THEY are accustomed to requests for all manner of hairstyles, from the favourite short back and sides to anything sported by David Beckham.

But when Territorial Army chiefs turned up at Urban Hairdressing, in Darlington, they had the most unusual request the salon had ever come across.

After years of sterling service, the Royal Signals Northern Band's trademark black busby hats were looking a little jaded. So top brass decided that a visit to a local stylist would bring the 40 hats - some of which were looking more brown than the black they should be - back up to scratch.

They left them with the Northgate salon during the weekend, and staff went in yesterday to tackle the mammoth task.

Owner Paul Jackson said: "It's certainly out of the ordinary and something we've never had to do before.

"They were in a bit of a sorry state, so it was a case of cleaning them first and then dyeing them.

"That had to be left to set, before they were rinsed off and we had to blow dry these things. It was a bit unusual to have 'customers' that we couldn't get any chat from."

The band is based at the TA centre in Darlington's Neasham Road and wanted the busbys spruced up before performances to mark the D-Day anniversary, in Middlesbrough, in June.

Staff instructor Jim Robinson said: "It would have been a shame to just get rid of them.

"We tried doing it ourselves but it took absolutely ages just to do one, so we thought a hairdressers' would be the best place to turn to."