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DD (10) is just starting physio because she hurt her knee doing a grande plie and I thought this could not be going anywhere good. (Fwiw, we saw Dr Wolman (National centre for dance medicine) first and it's all about a lack of core strength as well as underlying laxity) It seemed bleedin' obvious to me that if you are prone to injury, you need to do lots of strength exercises to stabilise and align correctly to prevent injury in future. But apparently they never see anyone till they are in their teens and the damage is done and while everyone has been too polite to tell me I am batshit crazy to do it this way round, there is a definite whiff of it in the air. *sigh*.

Uncanny. My worry now is that not even The Donald is going to get through the entire UK back stock of hair pins on his own. This must be the prelude to global takeover by an army of bewigged Trumpclones. In other news, I found an old stash of hairpins in a makeup bag while looking for something else, so at least Saturday's festival is a go, even if The End of the World is Nigh.

Into thin hair, probably...

The sort where little men from outer space come and steal all the hair pins out of the shops, for some sinister alien purpose? I waltzed into Boots, confident of buying a pack of hair pins to replace the ones I have just thrown out because they are too feeble to hold DD's hair. Nowt. Nicht. Nada. Not a single hair pin in the place. Literally 20+ different types of bobby pin, but no hair pins for buns. So I went to Superdrug. Same thing. A stupid variety of bobby pins - thick ones, thin ones, wavy ones, matt ones, glittery ones, technicolour ones, you name it. No hair pins. Found a hairdresser's supplies shop. They had one sad packet of black hairpins (black is no use to us) languishing in a dark corner, and no plans to buy more. What the very chuff is going on? Has there been some sort of announcement rendering hairpins illegal, and I missed it?

We don't have a lot of red and purple, no - that may be our fatal mistake! I think it's a combination of the pink fading out and nylon picking up other colours from the wash really easily - they're always in the "lights" wash, but still there seems to be some transfer. I'm trying soaking them in Vanish now, to see if that helps.

Is there any way to stop this? Or fix it? DD's school insist on socks, and after the first few washes they go grey and disreputable. They seem to be made of nylon, and I dimly remember in the days when everyone had nylon net curtains, my mother used to soak them in something or other. But whatever it is might turn her pink socks white, which wouldn't help!

Fortunately, we're similar colouring (I'm a redhead, but just as pale as she is) so she can borrow some of my makeup, to start with at least. Things I'm looking at so far: Gel foundation - this one gets v good reviews, easy to put on, not claggy Felt tip liner I'll probably get a brown one as well as a black one because I'm going to have to practice on myself! Brow mascara (thanks F&F!) Good tip going to a counter and getting their advice; I think I'll take her to Boots no 7 because ime this lipstick is brilliant for staying on without being uncomfortable, it's just finding the right shade. I'll ask one of the other mums if they have a photo of their DD in "official" makeup, which we can use to practice at home. They are a really nice bunch, fortunately.

I can just see myself starting to apply foundation to DD's glowing white skin... and not knowing where to stop to avoid a line (probably somewhere below the knees...) I think the main challenge is going to be eyebrows. She has very fair eyebrows, almost invisible. (Apparently some of her classmates refused to believe she *had* eyebrows till Y2). It is going to look strange if she has the school-specified black winged eyeliner and black mascara and no eyebrows to speak of, so I'm going to have to do *something* with them, but if I do too much it's going to look unnatural on a 10 year old. If she was older, I'd take her to get them dyed - just a quiet light brown. What is lighting like at festivals? Reading those links (thanks Janet!) it looks as if an orange red lipstick is better under blue stage lights - but if there isn't that sort of light an orange red will look grim on her.

DD2 is 10, and doing her first festival in a couple of weeks, with a new school. She's had makeup done for shows etc in the past, but the old school always provided the makeup themselves to get some consistency. With this school you bring your own and I was wondering if anyone had any brand recommendations, or things to look for when shopping? I'm not sure how bombproof it needs to be. She's a dirty blonde, very pale skin, blue eyes, so we'll have to avoid making her look too tangoed. I've been told she needs: - foundation - brown eyeshadow - black pen eyeliner - pink blusher - red lipstick What does everyone else use?

