Beauty is now big business, with salons on virtually every street corner.

But there was a time when it was a more clandestine affair. JO HAYWOOD travels back 100 years to find out more.

A DISCREET knock at the door would mark her arrival. After a quick glance up and down the street to make sure no one had marked her approach, the demure woman carrying a large leather trunk would be admitted into the parlour.

She would complete her work quietly and diligently before disappearing again into the night. If anyone asked, she was never there.

Such was the life of an Edwardian beauty therapist.

"Attitudes towards beauty therapy were very different then. It was all very hush-hush," said Carole Turner, a relative newcomer to the beauty block after taking over Annette's of Stonegate in York in 1966. "Now if a woman has a little moustache problem, she will talk to her friends and get advice. Back then it was very much a taboo subject."

The original Annette set up in business in Harrogate at the beginning of the last century. She specialised in electrolysis - hair removal using pulsating currents - and visited clients in their own homes, carrying her equipment around the streets in a leather trunk.

She eventually opened her own salons in Harrogate and Leeds and, after her death, the brand arrived in York.

"All the salons had very discreet entrances," said Carole. "Here in York, for instance, women liked to stroll down Stonegate and then suddenly disappear through a doorway.

"We are obviously much more upfront now. But clients who want to keep their visits to themselves still appreciate our

lack of on-street fanfare."

There were no colleges teaching beauty therapy in Annette's day and, while the details of her life are sketchy, it is believed she learned her skills by shadowing a consultant skin specialist, working alongside him in his clinic before venturing out on her own.

"In those days girls from good families didn't go out to work," said Carole. "But I think perhaps Annette's family treated her differently because she had a clubfoot and might not have been regarded as a good marriage prospect.

"Her family might have been proud of her subsequent business success, but they probably wouldn't have talked about it.

"The beauty business was somehow regarded as unseemly."

Like her own family, her clients would have been from the monied classes, with cash to spend on expensive beauty treatments.

There were no glossy magazines to tell them which treatments celebrities were trying out, so most of Annette's trade would have come via word-of-mouth.

Personal recommendations still play a big part in the beauty business today, as do a surprising number of the original treatments enjoyed by women 100 years ago.

"A lot of the skills Annette introduced are still used today," explained Carole, who retained the name Annette's when she took over the business 38 years ago out of respect for her predecessor's reputation.

"Massage, skin treatments and hair removal were very popular in her day and are still very popular now.

"The treatments have just been refined over the years that's all."

After 38 years at the helm, Carole is now 'practising retirement', working fewer days in the salon and dedicating more time to her garden and to travelling in preparation for when she retires properly next year.

"I will miss the clients more than anything I think," she said.

"I've got a daughter who's 30 and I have clients who remember when she was born.

"You develop a bond of trust with them over the years that they pass on to their daughters and granddaughters.

"I am now working with fourth generations of clients."

She is leaving the salon in the capable hands of her business partner Elaine Booker, who she describes as a "good Yorkshire girl with her feet firmly on the ground".

"She's taking the salon forward," said Carole.

"But it will always be Annette's of Stonegate."

Updated: 12:11 Tuesday, December 07, 2004