WITH a full face of make-up and fake eyelashes, Natasha Rawal is the last person you’d expect to find toiling away under a car bonnet.
But it is here that the 36-year-old feels most at home, working as a mechanic at London‘s first all-female garage Spanners With Manners.
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The mum-of-one has discovered that men cannot believe she works in the garage, with delivery drivers gawping at her whenever they drop off parcels.
She said men find her job “sexy” and bombard her with crude pick-up lines as soon as they discover her profession, some even asking her for a “full service”.
But Natasha said she would not change it for the world, adding that she has become a “cheekier” person as a result of the job.
She told The Sun: “Men think it’s sexy that I’m a mechanic, they think it’s like porn.
“The worst chat up line I get is ‘you’re the fittest mechanic I’ve seen’.
“There aren’t many girl mechanics out there – and the ones that are out there look like boys.
“When people see me in the garage, they think I’m a bimbo because I’ve got long lashes and I’m quite girly.”
Natasha, who also owns the car parts business A2B Components, revealed that men often try to seduce her with garage puns on nights out.
She said: “I always get ‘do you want to give me a service’ or ‘you can service me’.
“I’ll be like ‘do you want a full service or a partial service’. Being a mechanic has definitely made me cheekier.
“But sometimes men don’t even know what they’re saying when they talk dirty.
“They’ll be like ‘the pistons need to be lubricated’ and I’ll be like, well, technically not too much. I know about cars so I end up educating them.”
Natasha found that men on a single parents’ dating app, which she joined earlier this year, also found her job to be a massive turn on.
“I put a photograph of me in my blue boiler suit as my profile picture and I got a lot of messages asking me if I was actually a mechanic,” she said.
“They love the idea of it but not the reality. The reality is your hand is stuck in an engine bay, you’re covered in so many layers you look like the Michelin man and you’re coated in oil.
“I was seeing one guy recently who even told me I had to have a shower before I could sit on his sofa.”
The grubby reality of Natasha’s day job in the garage is a far-cry from her other job.
Natasha juggles her garage work with her side-hustle as a hostess, serving drinks to the rich and famous at events.
She will be serving booze to VIPs at the Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois’ fight at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Natasha said: “Being a hostess is such a glamorous and easy job.
“Just recently I worked the England v Finland game and it was so nice to get dressed up and be a girl again.
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A FEMALE electrician has been told she’s “too pretty” for her job.
Teneisha Musumeci, 21, also claims men always take pictures of her while she at work.
The self-proclaimed glam-girl said she always had a desire to learn a trade before making it her mission to prove we don’t live in a “man’s world”.
Following a successful pre-apprenticeship, Teneisha was offered a position with her current company in Australia.
Despite loving the job, Teneisha has been subjected to odd behaviour and sexist remarks while on site.
She said: “One time I was at work and this old man literally started taking pictures of me while I was working.
“On another occasion, one of the lads on site actually followed me around for hours.
“And, of course, I’ve had all those comments such as, I’m ‘too pretty’ or ‘too glam’ to be doing a job like this.
“I’m definitely very glam out of work but at work we wear long work trousers, high-vis vests and work boots, so I don’t need to comment on that!”
Gaining quite the following on TikTok, the young woman now documents her life as a sparky.
She added: “I’ve always been set on doing a trade so despite weird comments I’m so happy in my job and glad this is what I chose to go into.
“My experience in this job has been positive overall, but I’ve received sexist comments from men, as well as some behaving weird around me.
“It annoys me because some of my colleagues are wearing the same clothes and they don’t get the same remarks made at them.
“I don’t really understand the comments, it’s so stupid, but luckily I’ve seen such an increase in women in this trade over the past few years.
“One of my best friends works with me and I think there’s around 10 women in our company now which is amazing!”
“I’ve met Mick Jagger, Alan Sugar and lots of other celebrities through being a hostess.
“It’s the complete opposite to being a mechanic. It’s hard work in a garage, you feel like you’ve broken your back at the end of the day. But it’s so rewarding.”
However, Natasha has also found that working in a male-dominated industry comes with its drawbacks.
She said: “I get comments from people on social media saying I don’t know what I’m doing. And sometimes when I meet people outside the garage they don’t believe I’m a mechanic.
“One time I was at a club living my best life and this guy asked me what I did. When I told him I was a mechanic, he said ‘no you’re not, let me see your hands’. I showed him my hands and he still insisted I wasn’t.
“Another time I was working on my mum’s car and a passerby stopped and said to me ‘aren’t you going to chip a nail, you should really tie your hair up’. I thought ‘p*** off, carry on walking’.
“People wouldn’t say that to a man. But I don’t care, it’s water off a duck’s back to me.”
Despite the negativity, Natasha still loves her job in the garage.
She said: “It’s so enjoyable. I wish I’d become a mechanic when I was 16 as I would have been a head technician by 25 and making a lot of money.
“My message to young girls thinking about becoming a mechanic is just do it, if you’re willing to get a bit dirty and work like a horse you’ll do well.”
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