Just adding it up. At the moment, it's 4.5h ballet, 1.5h tap, 1.5h modern. So 7.5 in total? It's more than "usual" at the moment because she is trying to catch up so is running 2 grades at a time in each, plus inter foundation. After Christmas she should go down to 5 or 6.

Just coming back to this to say a HUGE thankyou for the roller tip - it's been brilliant and last night she suggested throwing all her teddies away and going to bed with the roller instead. Other injuries creeping in, though, and am trying to organise referrals atm, which is a whole other thread.

Thanks! So that's presumably true of all tendons (IT band must be tendon?) and so she needs to stick to the proper "muscle" areas, not the points of attachment at top and bottom. Though a quick google for diagrams looks as if that's pretty short for the hip adductors at the groin end.

It seems to be the muscles rather than the joint, though it's a good point and something I'll watch for. Are there any good links to *how* to use ball/foam roller for this sort of stretch? I said to DD "have you tried using a tennis ball?" and she, quite reasonably, looked at me as if I had lost the plot. Mind you, I'm getting used to her looking at me like that...

That is a very good question. Is the difference in price between a flexistretcher and any other sort of band (elastic or fixed) worth the price?

Does the "specified" brand come in a wider fitting? It might be just that to accommodate the width in her preferred brand, you are stuck with a shoe that is too long for the foot. Jiggering around with the lacing can help a bit too with a wide foot - you can make it a bit shorter by hauling the laces in. DD is in a Katz wide fit fwiw. These things.

DD (11) is slightly hypermobile. Not the full blown ehlers danlos sort, but enough that it's going to be a problem, I think. The prevailing view at her dance school seems to be that if she does enough dance, the muscles will probably strengthen enough to support the joints and if not, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. And meantime, let's make use of that flexibility. There's quite a bit of stretching in class, and DD finds it quite painful. Now I'd be the first to admit that she's a total wuss, but still it seems to hurt a lot more than stretching used to hurt me at her age (by her age I'd been down to splits and oversplits 3 ways for years) and in particular, it doesn't seem to matter what the degree of stretch is. I tell her that it is better to get a mild stretch and just hold it for a while and do it every day than to push yourself too hard. But any amount of stretch is painful and she backs out of it very quickly. It doesn't help that she's overpronating and a bit knock-kneed, and I think some of the stretches they do are aggravating that. DH works for an overseas company which is in the process of *finally* setting up a private health care scheme, and as soon as they do I am planning to take her both to a podiatrist (to correct the overpronation) and to a sports physio, if I can find one that specialises in this sort of thing. But it has been delayed a few times, so while they claim it will be signed up by mid-October, I'm not sure how long it will really be. Does anyone have any experience/advice in the meantime? Hypermobility in dancers can't be uncommon, so I was hoping there would be relevant advice I could google - but it seems to work on the assumption that stretching is easy and you need to discourage overstretching. Her problem seems to be that the joints are hypermobile but the muscles are tight, so stretching is difficult/painful and all the force is going through the joint.

Thankyou all - v helpful. Have bunged a couple of books and a DVD on my list. Turnboard is a good idea - currently pirouettes are just great... as long as you only go in one direction! Is there any major difference between brands? Ebay seem to have cheap import ones from China for literally half the cost. We generally go to the ballet at some point over the holidays - Matthew Bourne can usually be counted on for topless men, which is always a bonus, isn't it? Warmups are a tricky one. Am holding out against the booties because she has to walk several hundred yards between classes and I've got her some cheapie fuggs from Primark instead, because they have proper "outdoor" soles. The andy pandy suits are a thought, I'll nobble one of the kids that have them and have a look what the favoured brand is. The younger kids will be spending the winter in fleece onesies, of course. Re: flexi stretcher - probably a separate thread. Feet do NOT need stretching, lol, she's got my arches poor kid. (Great for dance. Can't buy boots to fit, ever.)

