A year ago, the letters ghd would have meant nothing to me.

Now, they’re all I ever hear. "I’ll bring my ghds," "Can I borrow your ghds?’ "She’s got some ghds for her birthday."

If it wasn’t being uttered by my daughters and their friends I’d probably have assumed it was some sort of anti-social behaviour order, a tamer version of GBH.

But no, the letters are a particular brand of a particular product with which young girls – and, I have recently discovered, women of all ages – seem completely obsessed.

According to my daughters, everyone who is anyone possesses a pair of ghd hair straighteners. And, as is the usual course of events these days, they want some. I told them they would have to wait until their birthdays, until I found out how much they cost - almost a month’s council tax. With today’s youngsters vanity, like everything else, doesn’t come cheap.

The price of this supposedly must-have accessory isn’t the only cause of friction in our house. It is the whole practice of straightening - the potential long-term damage it could do to their hair, and, of course, the fire risk, if they accidentally leave their straighteners on.

"Why do you want to straighten your hair - it looks fine as it is?" I’ve told my eldest daughter, after she came home looking like Jennifer Aniston. "EVERYONE does it," she replied.

I felt a pang of guilt, thinking back to my early teens, when I would tie my hair back with about 100 bobbles, in an attempt to straighten it. It was like sleeping on a pole, and the results lasted only a day.

I even tried ironing it once – which is essentially what straighteners do, but without the fairly high risk of permanent facial disfigurement. At their age, I’d have done just about anything to have straight hair. Of course, I haven’t told them that.

So, back to the straighteners. A spot of research revealed that women are as obsessed as children. Maybe I’m naive, but I didn’t realised how many of my friends used them.

But alls well that ends well. A work colleague kindly offered to sell a pair at a knock-down price. No, they’re not ghd, but my daughters are thrilled. As an added bonus, they’re pink and diamond-studded.

Last week they applied them to my untameable hair and, I had to admit, it looked quite good. If straighteners had been around when I was young I would definitely have had a pair.

In fact, I was so impressed with the results on my frizzy locks, that I’ve been sneaking into their rooms and using them.