mirage, in the mountains of Gstaad, Switzerland.
It’s not purely for the purposes of your social media, shockingly enough.
The cabin is the creation of artist Doug Aitken, who uses mirrors to capture the ever changing land and sky of the stunning landscape.
Every bit of it is mirrored, inside and out, so it tricks you into thinking it doesn’t exist. Pretty trippy.
The installation is part of Frequencies, a series of art performances running in February in Gstaad, curated by Neville Wakefield and Olympia Scarry.
Mirage will remain in its mountain location for two years, so you’ve got plenty of time to visit and plan out the perfect selfie in its mirrored depths.
Doug said: ‘The viewer can come back to the piece as the seasons are changing, in fall in a storm or in the summer when it’s a green pasture. As our lives change the artwork is shifting with us.’
Deep. You’re bound to get loads of double taps with this one.
Carrie Hope Fletcher will be part of the concert cast (Picture: Paul Brown/REX/Shutterstock)
It’s an exciting year for Les Misérables fans – from the launch of the acclaimed TV show to a new concert version of the show to a nationwide tour.
However, it’s a little hard to keep up with where you can actually see it this year on stage between its various moves and iterations.
Find out everything you need to know below.
Is the current Les Misérables London show moving?
The much-loved musical is leaving its current home in London – the Queen’s Theatre – while it gets refurbished.
Temporarily, the show will head to the Gielgud Theatre where it will be replaced with a newer concert production, Les Misérables – The All-Star Staged Concert.
The current production began in 1985 and is now entering into its 34th year.
Where and when can I see the new concert production of Les Misérables – The All-Star Staged Concert?
Technically, you can see it in the Gielgud Theatre, London, from August 10 to November 30.
Ticket demand is huge, though, and some fans reported waiting in online queues of up to 20,000 people on the day they were released, February 7.
There’s still some tickets left, but anyone hoping to scoop a seat will have to move fast.
About nineteen years ago I was joining the cast of Les Mis at the Palace as Young Eponine. Six years ago I found out I would be playing Eponine at the Queen’s. Today I have the huge pleasure of saying I will be rejoining Les Mis at the Gielgud as Fantine! What a journey! pic.twitter.com/rewLrCx7Iy
Considering most of us have been pooing since birth, you might expect that we’ve got the whole process sorted.
That’s not the case.
Every other week there’s a story going round on Reddit about someone pooing in an unusual way (remember the poop knife?), or a study explaining why the way we do our poos really isn’t the best method for the sake of our wellbeing.
So for the sake of ease, let’s go through all the ways we’re pooing wrong, and how we can start pooing better.
Stop sitting, start squatting
Most of us in the Western bit of the world do a poo like so: we sit on the toilet, feet on the floor, and push.
But there’s a load of scientific evidence that suggests we should be squatting, instead. Squatting opens up the colon, allowing for faster and more efficient pooing with minimal strain.
As a result, squatting rather than sitting may help prevent everything from constipation to prolapse. That’s a big deal.
Thankfully, you don’t need to demolish your toilet or start balancing precariously above the seat. More recent research has found that using a stool, like the famous Squatty Potty, really does improve your poos.
Researchers had 52 medical residents and their partners take a survey about their poos, and provide a detailed diary of every poo they did for two weeks (fun, right?). Many of these people had issues with their poo, including blood in their stool, constipation, or feeling the need to strain.
The researchers then gave each of the participants a stool, so they’d be able to place their feet slightly higher and raise their knees above their hips. 90% of those who used the stool strained less, and 71% had faster bowel movements.
This is because there’s a slight bend from the rectum into the anus, and squatting essentially straightens it out, allowing for a more natural flow.
So rather than just sitting as usual, grab a stool (or a box, or whatever else you can prop your feet on), and start doing the semi-squat.
You’re using toilet paper
Toilet paper doesn’t really, properly, clean your bum. It just wipes off the majority of poo while leaving remnants behind.
Think of it like this: if you got poo anywhere else on your body, would you be content with just wiping it off with a dry bit of paper? Or would you want to give it a proper wash?
There’s another reason to ditch toilet paper: Many of us are wiping too aggressively with the scratchy stuff, which can cause irritation, pain, and even anal fissures and hemorrhoids.
Wet wipes are an option, but many aren’t environmentally friendly.
Maybe it’s time for the western world to hurry up and get on the bidet train instead. While we wait for Japanese-style toilets that come with gentle water jets that spray your bum clean, it might be worth trying the bottle bidet method – carrying a bottle of water for poos in public toilets that you can use to rinse off.
(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)
You don’t have a poo routine
Or a poo-tine, if you will.
Some people poo like clockwork, while others will have no schedule at all. You don’t need to force yourself to stick to one time, but it can be a handy way to track your pooing.
Plus, your body does tend to like having a regular routine.
A morning poo is widely considered the best. Your colon and small intestine worked to process food overnight, making your waking hours a prime time for doing a dump.
But more importantly, holding in your poo is really not a good idea. It’s not good for your body,
Nutritional therapist Jody Middleton previously told Metro.co.uk: ‘If you are someone who doesn’t like opening their bowels at work or school then this can lead to chronic constipation causing possible health concerns such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rectal polyps, haemorrhoids and even colon cancer.
‘Just avoiding that morning poo because the timing is inconvenient can cause all sorts of digestive problems.’
In the short-term, holding in poo can cause bloating, discomfort, pain, and nausea. You may also become constipated, followed by having a bout of diarrhea.
If you were to hold in your poo for a long time, faecal impaction – when faeces harden and pile on top of one another – can occur, and you could cause dysfunction in the muscles used to pass waste.
In severe cases, faecal impaction can lead to an impacted bowel, which can cause circulation problems.
Not good. Start pooing when you need to.
You’re not looking at your poo
If you go to your GP to discuss a problem, they’ll often ask about your bowel movements, so it’s handy to have a basic knowledge of what yours are like and how often you go.
You don’t have to do close analysis, but don’t flush it away without doing a quick peek. Keep track of changes and speak to a doctor if you notice a difference.
A healthy poo is medium to dark brown, requires minimal strain and no pain to pass, and is passed in one single sausage-shaped piece or a few smaller pieces.
Taking note of your poo can draw your attention to potential health issues, or any dietary changes you may need to make.
Small, hard lumps indicate constipation, soft blobs suggest a lack of fibre, and liquid poo suggests inflammation.
Poo that’s black or red can be due to gastrointestinal bleeding, while green poo might be a sign that there’s too much bile in the body. It really is worth having a quick check.
Photos from the annual Birth Becomes Her competition are in, and this year’s entries are just as awe-inspiring as those from 2018.
Judges had to choose from 1,200 images sent in from photographers across the globe, the highest number of entries the competition has ever seen.
Founded by birth photographers Monet Nicole and Jennifer Mason in 2014, who themselves have photographed nearly 400 births, the online community aims to increase the accessibility of birth photography to expectant parents and photographers.
‘Here at Birth Becomes Her, we believe there is power in seeing and sharing images of birth,’ a statement reads on the founders’ website.
We believe that the birth photography industry will only continue to grow as more and more families realise that there is nothing more valuable than preserving memories from the very best days of your life.’
