FOR the latest styles and expert advice, look no further than The Courtyard hair salon in Evesham.

The business, in Bridge Street, is owned by Kirsty Speight, who has been hairdressing since she left school 19 years ago.

She has built up a huge amount of experience working in various different salons and, even when she left the industry to try her hand in sales, she found she found she missed the rapport with clients too much and soon came back to the profession she loves.

“I always liked playing with people’s hair and doing make up when I was at school,” she said. “I worked in a newsagents who owned a salon and I helped out occasionally. That was it, my career in hairdressing then started.”

Kirsty has kept up with latest training, styles and techniques over the years.

“I’ve done courses in matrix colour, Errol Douglas, Redken, Aveda and Balmain to name a few,” she said.

“I’ve taken part in wedding fairs, doing the hair for the catwalk brides and I’ve done fashion shows locally and in Birmingham too.

“I’ve cut hair on stage for the Tigi hair stand at the hair show in Blackpool, which was very nerve-wracking but great.

“I love doing hair for parties and wedding, it’s one of my favourite aspects of hairdressing to just create and have an idea in your head and play around to see what you create.”

Kirsty bought the salon, the first she has owned, last December.

“It’s a big decision but very exciting,” she said. “I’ve still got three of the existing staff, Rachel, Toni and Lauren and have a new assistant, Kimberley.

“We have a great team of talented stylists . We’ve changed our colour range to matrix colours, which offer much more choice of colour than before and the girls are loving the results.

“We have had great support from clients regular and new, which is great to have. We try to create friendly, relaxed, atmosphere offering professional expert advice on all aspects of hairdressing with a total wealth of over 50 years of experience.

“We offer Paul Mitchell , Moroccan oil and matrix professional salon products for clients to care for their hair and help them recreate the styles again at home.

And the salon building itself is quite a talking point.

“The salon used to be part of a hotel years ago and still has lots of the old features,such as the beams and a massive old fireplace which is a amazing feature,” said Kirsty.