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Hair's to you Shirley Dawson!
Customers and colleagues are raising their hairbrushes and their glasses to bubbly, stylist Shirley Dawson who is today celebrating the 30th anniversary of her salon.
And Shirley is celebrating by throwing a party, with plenty of surprises, for her customers and friends at the Regal Hotel.
Shirley, who became a hairdresser despite going bald as a teenager, has kept thousands of clients looking good since opening her salon Shirley's in Beach Road, Cleveleys.
More recently with the addition of Shirley's Second Image, specialising in wigs, she has drawn from her own experience of total hair loss to restore confidence of others losing their hair as a result of cancer treatment or other illness.
Over three decades her salon, once her parents' shop attached to the house she grew up in, has become the hub of the community.
"If you want a new car, you ask Shirley where to get the best deal; if you are going on holiday you ask Shirley where to go and if your washing machine breaks down she will tell you where to replace it," said customer Mary Smith, of Little Eccleston, who has been a client there for more than 20 years.
Mary is a member of Shirley's travel club, bringing customers together for trips at home and abroad, which she plans down to the last detail.
"She cured my travel sickness, " said Mary. "I couldn't even go on a coach, but she made me sit at the front and gave me a bucket.
"Now I'm fine, she even got me on the rides in Florida.
"She's the best. You can't have lived all these years without hair, like she has, without having the odd bad day. But we've never seen them. Shirley has time for everyone."
Mary's daughter, Maria Everitt, of Cleveleys, added: "Shirley's the hub of the community. If you have a problem you go to Shirley's."
Shirley, married to Howard and mum to Brett, 22, and Carley, 26, enjoys sharing her family news with her customers and proudly displays pictures of her baby grandchild, Callia, born on June 1, in the salon.
"Being a hairdresser was all I ever wanted," said Shirley, who was voted our first Eve Woman of the Year in 2002. Her hair started to fall out in patches when she was 14 and by the time she embarked on hairdressing training at Blackpool and The Fylde College she was using scarves to disguise her thinning hair.
"At our first class we had to introduce ourselves. I took the plunge and said: 'I'm Shirley and I'm going to be a hairdresser but I'm going bald.'
"From then on it was never an issue."
Her first job was in a salon by the bus station in Cleveleys. She opened Shirley's the week before her 21st when her parents, Eva and Eric Woods, who were retiring, let her convert their wool and hat shop.
"Five weeks later I was 21.
"This has always been a meeting place. They are not just my customers, they are my friends. We're known round here as 'the friendly salon'. It more like a social club – we go on day trips and
weekends away from the salon."
She once got 48 of them together to go on ITV's Kilroy, where they took part on a debate about the North-South divide.
"We had to be at the studios by 8am so me and Diane did 48 comb-outs and 48 full make-ups on the coach going down the M1. Diane did the hair and I did the make-up."
And she tells another story of the Friday lady who, so used to turning up for her weekly set, knocked on the door on Boxing Day.
"It was a Friday, you see," said Shirley, 50 next month.
Stylist Diane Moore has been with her for 23 years when she arrived from Liverpool, fleeing a bad marriage.
"I'd done a runner with my kids and a couple of bags of clothes. I came in here one day to have my hair done and Shirley offered me a job. My life wouldn't have been half as good if I hadn't worked here and she's my best mate."
Also in the team is Krystle Blyth who went to the salon on work experience and stayed!
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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