setting the record straight

ok so i've come across a lot of items on the internet over the past few years about the whole Ant and Dec show Beat the Barber thing back in 1996 - and so much of it is WRONG!

so here we go, I'm going to set the record straight:

"oh i would have killed them if they did that to my daughter"
my parents had to sign the consent forms to allow me to take part - do you REALLY think I was plucked at random and forced to do it against my will? I mean, I know it was the 90s - but we weren't monsters back then!

"it's like concentration camps"
oh FGS no it's not! we all went on WILLINGLY and KNEW EXACTLY what was going to happen! lighten up! concentration camps.... good god.... and we still got a prize for taking part even if we lost! how is that in ANY WAY like concentration camps?

"she looked so scared, she kept licking her lips - a classic sign of nerves"
the actual quiz itself I was completely fine with- I was going to be getting my hair cut anyway so I had no hesitations in getting involved, what WAS terrifying was being in front of a studio audience! I'm quite an introvert so it was THAT which took me entirely out of my comfort zone. Even meeting Ant and Dec themselves wasn't as terrifying as being up on that stage with all those eyes looking at me..
And I kept licking my lips because I was developing a cold, and the first sign I always get is sore, dry lips.

"Oh I saw that show, they shaved a girl's hair off"
well I don't know what you were watching, but on Beat the Barber on the Ant and Dec show I was the only girl to lose, and my head was NOT shaved! it was cut to chin length.

"why did they have a barber doing a girl's hair?"
As you probably know it takes less skill to run a clipper over a head as it does to style length. the guy was actually a hairdresser for celebrities.

"it looks so much better short, they cut off all that frizzy over-styled length, will be so much easier for her to keep up with colouring it"
this one didn't so much piss me off but amuse me - unless my parents have been sneaking hair dye into my shampoo since I was a baby, I'm pretty sure this is my natural colour. and frizzy? my hair is naturally wavy, and I didn't have a clue of how to care for it- but it had never once been heat styled at that point in my life. and the type of brush he used on my hair just made it 100 times worse - I NEVER use those sorts of brushes as they seem to add static to my hair and make it even puffier. I pretty much have always worn my hair back in a ponytail, but obviously for the telly, it looks better if you wear it down (so I was told anyway)

those were the main ones, set straight - from my POV anyway. ever wanted to know something about the whole incident? please ask, I'll answer as best I can.