THE OWNER of a hair salon is hanging up his scissors after 27 years of working at his current site.

Graham Kent, owner of FHC for Hair, in Kingsclere Road, is retiring, along with his wife Marie, after almost 52 years in the industry and an estimated 81,000 haircuts.

Graham trained in London, working in Harrods and then Butlins where he met and married Marie.

After working in several salons in London, they moved to Basingstoke in 1971 working in local salons while raising their two children, Tony and Sam, who have both since become hairdressers.

The couple later joined the Melanie Hair group.

Graham said: “I stayed with Melanie’s, who had a salon group of 25, for 13 years and had the opportunity to work with some great stylists.

“I started as a stylist and went on to become deputy head of department. Whilst with them I was involved with training, staff development, hair shows and had the opportunity to work with the artistic team both in this country but also in France and Germany.”

Following this, the couple set up FHC for Hair in 1990 as a family business offering professional hairdressing services for both men and women, including specialist perming, colouring, straightening and services for afro hair.

The salon has been popular with many residents and has received multiple awards over the years including the Business and the Community Award at the 2015 INSPIRE Business Awards.

The couple say that building the business up was very challenging, but they have now earned a group of loyal regulars that also have become their friends.

The salon will now be taken over by Laura and Matt Haystaff of the Topiary salon in Old Basing.

Graham has said that there will be no changes to the current staff working at FHC for Hair and regulars will be welcomed back.

Marie added: “This has been very rewarding for us, there have been so many highlights to our careers, but we are particularly proud of raising over £30,000 for St Michaels Hospice.

“We are also really proud of Graham receiving his Master Craftsman award in 2016.”

The Master Craftsman award recognises the amount of time in the profession and is only held by a handful of hairdressers in Basingstoke.

It was an achievement that Graham and Marie were proud of and one which attracted a lot of new customers who recognised the difficulty of achieving such an award.

Graham added: “We would like to thank all staff, past and present, and all of our wonderful clients who have been so supportive and become friends.”

Graham and Marie are looking forward to a peaceful and relaxing retirement but are looking forward to keeping in touch with clients.

Talking about Laura and Matt Haystaff, the new owners, they said: “Laura has a wealth of experience and a sound knowledge of hairdressing and business, we know we are leaving the team and clients in good hands.”

To find out more about the salon, go to fhcforhair.co.uk