Nicky Dowling and Kirsty Gowman, the owners of  D&G Hairdressing in Chandler's Ford, gathered dozens of their regular customers for the proud occasion.

They wanted to celebrate their thriving salon, which has overcome Covid and cost of living hurdles during its first ten years. 

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Kirsty told the Daily Echo: We’"ve had many great times at the salon over the last ten years with Christmas dos, hen dos, baby showers, birthdays, and just random Saturday afternoons in the pub! We regularly find a reason to celebrate!

"After ten years of business, we decided to have a salon cocktail party, inviting all our most loyal and regular customers along to join us. Each of us made a ‘signature cocktail’ for our clients to try, along with plenty of cake and Prosecco too!

"We were overwhelmed with the number of clients that turned up to celebrate with us on the day and are looking forward to what the next 10 years of D&G will look like.

"We’re super proud of managing to make it this far - particularly given we’ve had a global pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis during that time."

Kirsty and Nicky met 15 years ago while working together at another local salon. It later closed and they decided to go into business, firstly renting a chair in another salon and opening the doors of D&G Hairdressing in The Precinct in December 2013.

They transformed the former florist with the help of Nicky's mum Rene Crow and Kirsty’s dad Paul Toomer and it has brought them legions of customers and friends.

The owners have helped many stylists, some of whom now own their own salons. 

They both took on other jobs to see them through the Covid closures, Nicky helping at schools with Covid testing and Kirsty at a local care home doing cleaning and reception work.

The cost of living crisis has brought more challenges with bills soaring, but, thanks to great friendships, stylists, customers and cocktails, the owners of D&G Hairdressing are looking forward to the next decade in business.