On style, she rules

Published: 12:00am, 22 Apr 2012

In the past few months, I have noticed several people (men and women) walking around Hong Kong wearing Toms shoes. From time to time, I look for shops that sell Toms, but I never find any. Ordering on its website doesn't work, as it doesn't accept our lack of a long address or our eight-digit phone numbers. Help?

Toms Cruising, Sha Tin

The Dictator rules: Well, I found them in a jiffy, so I don't know where you've been looking. I'll go easy on you just this once, because, whether you realise it or not, you'll be doing something good for the world. Every time you buy a pair of Toms, the brand will donate a pair of shoes to a needy child. Back at www.toms.com (where you'd have found store locations, if you'd bothered to look), you can read up on American founder Blake Mycoskie's philanthropic mission, which started in Argentina in 2006. The shoes are based on the Argentine alpargata, a sort of canvas espadrille with either rubber or rope soles. Pick from a range of styles available at Lane Crawford (about HK$450 and up; Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui; Times Square, Causeway Bay; or IFC Mall, Central, tel: 2118 7777). If you're a cold-hearted fashionista, you'll be equally pleased to find brands on nearby shelves doing similar looks, such as French shoe line Rivieras (HK$690 to HK$790), or go back online to find numerous copycats and charity-minded labels. The startlingly similar Bobs line launched by Skechers circa 2010 has the same donation programme. Skechers told us the line will hit a few of its Hong Kong stores in June (20 Des Voeux Road Central, tel: 2526 0183; and Park Lane Shopper's Boulevard, 111 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, tel: 2314 8468; www.skechers.com.hk).

Is there a product to cover signs of grey hair, to stop it from spreading at a young age? My hair is chestnut brown. I don't want to start with 'permanent' hair colours right now, as it would be another 'dependency'. A friend mentioned a brush, similar to mascara, to 'mask' the horrible silver hair ... And what do you think of this product I found on the internet: JF Lazartigue Colour Emulsion for Grey Hair?

Grey Matters, Central

The Dictator: Saying 'brown' would have sufficed and, although we generally encourage specificity, the chestnut description is not the only thing that's nutty about your question. Let's skip over your odd use of quotation marks, especially as I fear you use that annoying hand gesture in person, too. As for your dependencies, they're encased in a can of worms we'd rather not open. More to the point, hair colouring is a fine art that's best left to the professionals - so ask your hairdresser, not us. It's also kind of crazy that you searched for JF Lazartigue products but not where they're sold in Hong Kong (Club Lusitano, 4 Duddell Street, Central, tel: 3796 6222; or see www.jflazartigue.com.hk for the full listing). Did you even read the description? That colour emulsion (HK$235) is permanent, but peroxide-free and made from an algae gel compound. For spot fixes, check out Cover Your Gray's Brush In Hair Colour or the Hair Colour Stick (HK$30; Fanda, World-Wide House, 19 Des Voeux Road Central, tel: 2311 6168; www. coveryourgray.com). As you're obviously willing to experiment, be our guinea pig and test the quirky Japanese and Korean solutions you'll find in shops such as Bonjour, Sasa and so on.

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