Unlucky in love? Let your lady friend help, says Fong Chau

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Your Question: Packs of men out on the pull is as intimidating as it is unattractive. So the latest way of getting the girl of your dreams is to have a wing woman – a lady who will talk to women on your behalf, bigging you up before introducing you.

It’s a craze that has taken off in America – the Wing Woman agency charges $75 ($£38) an hour for a lady friend to cruise the bars with you.

But would it work over here? According to the agency website it can’t fail, as women are invariably attracted to men who have female friends around them: “They tend to lower their defences and see these men as having a seal of approval.”

So will saying “my mate fancies you” work as well in a bar as it did in the playground? To find out, I put it to the test by playing wing woman to 28-year-old James Holloway.

Wing woman diary

James has been single for two years despite having a good job in civil service middle-management and being scruffily handsome.

We head to popular club Madame Jojo’s on Brewer Street, Soho, to watch some bands. I spot a gorgeous blonde by the bar. We get chatting, but when I ask if I could introduce her to my “lovely and charming friend”, she says that she has a boyfriend.

The rejection stings, but it’s not long before I see a brunette all alone.

“Do you know the name of this band?” I ask. She doesn’t, but introduces herself as Ashley, a student who is visiting London from America. She’s beautiful with long dark hair and big brown eyes.

I like her, but will James? After ­we’ve bonded for five minutes over a range of girly ­topics, James comes over and they hit it off talking about music. Soon, I feel confident enough to leave them, so I ask them to watch my bag while I go to the toilet. Spying on them from a ­distance, I can see they’re still talking. But the body ­language is distant, so I head back to see if I can move things along a little.

When I arrive, James is telling Ashley about how he was locked out of a hotel in Birmingham over the weekend. It’s not the most entertaining of stories, so I try to prop him up, laughing and chiming in. I edge away from them again as conversation starts to flow.

At the end of the night, James and Ashley have swapped numbers and I ask: “Are you going to kiss?”

Faster than you can say “my mate fancies you”, the pair have locked lips like a couple of teenagers.

James gives the seal of ­approval to his wing woman. “It’s like you were both of our best friends,” he says. But he has his reservations about using a female buddy to find the future Mrs Holloway.

“The only problem is that you could be seen as socially inept – a guy that can’t manage to talk to girls ­himself,” he says. “I’m not sure it would be appropriate for finding a serious girlfriend. But as the catalyst for setting up dates, it’s a good start.”