WHEN I told my friends I was going for a facial and a manicure, I was embarrassed.

What sort of man was vain enough - or feminine enough - to want beauty treatment?

But, in fact, the response was quite positive. This is the 21st Century after all, we're allowed to do these things nowadays.

Just like women aren't supposed to stay at home and look after house and baby any more, us men don't have to pretend we don't care about how we look.

So, we're truly liberated.

I can go for a "male grooming" session and nobody will raise an eyebrow. Not even a well-waxed and plucked eyebrow.

In fact, women even like the fact their men are sensitive enough to care about the way they look, my flatmate Lynsey assured me.

Even better.

I must admit though, I did feel nervous, and I was reassured to find the waiting room populated by men.

It was a special day at Fountains Salon at the Worcester College of Art and Technology. It was time for all men of the city to unite to relinquish their masculinity for an hour.

"We tend to have all male clients in at the same time," said Kelly, who was to do my face. (When I say "do" this was, quite literally, the level of knowledge I had at this stage).

"That way the men don't feel so uncomfortable because they all feel they're in the same boat."

Good thinking. And in this boat of beauty, waiting to go under the brush, were the college principal Chris Morecroft and Stoney and Ed Nell from Wyvern FM. We all looked as nervous as each other.

There was a rigorous checklist to undergo.

"What skin type are you?" asked Kelly. Don't know.

"Is your skin dry or greasy?"

Probably dry.

"Do you have damaged cuticles?"

What's a cuticle?

She asked me what beauty products I used.

Does shower gel count?

Then she pulled the curtain around the bed, told me to take off my shirt and it started getting serious.

Kelly started spraying and rubbing things into my face while Clare started on the hands and I decided to close my eyes.

Then, Clare put my hand into some warm liquid.

"What's that?" I asked, preparing myself to remember the products and techniques to list in this article.

"Just hot water. We haven't started yet," she said.

A facial scrub was, well, scrubbed on to my face and then something was sprayed.

It was a toner, Kelly told me, which was designed to tighten my pores. I think.

Then came a new experience: Being steamed.

I'd always thought that putting your face over a boiling kettle was a bad idea - but that's what it made me think of.

It was opening my pores and it actually felt good.

Meanwhile, Clare was working assiduously on my hands.

Filing, smoothing, massaging and, apparently, pushing back my cuticles.

"People have ridges on their nails," she said, "so what we do is take them away."

Ridges? Well, yes, it had never really occurred to me before, but I suppose I did, and, therefore, I guess it was a good idea to get rid of them.

I was enjoying myself now and was very relaxed. In fact, I was having difficulty staying awake as Kelly brushed on the facemask and began to massage my head. This was the best bit.

I didn't care what I looked like, as long as I could relax.

And before I knew it, the hour-and-a-half had gone by and it was all over.

I tried to write down everything that had been done to me but I still wasn't really sure.

"You'd better not say that," said Clare as she looked at my notebook. "It was dead nail cells I removed, not dead nails".

So, forgive me, if I don't tell you exactly the full range of techniques you get at Fountains.

Suffice to say that, for under £10, it represents fantastic value for money, for men or women.

Clare and Kelly, both 16 and from Droitwich, are studying for their NVQ in Beauty Therapy and they and their colleagues do a very professional, thorough job.

And it was true, my nails turned out fantastically smooth. No ridges.

Perhaps this is what being a man in the 21st Century is all about.

I asked some of the other men there what they thought and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Suddenly we can go for beauty treatment and still be comfortable with our masculinity.

"I went for male grooming today," I nonchalantly told Lynsey when I got home. "Have a feel of my nails. Look, no ridges!"

"You're such a girl," she said.