Seasonal primping can be pricey

Beauty On Demand managing director Sharon Kenny.

Let's face it, we all let ourselves go a bit during winter. What you can't see can't hurt you, and all that. So our love handles develop love handles, and we forget the existence of the gym on dark evenings after work.

As for our homes, the dirt doesn't show so much on grey, brooding winter days and the garden is left to run riot because there is no outside entertaining going on.

But when spring/summer arrive, all your faults are revealed. You feel the need to "restore all the areas that are exposed", says fashion doyenne Paula Ryan. That ranges from your nails, your legs, your arms to your hairdo and your house.

Ryan likes to go to a consultant and talk about an image update most years. "I say give me a new look, whether it's cutting your hair off or growing it. We do get bored," she says.

As Labour Weekend approaches, people "re-engage" their nutritionist or trainer, vowing to drop a few kilos before Christmas.

Trove interior design specialist Daniela Norling says it's the same thing when it comes to our homes. With family and friends about to descend for the holiday period, New Zealanders are attacked by the need to appear prosperous.

It might be 70 shopping days until Yuletide, but for many of us the list of improvements can be so long that before we know it we have spent all our Christmas-shopping money by the beginning of December.

Both men and women these days submit to an exhausting blur of exfoliating, waxing or laser hair removal, pedicures, manicures and so on. The problem is once you start, you have to keep it up. During the summer months, maintenance costs can go through the roof.

Matt Swan, owner of Mensworks Grooming Centre in Auckland's Little High St, says a popular treatment at this time of year is chest, back and stomach waxing and wet shaves.

"Our face is our business card. Looking like we spent the night in a bus shelter does not make it any more," he says.

Waxings at Mensworks cost from $55 a pop and Swan recommends them every six weeks. His Time Packages are in demand at this time of year. These treatments range from one to three hours, and attack all his clients' problem areas. The price ranges from $100 for an hour to $225 for three.

Many beauty treatments need to be done regularly to achieve a certain look.

According to Beauty On Demand managing director Sharon Kenny, spray tanning works best with a once-a-week application ($90 with exfoliation); and pedicures ($85) are a must at least once a month, although BOD recommends them fortnightly for "perfect feet". It's as if you have taken on another mortgage.

As for that ever-fluctuating body shape, people will spend up large for help on losing weight in time for summer, and that means regular sessions.

All the diet clinics enjoy increased business at this time of year, but the latest craze is having your own personal nutritionist. Ryan says all her friends are using these food experts because they give one-on-one support. A good diet gives you better skin, improves the appearance generally, makes the hair shine, she says.

Her friends go to Fiona Hume, who works from Body Fuel in the Les Mills premises. Last week, she was booked up.

"I get people from all walks of life, from forensic scientists to air crew," she says.

The reason people like Hume is she does not try to get them to make their lives miserable to lose weight. If they want to drink the odd glass of wine, she works with that. She charges $95 for the first visit, and $45 per half hour thereafter. She also squeezes people in for a 15-minute pep talk over their food diaries for $30.

And if you think you'll just join the gym for some emergency exercise in the lead-up to summer, it won't come cheap. A Herald on Sunday straw poll of three Auckland gyms reveals you can pay from $120 to $150 a month for a three-month contract - that's $10-$12.50 each time you exercise, if you go three times a week.

Once we have sorted our bodies out, we turn our attention to our homes.

The housing market winds up again considerably in spring, as sellers use the warmer weather in showing their properties off to best advantage. This of course sparks a frenzy of gardening, water blasting, painting and the like.

Jean Smith, manager of Barfoot & Thompson Mt Albert in Auckland's central west, says with the average Auckland house price now approaching half a million dollars, people should look at putting aside at least $5000 to get their homes in the best condition before putting them on the market.

She says if a house is too cluttered a salesperson will recommend a clean-out, which can be costly, and if there's not enough in the house they will advise buying a few pieces to get the place looking good.

If the house is empty, renting furniture is a must.

"If there's nothing in the house the salespeople will absolutely express that people should look at dressing their houses up," Smith says.

There are a variety of companies that dress houses.

Smith says to deck a house out with rented furnishings costs around $2000 a month.

"But what a difference that makes to the selling of the house." She believes it could add as much as $8000-$10,000 to the sale price, and the property will sell more quickly.

In terms of tidying up the garden, whether you're selling your house or not, home services franchise Greenacres says it is not uncommon for people to spend $500 getting the outside of their properties tarted up and ready for summer. It says for two people working on the property it charges $60 an hour. It also provides other services, such as waterblasting ($50 an hour).

Once the place is clean, you'll want it looking pretty. Landscape designer Regina Wypych, director of Creative Solutions, recommends some new mass planting of white impatiens in time for Christmas. Screening off the deck with an oriental trellis or a wall block can add value, she says.

And aside from those wanting to sell their houses for the best price, people are updating their homes far more often than they used to and the approach of summer is the time they do it. Trove's Norling often has desperate calls from summer perfectionists. She calls them her Christmas miracles. Norling suggests people space out their home improvements during the year rather than putting financial pressure on themselves around Christmas. Tradesmen charge their highest rates at the end of the year, so people are better off starting projects in February.

Good advice. But rarely taken, she says.