Good news, you no longer have to go back to the boring gym and pound the treadmills to keep in shape, as the new way to get fit is dancing. It’s sociable, exciting, different and perfect for making the hard job of keeping fit something fun to do.

The rise in the popularity of dancing lessons is largely due to the BBC’s hugely successful celebrity reality show, Strictly Come Dancing. Fitness fanatics are following in the dance steps of previous Strictly contestants such as Claire Sweeney, Darren Gough and Alesha Dixon to use dancing as a fun and energetic way of getting exercise without the monotony of treadmills and aerobics. Plus with the untimely passing of Dirty Dancing’s Patrick Swayze, dancing is in the spotlight more than ever before.

Dance studios offer Strictly-style classes by top trainers and award-winning dancers, boosting people’s morale on getting fit and creating a social atmosphere rather than a gym full of iPod-clad runners. From belly dancing to pole dancing, latin dancing to flamenco, Bollywood dancing to strictly ballroom dancing there’s never been so much choice.

Dancing queens… and kings?

Dance instructors in Leicester say class numbers can double in size when a Strictly Come Dancing series is aired as everyone gets that fever for dancing and signs up for the tantalizing tango or the sizzling salsa, and there even seems to be a rise in boys taking up dance lessons. The number of school pupils choosing dance has risen 83% in the last four years and a third of those pupils are boys. It could be the influence of Strictly contestants Darren Gough, Joe Calzaghe and Phil Tuffnell, who each have a background in sports.

Counting calories

The health benefits of dancing are tremendous, so now we know how Flavia Cacace always manages to look so bright and bushy tailed each week! Dancing the night away can burn on average 265 calories, which is more than traditional weight-trimming activities such as swimming or biking, plus there’s the added bonus of it being a whole lot of fun.

Dancing can also help reduce stress, increase energy and improve strength, as well as increase muscle tone and co-ordination. You might also find that you feel a bit more positive after a good old jig around the front room. Ballroom dancing in particular helps keep the heart in shape, develops the circulatory system, tones legs and body, helps with weight loss, and builds and increases stamina, while salsa dancing may also help lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels.

So, if you’re already clearing the coffee table out of the living room to make space for the Foxtrot, well done – you’re a step in the fun direction to get fit and healthy. Engaging in social dance classes is a treat for the mind as well as the body, just be careful to not get carried away with the Johnny Castle look-a-like teacher.

At Wahanda we don’t think there’s anything wrong with men plucking and tweezing every now and then to tidy up unsightly bushy eyebrows, but when it comes to full-on waxing or threading to shape, define and create what’s now known as ‘guybrows’, we’re not so sure.

According to Debenhams, men now make up 40% of visitors to their in-store brow bars – that’s double last year’s figures. Probably taking example from celebs such as Russell Brand and Danny Cipriani, men are now catching onto the idea that a good brow shape can be beneficial to a face. Noel Gallagher, take note.

The most popular way of de-bushing those brows is threading, a very simple method that’s been used in India, Turkey and Egypt for years. It carefully removes unsightly fuzz in a quick and painless manner, ensuring that no stragglers are left behind to ruin that perfectly defined arch. But, while many women enjoy seeing a tall, dark stranger with a piercing stare (all you Twilight fans know it), there has to be a line before the new trend goes too far. Sylvester Stallone has already set the bar high for overdoing it, and we’re not sure Mr Darcy would have had the same effect without his manly mono-brow.

Many men are getting it right, managing that perfect mix of metrosexual style and shape but still looking manly enough without having to resort to hedge-trimmers. Slowly but surely the taboo around eyebrow shaping is fading, and men are beginning to take more notice of how their brows look. Ladies, we have beauty competition…

Forget that amazing non-surgical facelift, lunchtime liposuction and quick tummy tuck over the weekend, because there’s a new op in town. The announcement of a new two-in-one cosmetic surgery treatment has hit the news this week, making that ‘too good to be true’ idea of taking the fat from your hips and putting it back in places you’d much rather have filled out, a reality.

You can soon, in one single operation, get unwanted fat removed from parts of your body you’d like to be slimmed out and use it to enhance your breasts by up to three cup sizes the natural way. The new procedure hopes to overtake implants to dominate the cosmetic surgery market, providing a more natural looking and longer lasting breast enlargement while making women feel doubly confident by reducing fat from areas such as hips, thighs and stomachs.

First devised seven years ago, the op is due to be available from early 2010 and is expected to cost around £8,000. The Harley Medical Group are offering the two-in-one procedure at 25 clinics in the UK and 1 in the Republic of Ireland, but it won’t be available for those with low body fat or those who are happy with their body shape.

Utilising body fat of course raises some health issues from the sceptics; however the effects of the procedure are said to have roots in constructive surgery, and they provide a better and natural shape as well as being longer lasting than the traditional silicone implant which needs replacing every 10-15 years. Grafting the fat from the places you wish had a little less padding and using it to plump up your chest has been a want of many women for some time, so there’s no doubt that muffin-topped ladies will be queuing round the block to sign up as soon as it becomes available.

Celebrities are already flocking to get the natural enlargement operation, namely TV star Ulrika Jonsson. Spending £8,000 on mastoplexy has helped her get back in shape after the birth of her fourth child last July, saying it had given her back “the body I had when I was 16“. Mastoplexy is said to cause minimal scarring, providing a completely natural breast enlargement without the silicone.