No thank you A little lotus flower elan?

A resounding no, cheers very much, to this piece of expensive tat from Alexandre de Paris (whoever he may be)

SOME people just cannot get away with wearing fancy adornments in their hair. If your hair is too short or too fine then accessories usually look completely incongruous. Hair accessories also look silly if you're not the sort of person that people describe as "bubbly". If you do actually look nice with bits of things stuck in your hair please do not be tempted by these chignon pins from Alexandre de Paris. I wouldn't be quite so offended by them if they were pounds 1.99 from Superdrug or something but they cost pounds 146.50 each! Admittedly these "Lotus Flower" pins are made from tortoiseshell and handset with Swarovski crystals. Thankfully, they are limited edition (available from Harrods, Selfridges and House of Fraser). I suppose the thinking behind them is that they are more hair jewellery than hair accessories. But, for that kind of money you could buy a cheap package holiday where you can get lots of tacky stuff for your hair (or indeed you can put seawater in your hair which makes my pathetic locks look fuller and happier than anything).

Cheap accessories are much nicer because they are less serious and you're not going to be that bothered if you lose them are you? As already mentioned the Johnny Loves Rosie catalogue is a good place for this, as is Accessorize (enquiries: 0171 313 3000) and Superdrug (branches nationwide) which can't be beat for naff kitsch value.

I asked Rosie Green, beauty writer at Elle what she thought of accessorising your hair. "It started a couple of seasons ago with the tiara thing,"she said. "It doesn't look weird anymore - it looks fun. Dolce e Gabbana had butterflies in the hair for summer and Galliano had little clips in the hair for his spring/summer show. It can really make an outfit if you dress your hair." Rosie did have some words of warning though: "If you overdo it you can end up looking like a Russian gymnast".

If, on the other hand, hair decoration is anathema to you, then that's okay too. Just make it very straight and flat and "skinny", exactly like the hairdos at Byblos and Prada. Well, that's sounds good, because to my mind, the best thing you can do to your hair is to wash it and brush it.