A HAIRDRESSER who has tended the locks of generations of clients in a north Lancashire town has closed his salon after 43 years.

Grandfather-of-two Brian Scott opened Thatchers back in June 1976 next door to his parents' fish and chip shop in Carnforth.

After decades in the business, the 64-year-old decided it was time to put his salon on the market and was amazed when it sold just two weeks later.

He said: "I've had some terrific clients and staff over the years but my feeling was, it was time for me to go while I was still enjoying it."

The buyer is hair stylist Tracy Antonsen-Stubbs, who runs the Angles salon across the road and trained with Brian in the 1980s.

"I have good memories of good times," said Tracy, who is busy refurbishing Thatchers ahead of relocating her business there this summer.

"I never thought for one minute I would be buying it from him 35 years later."

Brian hails from Bury and began his career in 1970, in the salon at Manchester department store Affleck and Brown. After his parents moved to Carnforth, he headed north too and worked for renowned Morecambe and Lancaster hairdresser Mick Byron.

Then Brian's father offered him the corner-plot shop next door to his business, Freddie Scott's Chippy, on Lancaster Road.

"I arranged a loan for 15 years," said Brian. "That was 1976 and I thought I was signing my life away because I was only 21."

It proved a wise decision as the business flourished and gained a loyal clientele.

"It might sound like a cliché but when you're meeting someone every six weeks for 40 years they become a friend; you know their life, you know their ups and downs," said Brian, who is married to Karen. The couple have a daughter, Laura, and grandchildren Freddie and Isabelle.

From Mary Quant bobs to the Dynasty-inspired hairdos of the 1980s, Brian has seen many looks come and go - including his own 1970s curly perm.

He told the Gazette he still loves cutting and styling hair and chatting to clients so, rather than retiring, he will be visiting long-standing customers at home as a mobile hairdresser.