Allen & Sadler Hair Studio, on Hickman Road, was established in 1976 and is now gearing up to mark its half-century serving the town and its community.
Manager Kirsty Bousie has worked at the salon since she was 18 and is now 55, having spent almost her entire career there. She now runs the business alongside fellow long-serving stylist Terry Walton, after the salon was sold three years ago to new owner Stuart Reid.
“It was my parents’ business originally,” Ms Bousie said, explaining that her mother and father started the salon with just one room at the front and a small team made up of themselves and one other stylist.
Over the years, they gradually expanded the premises and workforce, training apprentices and watching many go on to open their own salons.
Today, Allen & Sadler has a team of around 10 to 11 staff and continues to see generations of the same families coming through the doors. “We’ve had families where we started with the children, and now we’re doing their children,” Ms Bousie said.
Like many high street businesses, the salon was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and was forced to shut its doors during lockdown. Staff kept in touch with customers via social media.
Under its new ownership, the business has been investing in a fresh look, with a new shopfront and flooring already in place and further refurbishment planned. Ms Bousie said the team is keen to keep taking on apprentices, despite cost-of-living pressures and rising wage bills, because “the youngsters are your future… the next generation of hairdressers”.
As well as traditional cuts, colours and styling, the salon offers balayage, ombré and hair extensions, and has a beauty room upstairs that it hopes to bring back into regular use. The team is also keen to highlight its Keratin smoothing treatment, designed for frizzy or hard-to-manage hair.
With several members of staff, including Ms Bousie and Mr Walton, having been with Allen & Sadler for three decades or more, the salon’s upcoming 50th anniversary will be as much about their loyalty as it is about the business itself. “We’ve been in the town for years and years and years,” Ms Bousie said. “We just want to keep growing and keep serving the community.”
