Hairdressing salons and barber shops have set the stage for many TV dramas and sitcoms over the years. There’s something about a salon that makes customers open up and chat to their stylist, often making it the hub of the local community, especially in smaller towns and villages… and that makes for great telly!
Research suggests that in an increasingly digital age, going to the hairdresser’s is one of the few places where people still interact in person. In fact, 51% of customers say they enjoy a good old-fashioned chinwag while being pampered. For some, it may be the only time they have a face-to-face conversation with anyone… but would you look forward to a visit to some of television’s most famous salons?
1. Audrey’s - Coronation Street
Audrey’s hairdressing salon has been a part of long-running ITV soap Coronation Street for more than three decades. Starting out as a charity shop run by Emily Bishop at number two in 1990, it became a salon in 1991, when it was owned by Denise Osborne.
Audrey Roberts bought it in 1998, when it was renamed Audrey’s. However, it has never been a smooth ride for the great-grandmother.
For Audrey, Coronation Street became synonymous with disaster, as her salon was badly damaged by grandson David Platt in 2008 during his vandalism rampage on the street. Then, customer Edna Hargreaves died while under the hairdryer in 2011.
A year later, Audrey had a heart attack at work during a heated family argument. In 2015, local drug dealer Callum Logan had the salon trashed and the following year, Audrey had a second heart attack.
Today, she still manages the salon, but in an administrative role, after selling it to Debbie Webster in 2021.
2. PampaManda - Emmerdale
PampaManda has been ITV soap Emmerdale’s hair and beauty salon since 2014, when it was launched as Beauty & Bernice by Bernice Blackstock.
Located at Pear Tree Cottage on Main Street, it was run by Bernice and her friend Kerry Wyatt. There were a few mishaps, such as when customer Katie Sugden suffered a severe allergic reaction to a treatment. One of its most memorable moments was when Bernice told local farmer Andy Sugden to take his clothes off for a spray tan!
Emmerdale stalwart Mandy Dingle was hired as an assistant in 2019. Soon afterwards, Bernice left the business under Kerry’s management, assisted by Mandy, as she emigrated to Australia for family reasons.
Eventually, Bernice decided to sell up, so Mandy took out a loan to buy the business. She made some changes right away, including giving it a new name, PampaManda, which was derided by some villagers. Undeterred, Mandy made a go of it, with the soap’s storylines merging with reality when there was a public outcry about the prices she charged in November 2023.
A storyline where Mandy charged a customer £58.50 for a blow dry and manicure led to complaints from fans, with a news story in Entertainment Weekly slamming the cost, saying, “No wonder the place is empty!”
3. Beauty By Jill - Nighty Night
One hairdresser to be avoided at all costs was Beauty by Jill, in the BBC black comedy, Nighty Night, first broadcast in 2003. Beauty salon owner Jill Tyrell, on discovering her husband Terry has cancer, decides to make some changes. The sociopath’s terrible behaviour includes sending Terry to a hospice and then trying to break up her neighbours’ marriage by flirting with both the husband and son simultaneously. When Terry discharges himself to go home, Jill’s enjoying her new life far too much, so she murders him in bed by smothering him with a cushion.
At her workplace, Beauty By Jill, customers are left either dead, or extremely unhappy. She tells one lady, “Divorce has brought your eyebrows down and that has enlarged your forehead!” After cutting the unfortunate divorcee’s fringe ridiculously short, Jill eventually drives her to commit suicide.
4. Desmond’s
The most famous barber’s shop on TV was Desmond’s, in the sitcom of the same name, broadcast on Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994.
An iconic barber shop in Peckham, it was far more than just a gents’ hairdressers: it was a hub for the local community, where people would meet, chat and socialise. Almost all the action took place in the workplace, making it groundbreaking for the era. It was the first time a sitcom had been set in a barber’s shop, with a cast of predominantly black characters.
The show’s creator, Trix Worrell, won a Channel 4 competition to write a new comedy show. He didn’t have any ideas until the day he was due to meet producer Humphrey Barclay to discuss a script.
On the bus to the meeting, Worrell spotted the barber’s shop where he used to have his hair cut as a child. He realised it would be a great place to set a sitcom and pitched the idea to Barclay, hence Desmond’s was born.
Shop owner Desmond Ambrose was a notoriously bad barber, while his oldest son, Michael, an assistant bank manager, had little interest in the family business and wanted to run his own bank. Desmond’s daughter Gloria aspired to be a fashion writer and the youngest sibling, Sean, was good at computer coding, but preferred making music instead.
The show’s success stemmed from the relationships between the Ambrose family and the other characters hanging out in the barber shop.
Salon hygiene standards
One thing every salon has in common is the need for top quality hairdressing supplies for the safety of employees and customers. The COSHH Regulations 2002 demand that employees must be protected against hazardous workplace substances, such as the chemicals in hair dyes and cleaning products.
Wearing disposable gloves to protect stylists’ skin is a prime consideration, as is purchasing your hygiene supplies from a trusted supplier.
Let us help take care of your physical wellbeing, so you can continue to pamper your customers, while providing free therapy.
In a world where many of us don’t enjoy too much in the way of conversation: long live the hairdressing salon!
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