For women across Merseyside, Fabulous Friday at the Grand National is the style event of the year, and few salons sit closer to the action than our beauty salon in Maghull, just minutes from Aintree itself. Every spring Ruth prepares local women and racegoers travelling in from across the country for the biggest day in the Liverpool social calendar, and after twenty-five years of race weeks she knows exactly what it takes to look immaculate from the first arrival photographs to the last race. Here is her guide to getting genuinely ready for Fabulous Friday.
Why Race Day Beauty Needs a Plan
Fabulous Friday is a long day in unpredictable spring weather, photographed from every angle. Liverpool women famously bring more glamour to Aintree than any other meeting in the racing calendar, and the styling is planned weeks ahead. The beauty preparation deserves the same forethought, because the difference between looking wonderful at midday and still looking wonderful at six in the evening comes down to choosing treatments that last, and timing them properly. That is where a local therapist who has prepared clients for decades of race days earns her keep.
Lashes That Last the Whole Day
Nothing transforms race-day makeup like professionally applied lashes, and nothing survives a long, emotional, occasionally drizzly day at Aintree better. The volume lashes Liverpool clients book with Ruth before the National give a full, glamorous flutter that needs no mascara and no touch-ups, holding their shape from the first arrival photo through every race, celebration and happy tear. Ruth tailors the volume and length to your eye shape and the rest of your look, so the effect is show-stopping without tipping into costume. Her advice is to book lashes a day or two before the meeting, giving you time to enjoy them settled and perfect.
Nails Ready for Their Close-Up
Between the champagne glass, the race card and the phone, your hands are in more Fabulous Friday photographs than you might expect. The gel nails Liverpool racegoers book at the salon are the sensible glamour choice for the day, taking a hat-matching colour with a flawless, chip-resistant finish that shrugs off a long day of gloves, clutch bags and celebrations. Whether you match your outfit precisely or choose a classic neutral to let the hat do the talking, freshly done nails are the finishing detail that pulls a race-day look together.
Skin, Brows and the Finishing Touches
The best race-day makeup sits on well prepared skin, so Ruth recommends any facial work in the fortnight before the meeting rather than the final days, letting your skin settle into its best condition by Friday. Brows shaped and tinted in race week frame the face under even the widest hat brim, and a professional wax in the days before means smooth confidence whatever the dress code demands. Ruth helps each client build a simple preparation timeline across the final two weeks, staggering treatments so everything peaks together on the day itself.
A Race-Week Timeline That Works
After decades of preparing clients for the National, Ruth’s ideal timeline is well proven. Around two weeks out, have any facial treatment so your skin peaks on the day, and use that visit to plan the rest with her. In the final week, brows are shaped and tinted, waxing is done with a few days to spare so skin is settled and smooth, and nails and lashes are placed in the last day or two before the meeting so both are at their absolute freshest for the photographs. Spacing treatments this way also makes race week feel like part of the occasion rather than a chore, a little run of appointments where the excitement builds visit by visit, and by the time the hat comes out of its box everything else is already perfect.
Local knowledge helps in smaller ways too. Being minutes from the course, Ruth’s clients include women who have done Fabulous Friday every year for decades, and their collective wisdom flows freely around the salon in race week, from which heel styles survive the walk from the car parks to how to keep a lash look flawless through happy tears at the winning post. Visitors travelling to Aintree from further afield often say the salon chatter was the best race briefing they received all week. If you are staying locally for the meeting, it is well worth booking your treatments for after you arrive rather than before you travel, letting a salon on Aintree’s doorstep put the finishing touches to your look with the racecourse just minutes away and no motorway miles between your fresh lashes and the day itself.
Book Early, Because Everyone Books
One honest warning from long experience. Race week is the busiest week of spring at the salon, and as Ruth works alone, her diary for the days before the National fills faster than any other. Local clients from Maghull, Aintree, Melling and beyond book their Fabulous Friday appointments weeks in advance, and every year someone rings on the Wednesday hoping for a Thursday miracle. Do not let that be you. Plan your treatments early and race week becomes a pleasure rather than a scramble.
If you are heading to Aintree this spring, let a salon minutes from the course take care of the beauty side. Call Ruth on 0151 909 6116 or book through the contact us page, and arrive at Fabulous Friday looking every inch the part.
