Shrewsbury's veteran hairdresser with London expertise still going strong 50 years on

Philip Minton first opened in Shrewsbury's Castle Street in 1971 and Janet Harper has been coming back to his salon ever since – which adds up to approaching 400 haircuts.

Janet, a grandmother and mum of three, who still lives in the town, said: “Philip’s been here for 50 years and I’ve been coming here all that time.

“This was very much the place to go back then and it still is. Philip just seems to know what to do and then I can manage it for myself afterwards which is very important.

“I’ve got total trust in him, I can just say ‘I think I’ll go short’ then leave the rest to him.”

Philip runs the salon with his daughter, Jo – he has three children and his other daughter, Dani, also works for the family business, handling the accounts and a setting up a successful computer booking system from scratch.

Kameo has recently opened on Castle Street very close to Philip’s first premises, Cameo, and then K2 The Salon and the business has moved around the town centre, including spells in The Pride Hill and Darwin shopping centres.

Philip’s first business venture was very different.

As a 15 year old in Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, he ran a successful used car operation with the help of a relation who was a mechanic – making old bangers roadworthy and even delivering them himself despite his age and lack of licence.

Car dealing’s loss was hairdressing’s gain when he took an apprenticeship in Liverpool’s Bold Street at a salon where he learned his trade before heading to the 1960s London of Twiggy, Mary Quant and superstar hairdresser Vidal Sassoon.

It was Sassoon who inspired Philip.

He said: “I was watching TV and Vidal Sassoon came on with a lovely girl on each arm. These two women just stood there and shook the beautiful bobs he had created for them and I thought to myself 'I would like to do that'.”

He worked in a leading salon in Bond Street when London was the fashion capital of the world and learned from some of the greats like New York stylist John Sahag, who cut the hair of some of Hollywood’s finest like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

After gaining management experience, he returned to Shropshire, where he was born, to open his first salon, and has been in the town ever since.

The new Kameo Salon includes a stylish coffee shop with outside seating to relax after having being pampered in the salon.

In the past he also had salons in Chester, Stoke, Wellington and in Newtown where he met and regularly cut the hair of Vidal Sassoon’s first wife.

He said: “ Her name was Elaine Nations, by then she had relocated to Mid Wales. It seemed strange that I was now cutting the hair of someone who had been styled by Sassoon himself. She was a lovely lady and we had some interesting chats.”

Philip has also taken to the stage many times at various prestigious hair events like Salon International in London and backstage at the British Soap Awards in Manchester where he styled the hair of TV favourites like Emmerdale’s Bernice Blackstock, actor Samantha Giles.

He said: “She was great and very complimentary. I told her that I had thought of going into acting when I was younger and she said ‘Oh Philip, you must’ . She was lovely.”

Apprenticeships have always been a high priority for Philip and he currently has three among the 16 staff who include seven stylists.

Philip has been involved in training many stylists under his expert guidance, some of whom have relocated not just all over the country but all over the world.

He said: “Hairdressing is a great profession to be in, it’s an art and always changing and we have to be able to change with the trends too.

“I believe my team should be taught to look at a client’s hair and how it grows, their features, the length and texture of the hair and their lifestyle during a consultation.

“We advise the client as to what will suit them and how it can fall into shape after cutting so it will be easy to style at home.

“We form a bond with our clients, so we can advise them and pass our professional expertise onto them.

Lockdown has made life difficult for many salons like Kameo, who have adapted with separate screens for each client, but Philip added: “I think things are picking up now as people are starting to socialise again. They want to look their best.”

Janet who worked for Shropshire County Council as Members Secretary before her retirement said: “Philip is a brilliant cutter of hair, he just has that eye for cutting that something special.”