WITH voting for The Northern Echo’s Best Hairdresser or Barber competition now well and truly open, your favourite salon needs your support!

Every day over the next ten days, we will be featuring one of our top ten finalists, chosen by our readers.

Today, we meet Marie Naisbitt, owner of The Hair Lab, based in Lingfield Way, Darlington.

Read more: Darlington Carnival to return this weekend

From the pitfalls of opening just months before the first Covid lockdown to her passion for training young stylists, Marie tells The Northern Echo about what makes hairdressing special for her.

She said: "I have been in hairdressing since I was 16. I turned 40 in 2019 and just thought it was the time to do it for myself.

"I had been working in a salon in Cockerton so didn’t want to open anywhere too close, but my friend told me about a unit that was available in Lingfield Way.

"It was ideal for me as it had free parking and plenty of space. Once I’d decided, it all snowballed and it was going really well.

"I opened in the January of 2020 but then of course Covid hit. I was just on my own at the point but when we re-opened my friend who does nails came in with me which has worked amazingly.

"We had to close again but after that I took on my first apprentice. "Now we have a team of five of us and it’s going really well.

"Some of my clients have followed me ever since I worked at Saks at Barnard Castle, and have know some of them for about 20 years so they are like friends.

"You can connect with people on different levels and people tell you anything knowing that its confidential.

"We pride ourselves at the salon for not being afraid to stand out. We do a lot of creative colouring and have a reputation for being a bit ‘out there’.

"If someone comes to us with something they want to try then we’ll do our best to find a way to make it work. It’s definitely a fun part of the job.

"I love the training aspect of the job. One of my team, Tom, was the son of a friend and he was studying architecture at university. He came to me after lockdown and said he wasn’t enjoying his course with the studying online and wanted some advice in getting into hairdressing.

"I said he could come and train with me – he’s been with us three years and is now a fully-fledged stylist. I’m so proud, and he’s so happy in his job. It’s fantastic to see."