THE owner of a Chipping Sodbury hair salon is making her final cut after 32 years in the business.

Dawn-Marie Taylor, who opened her first salon in 1983, will end her hugely successful career in hairdressing, which has seen her meet Richard Branson, cut the hair of the stars and compete at a national level, at the end of August.

Miss Taylor, 51, began cutting hair at the tender age of 14 following in the footsteps of her father, a teacher of hairdressing at Brunel College in Bristol.

But her career was the result of her forgetful brother.

“I was offered a job on a cruise ship but my brother threw away my acceptance letter,” said Miss Taylor, of Frampton Cotterell. “He forgot to post it along with some other letters and threw it down the drain.

“So my dad asked if I wanted to go into business with him and I thought a salon sounded like a good idea.”

They opened Total Look on Station Road in Yate offering haircuts for little or no money in return.

“We had to offer our services for almost nothing in the beginning just to get the word out there,” she told the Gazette.

“Eventually we built it up and the business became a thriving success.”

So much so that Miss Taylor, a qualified pilot who made the headlines when she competed in the 2006 Schneider Trophy Air Race, was a runner up in HTV’s 1986 You’re the Boss competition celebrating young entrepreneurs.

“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “I met Richard Branson and lots of other brilliant people. And we got paid for doing it.”

Soon she opened a second salon, in Haymarket in Bristol city centre, which did well for five years until the recession hit.

But it was opening the Chipping Sodbury salon on Horse Street in 1995 which gave Miss Taylor the ‘perfect’ home for her business.

“Chipping Sodbury is, out of all the places I have worked, the very best place,” she said.

“We could not ask to be in a more beautiful town and I am very proud to be part of its history.”

A fervent supporter of community events, Miss Taylor and her staff have always dressed up for Victorian Evening and Royal celebrations.

“We have had quite a few famous people in here over the years including Harry Potter author JK Rowling,” she added. “We have a lot of loyal customers and I will certainly miss seeing them regularly the most.”

Miss Taylor intends to spend her time travelling and supporting her partner, Captain of the Cunard Queen Victoria, Peter Philpott, at cocktail receptions on the cruise liner.

She is handing over the salon to Jess Haines, who has worked at Total Look for five years.