Challenge: Part 2 of 3 in Rare Gems: Cheap Beauty Treatments

Several weeks ago I mentioned I was at work on a beauty challenge: find an East London locale for budget eyebrow threading. After several false starts – salons moving, services changing, and then my own blind panic, what with being a threading virgin and not really loving pain – I finally made good on my promise… and what’s more, it didn’t even hurt that much!

Adah, our reader, challenged me thusly: “I am looking for cheap eyebrow threading. I currently pay £17 but have paid £3 in the past but need somewhere near Greenwich or on the DLR route between Canary Wharf and Bank. Any recommendations?”

Yesterday I spend several hours trekking round Greenwich in search of cheap threading. No luck. Then, acting on a tip, I headed towards Bow (slightly off Adah’s map, but bear with me here) to Skin and Tonic (no website: 020 8980 5492; 604 Roman Road). Lovely staff and great prices, but they didn’t offer threading. “Try across the road,” I was told. And so I sleuthed on…

Across the road was more of the same – no threading – and another tip to head down the road to a place with a salon in the basement. Jackpot!

Sarita's Hair & Beauty Salon on the Roman Road

Sarita’s Hair & Beauty is a teeny little ladies-only salon underneath a clothing shop. There’s no website, I didn’t see a phone down there, and you’ll certainly not be offered, Soho-style, a glass of wine and a copy of i-D to flip through while you wait. You will, however, get your brows shaped for the astonishingly low price of £3. Yes, really. I can’t even remember the last time I paid £3 for something that wasn’t edible or readable!

I walked in, no appointment, on a Saturday afternoon. The woman who did my threading, Meem, didn’t speak a lot of English but did know exactly what she was doing. She warned me when it would hurt (she was right) and she complimented me on my bravery – apparently some people cry! (For the record, I did not.)

I was in and out in fewer than 15 minutes, and as I still can’t quite fathom, for just £3. Meem did a great job, too – my eyebrows, though never technically unruly, even at their most hirsute – are now all trim and tidy and beautifully shaped. What’s more, they match perfectly – a result most at-home brow pluckers never attain. I’m a convert, and I’ll certainly be back.

I spent £3, and it looks like the average cost of threading at a central London salon is around £17… which means I saved £14.

So Adah, it’s a bit off your route, but at just ten minutes’ walk from Bow Road tube or Bow Church DLR, I’d say that Sarita’s Hair & Beauty offers a pretty affordable solution to your woes! Give it a go and tell us what you think.

Brochure for Sarita's Hair & Beauty

Sarita’s Hair & Beauty

587 Roman Road

Poplar, East London E3 5EL

0208 981 7454