Salon trims price to 1971 levels to mark 50th anniversary
A Shrewsbury hair stylist who trained in Swinging Sixties London is celebrating 50 years in business in the town by trimming his price for a shampoo and blow dry to 1971 levels.
Philip Minton learned his trade in Bond Street when Vidal Sassoon was doing for women’s hair what Mary Quant had done for the mini skirt and London was the fashion capital of the world.
He returned to Shropshire to open his first salon - Cameo - in Shrewsbury's Castle Street in December 1971 and 50 years later after moving the business around the town centre, including spells in The Pride Hill and Darwin shopping centres, he is back with Kameo, close to his original premises.
To celebrate the 50-year milestone, Philip has taken his scissors to his prices and is offering customers a return to the Seventies with a shampoo and blow dry for just £1.50.
He found an original price list from the days when he opened his first salon in December 1971 – back in the days when Ted Heath was Prime Minister and Bennie Hill’s ‘Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West’ was the Christmas number one, with Cilla Black at number three with Something Tells Me.
The salon will be offering a special rate on New Year’s Eve and the discount will be offered with every full price technical service, such as a colour, perm or conditioning treatment.
Customers just need to go to the Kameo website to book.
Philip, now 72, of Weston Lullingfields, said: “It’s a special anniversary for us and I wanted to share it with our customers, those who have been with us for many years and with our younger clientele.
“I have had a fabulous career which started when I was only 15 and I’ve been here in Shrewsbury since I was just 22, so I must have been doing something right.
“I always remember seeing Vidal Sassoon on TV on a show in the Sixties. I just thought to myself - 'right then, that I’d like to do that'."
Within four years he had been profiled in Vogue magazine and years later Sassoon’s first wife - Elaine Nations - became a regular customer.
Philip has worked with some of the industry’s greats, including taking part in a hair show and demonstration with the late New York stylist John Sahag who cut the hair of Hollywood’s Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
“He was a very talented hairdresser who had some of his own methods of cutting into hair which everyone else copied," said Philip.
After so many years in the business, Philip still cuts and styles three days a week. He has trained generations of local hair stylists and says it is a fantastic profession for young people.
“Hairdressing is fashion, it’s art and it is always changing," he added. "You have to learn how to do things which suit individual features and hair. You cannot stand still on either the business or creative side and that is one of the things I really love about it."