Christmas. Sorry to start so early, but DD has her birthday 4 days before Christmas, and then I have to buy presents on behalf of relations that have no clue what to get her, so I end up needing four or five times as many ideas as I can reasonably think of if I leave it till December. DD will be 11 this year. She recently moved from a very laid-back dance school to a much keener one and is now doing 8 classes a week minimum, because she needs to catch up. She is absolutely loving it (rather more than I am loving spending my life driving her about tbh, but I'm making a lot of progress with my crochet which is one present sorted at least). She needs more uniform, as it's constantly in the wash, but that's hardly a present, is it? There are, of course, lots of "little girl" dance-related things I could buy her: gimmicky stuff - but she's not a little girl any more and she hates pink. What can I get for her that will be genuinely useful or nice to have at this stage? Any online shops good for this sort of thing?

Well, just a quick update to say that we have got a sort of fix. It is an afro hair product - the class of products known as "edge control". It's like gel, but non-drying (doesn't contain alcohol) and is a LOT more sticky. Like pritt stick for hair. The one we are using is keracare edge tamer, but there are lots of different brands.

I hate to admit this but... we don't have a hairdresser. DD refuses to get her hair cut, other than trimming the ends. And I cut my own. ETA - though to be fair to her, DD has no split ends. The wispy bits aren't broken off in any way - she just has that annoying hair type that the bits round the edges stop growing after a few cm. I'm the same. So though I'm nagging at her to let me cut it to waist length, it won't solve this particular problem.

One of the things about having dry/curly hair - it's hard to get your head around how dry it actually is! We already use a heavy-duty conditioner and then leave-in conditioner on top of that. And so far, any greasy product just seems to get absorbed and disappear. I have no clue where it goes. It's like her hair is a portal to another dimension or something.

I was thinking of something like this: on the basis this is a problem black hair products are designed to fix.

I could French plait it (I can plait for Britain) but it would mean sectioning into at least 6 bits and plaiting all of them towards the pony tail at the back to catch it all. But I don't *think* that sort of fussiness would be allowed. So far, conditioner does nowt. But it may be just a question of finding the right one?

Hahahaha! Yes. Only all of the hairs.

First post - sorry to start with a request for help, but not sure where else to turn... DD has possibly the worst hair for a ballet bun, ever. You know when a bit of chiffon skirt frays and those long thin strands come away that then stick to *everything*? That is her hair, entirely made out of that stuff. I've never seen anything like it. It also grows quite short round the edges of her face, so though it's really long (way past her bum) a lot of it doesn't make it into her bun. It's naturally curly, so even if you do persuade it to briefly lie flat, after an hour or so a halo of blonde fluff pops up round her face and she looks like a dandelion. I try to avoid using much product, or at least anything that can't be left in or just brushes out easily: if we wash it too often (and by often, I mean more than once a fortnight) it dries out and starts breaking however much conditioner I use, and then there are more frizzy bits not less. Oh, plus she gets eczema. She's recently switched to a more gung-ho school, and is starting the whole Festival Thing. We need to come up with some sort of solution, because I'm getting Looks, which will soon be followed by Comments. I've tried gel (for exams &c) but because her fine hair is so porous, it sucks the water out of the gel and uses it to power the curl - it makes the frizzy bits worse, not better: they just pop up as it dries. Oddly, just using water is better than using gel. What I've been tending to do so far is grease up the frizzy bits with vitapointe, slick back with water and chuck the bun together quick. That's OK because it doesn't have to be washed out, but it doesn't hold for 2 hours' sweaty rehearsals. I'm thinking maybe there are other oil or wax based products that are probably OK for your hair if left in, or just rinsed out with plain water? A quick shuftie in Boots was very confusing and I can see myself spending ££££ before we find something that works. Or shaving it all off and buying a wig, which is looking like an increasingly attractive option. Any suggestions?