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, The Northern Echo hears from Ann-Marie Davies, owner of Hair by Ann-Marie, based in Victoria Road, Darlington.

She said opening her own salon was one of the "scariest" decisions of her life, but said it was definitely paying off.

She said: "I’ve had the salon nine years now, although I moved location last year to a bigger premises in Victoria Road.

"I have a team of four working with me, and I rent the top floor out to beauty.

"I started as a Saturday girl when I was 15 and I’m 38 this year, and I’ve still got clients from when I started on the shop floor.

"We’ve seen each other grow up and go through everything from having babies and getting married.

"I started working in a salon, but after I had my two children I went mobile. I found it was difficult though to get to my clients with the traffic in town, so I was looking for somewhere to rent and have a permanent base where my clients could find me.

"I found a good location, but I missed the opportunity by a day. I spoke to the landlord anyway and said if it came back up to let me know. Three months later they rang and said it had become available again so I jumped at it."

Ann-Marie said following Covid, she knew the time was coming for her to move to a larger premises but due to the uncertainty of the time, she was unsure about making a move.

She said: "Then I just thought, it was now or never.

"It was one of the scariest decisions I made to move, as my husband and I bought the new shop, and we turned it around in seven weeks. As soon as I was in I had people getting in touch asking to rent the space for beauty. 

"It is still scary, but I'm glad we made the decision."

Recently, the brand Ann-Marie works with took her and her whole team on a trip to Denmark for training in using their products.

She said: "It was once-in-a-lifetime really. They took us all and took us out for meals. The training was really intensive but so worth it for us all come back and be on the same page with it.

"It was a fantastic experience and means we can all use that training to benefit our clients.

"I'm so thankful to all of our clients for nominating us - they are all so loyal. I've got a fantastic team around me and it's amazing to be recognised."