If Bandra lets its hair down this weekend, there’ll be a legion of aestheticians to comb, cut and crimp it. The suburb recently got two new salons – UK-based Saks at Waterfield Road and celebrity hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani’s latest Mad O Wot hair studio.

One Sapna, Many Dreams

Those who went to Sapna’s weekend launch saw stars, as well as a fun space (see image) with crazy lamps that the hairstylist crafted herself (order them here). Relocated from its previous Bandra address, Mad O Wot now sits atop Yellow Tree Cafe, which means you can get a yum glass of sangria on your way down. Would you like some wine with your manes?

Saks In The City

Saks on the other hand is more corporate, with a Jean Claude Biguine-ish look, feel and partly-poached staff. They offer a whole range of services and a plush two floor space separated by a claustrophobia-inducing elevator. On the ground floor, men and women can get their hair treated to pretty much anything, with pricey cuts ranging between Rs 800 to Rs 2,500. Upstairs, your body can either be waxed or massaged – S&Mers can mix the two up – in pretty, clean rooms.

Ape of Good Hope

The prospect of driving Bombay potty was enough for Bangalorean Thomas Louis to pack his wheel and move to our fair city. Here, the National Institute of Design (NID) graduate collaborated with Bhagyashree Patwardhan and Mubina Kachwalla to set up Monkey Business, a fun pottery and ceramics studio in Versova that retails a range of pretty and not-so-pretty bric-a-brac (see elegant leaf plate and fun fish tails that protrude from walls).

But what you should really care about is this: Starting September 16, Monkey Business will serve as a teaching studio where nerves will be relieved, stress sieved and sighs heaved. A place where the overworked who’ve been prescribed soothing activities and the unemployed who’ve been told to get a hobby, can sign up for beginner's sessions to learn basic pottery techniques like coiling, slabbing, glazing and firing.

The mud monkeys here also plan to loan out their workspace to other artists who are interested in sharing their crafts, so expect to get behind more than just the potter’s wheel.

Getting there: Monkey Business, 170, Aram Nagar 1, Versova, call  Bhagyashree on 9819486506 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to register for the beginner’s course in pottery, Rs 5,000 for four 2-hour sessions every Friday from 2 pm to 4 pm starting September 16. Saturday sessions start from October 1.

Lost all your honey? Make some more with Under the Mango Tree’s (NGO that works with farmers to make the yummiest artisan honey) new urban beekeeping program, which trains  Mumbai residents to generate and harvest their own  honey, right here in the  city. That’s the buzz!

A popular practice with hipsters in Brooklyn and Berlin, Paris and even the White House, bee keeping is legal (and viable) in Mumbai as well, we were assured. All you need is a hive box; bees; terrace, garden or backyard; and half an hour every week to look after your bees -the first two will be provided by UTMT (approximately Rs 6,000) who’ll also assign you a space at Maharashtra Nature Park at Dharavi if, like most  Mumbai residents, you live in a shoe box.

All the honey your box generates belongs to you and can be used as you please, for personal consumption, sourced to restaurants, and even sold through a collective you might form with fellow urban beekeepers. Sweet!

Drone Attack!

Curious but still unsure? Attend UTMT’s orientation session on September 25, where they’ll make their pitch (warning: these guys are pretty convincing), walk you through the basic steps and address all your questions.

Once sold, you’ll graduate to the Urban Beekeeping Training Course, which includes a two day introduction in mid-October and follow-up classes once a month for a year.  During these, you’ll learn how to maintain your hive box, from setting up to controlling honey flow, extracting honey, managing growth and covering up the hive in monsoon season.

Super Sad True Love Story

There are few reasons why a bookstore should make you feel sad: The realisation that there are too many great tomes to read in one lifetime; the place will eventually shut for the day and you’ll have to go home; you’re going to have to give away your television set.

While Bandra’s new bookstore Title Waves succeeds in getting you down, it’s not for the right reasons. The sprawling store has neither a good curator nor staff that can be relied on for recommendations (Oh how we miss the all-knowing Virat at Lotus Books, Bandra, who’d read every book imaginable). Personally we pouted because some of our favourite authors – Toni Morrison, Milan Kundera - have been assigned miniscule shelf space and other widely-read novelists like Haruki Murakami haven’t got a spot at all. Could it be the evil machinations of Lord Voldemort, sitting slyly across in the fantasy section?

What: Untitled Exhibition #1 with Padmini Chettur, G5A Laxmi Mills Compound, off Dr. E. Moses Road, Mahalaxmi, visit the website here, free.

Why: Because your weekend could do with a dance. Organised by the Clark House Initiative and held at a big old mill, this exhibition will feature performances by the uber-talented Padmini Chettur, contemporary dancer and choreographer. She’ll also be taking questions and interacting with the audience.

When: September 10 at 3 pm, 5 pm and 7 pm.

The new collection at Hermes goes beyond just horses, featuring monkeys, rabbits and a series of cool cats in the house (quite literally).

Last night, these included not only ladies in glittery dresses and dapper men, art mavens and society matrons, but also a vigilant leopard watching over the Maharaja’s Apartment at Udaipur City Palace.

He was part of American-photographer Karen Knorr’s “Transmigrations” exhibit, which opens at the Hermes gallery today, lined with blown-up prints of sumptuous interiors (museums in Chantilly, havelis in Rajasthan) invaded by animals and birds: here, antelopes graze on glossy wooden floors under the crystal chandelier at Chateau Chambor; a hump-backed cow meditates in peeling, sky-blue rooms and the serenity of Musee Carnavalet is shattered by a trio of flapping pigeons.

