Margaret Sherlock had a socially distanced 90th birthday last week but her real treat came when Boris Johnson announced hairdressers might re-open on 4 July.
The mum-of-two has already marked the date on her calendar as she can’t wait to open her salon and start cutting the nation’s hair once again.
The former nurse opened her salon, Hair By Margaret, in 1956 and developed a loyal client base.
Margaret, who lives in Lancashire, has only ever shut her salon for two days before – in 1958, when her son Adrian was born.
The last time Margaret saw anything like this lockdown was in 1974 when all businesses had to restrict their electric consumption to three days a week in order to preserve power caused by an oil crisis in the Middle East.
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Margaret’s husband, Frank, had worked alongside her until he died, aged 80, in May 2008.
Spritely Margaret stands for hours every day as she lovingly tends to her clients’ tresses.
And customers love Margaret’s banter as she works on their locks.
Her mainly elderly customers come for their weekly shampoo and set which involves applying setting lotion to hair, putting in rollers, and drying gently under vintage hair dryers.
She is also in demand for her perms – which are not so common nowadays.
Margaret received cards and presents from her customers on her birthday, along with a personal video call from Irish international singing star Daniel O’Donnell who called from his home in Donegal.
And although Margaret had a lovely time with daughter Linda and son Adrian, she would have worked on her birthday if she could.
Margaret completed her hair apprenticeship in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, when she was just 15 years old, but there was little demand for hairdressers so she trained as a nurse in Omagh.
In 1952 she came to England with her sister and they both worked at Eaves Lane Hospital in Chorley, which is now a housing development.
Later she married Frank and when her daughter Linda was born in 1956, she opened the salon in her front room on the day she took her new baby home from the hospital.
The business started off in the front room but soon became a proper salon, with the family living upstairs until 1971.
Margaret explained: ‘I only intended to run the salon until Linda went to school but the business grew and Frank joined me in the hairdressing trade.
‘When my son Adrian was born in 1962, I decided that I would carry on so that I could be around for both of the children while they grew up.’
Over the years, Margaret, who still uses the same razor she had when the shop first opened, has seen a lot of popular hairstyles come and go such as, the Princess Diana flicked bob in the 1980s.
Margaret thinks she has stayed a cut above other salons in the area as she treats her customers like a friend, rather than just a client.
And she said that her customers have given her great support right from the first day she opened the salon.
She said: ‘Customers have been really good – they have really backed me up from day one.
‘I now can’t wait to get back to see them.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/14/britains-oldest-hairdresser-90-cant-wait-cut-peoples-hair-salon-shes-since-1956-12700775/
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