Organized by Tasveer Arts, the exhibit combines two series – Fables and India Song, both of which measure the distance and examine the interplay between nature and culture by taking animals out of their natural milieu and inserting them into museums, palaces, castles. And we mean “insert” not just metaphorically – that they have been Photoshopped in is apparent even to an untrained eye, with visible cut-outs and unconvincing drop shadows. In an age when Hi! Blitz magazine can make Neeta Ambani look like a new bride, these photos are surprisingly sloppy.

But that may be the point, another tool Knorr uses to demonstrate the incompatibility of culture and nature, and how far removed our histories, knowledge and social constructs are from the natural world. Or maybe she was just feeling lazy.

Go judge for yourself. And while you’re at it, check out the beige and caramel canvas-and-leather sling briefcase in the men’s section (approximately Rs 1,17,000). Strappingly handsome and lovingly detailed, it is the sexiest beast around.

Getting there: 15 A Horniman Circle, right next to Asiatic Library, Fort.

Lokhandwala got some love from Lush recently, when the British brand sent over a fragrant store full of yummy bath and body products – during our visit we found fresh bars of soap laid on ice, tubs of jelly, and prettily packaged bottles that made all kinds of slick promises, offering Sweet Lips, Sex Bomb and even A Ring of Roses. Enough to turn any girl’s hair!

Dewy-eyed (and skinned), we couldn’t help but go all the way, returning with goodies that curled everything from our hair to our toes. Quite the Lush, we know!

Our lust list:

For your hair: Ultimate Shine Bar, for the smoothest, shiniest Lance-locks. Rs. 590 for a bar.

For your face: The Vanishing Cream will bring a rosy glow to your skin. Rs 2490 for 45 grams.

For your lips: Sweet Lips Sugar Scrub. Need we say more? Rs. 600 for 25 grams.

For your body: Sweetie Pie jelly, for when you want to woo it in the shower. Rs. 350 for 100 grams.

For your feet: The Stepping Stone bar offers no mean feet. Rs. 340.

Getting there: P #6, Primrose Building, Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (W), call 40144462.

If Mad Men’s Don Draper worked the ad scene in Mumbai, this is where he’d get his hair cut. The Barber Shop, a new men’s only salon (by the guys behind Juice), comes with chequered floor, old style chairs, jazz music and the promise of “classic cuts and close shaves”. And ensuring you don’t lose your innate caveman-ness while getting a mani-pedi, this crop shop serves swigs of testosterone-laced energy dinks. Although Don would much prefer his Scotch and a couple of Luck Strikes. Barbers, take note.

Man-scaping Artists

The prices here are surprisingly true to their retro vibe, with a trim costing Rs 150 and the most expensive cut priced at Rs 175 (including hair wash). Yetis, while you get a shave and wax, look up at the vintage airplanes hanging from the ceiling or save a penny for the juke box. The salon also houses a mini one-room spa for basic massages, and a specials board that features treatments like facials, hair relaxing and colour, mani-pedis and even an old-style champi. The only thing they’re missing is a shoe shine.

Finally in Mumbai, there's a beauty den for men, a groom room that even girls will be thankful for. That’s another victory for Man, you!

Getting there: 7, Kings Acres, opposite Podar School, Santacruz (W), call 65938464, Rs 175 for haircut.

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Ravana walks into a make-up store. That’s got to be a pretty expensive shopping trip, you know, with the ten heads and all. Yes, we know he’s a dude, but back then they wore make-up too.

What we’re really trying to say, in a rather convoluted manner, is that there’s a new make-up shop in Bandra called Faces, which houses a shade of metallic tint for (almost) every mug, and a rainbow of nail lacquer for every mood. How about a fiery orange for those heads then?

Placed somewhere in a price range between Maybelline and MAC, this war paint comes from Canada, serving up yum lip glazes and illuminators, but not without some suspect lip plumpers, jars of synthetic-y looking eye shadows and under-eye creams we’re not sure we want to try. bpb did a round of the store and found 5 things worth picking up. Half of Ravana will just have to go plain Jane.

For your Eyes: The Forest Green pencil liner, rich and slightly glittery. For Rs 249.

For Your Nails: Mini bottles of super trendy Aurelio yellow nail paint. It’s no Chanel Le Vernis Mimosa, but at Rs 99, it’ll do.

For Your Lips: Ultra glam Ruby red lip glaze. For Rs 249.

For Your Cheeks: Tiny jars of metallic illuminators to mix in with lotion or use separately.  For Rs 499.

For Your Body: Cooling gel-filled eye mask and pumice stone. For Rs 85 each.

Getting there: Faces, next to Shoppers’ Stop, Linking Road, Bandra (W), call 65881215.

What: Cinnamon Crocodile bath and beauty products, Sai Pooja building, 16th Road, Bandra (W), visit the website at http://cinnamoncrocodile.com, Rs 1,400 for beach massage oil.

Why: Have you ever seen a croc wearing a frock? Us neither, but the Cinnamon Crocodile mascot certainly seems to be prepping for a party, lounging in a bathtub overflowing with bubbles. If you’d like to meet her, she’s moving into a little Bandra storefront next week, bringing along fun products like cinnamon body scrubs and grapefruit-lime bath washes sourced from Bali and the Dead Sea, among other places. Later, alligator!

When: Store slated to open next week.