A NEW hair salon in Old Town is aiming to be a cut above the rest.

Salon 52, in Michaels Way, is run by Kelly Goodheart who is joined by nine members of staff from long-standing Old Town business Talk Of The Town, in Devizes Road, which closed on Wednesday.

Salon 52 offers hair treatments for men and women.

Kelly was previously based at Talk Of The Town but has been self-employed working from Aspire, in Wood Street, for the past two years.

She said: “We are trying to create a really good affordable luxury service with a great team of self-employed girls.

“We have put a lot of effort into getting everything ready and we really hope that the business will be a big success as we are very proud of Salon 52.

“The location is great, we have lots of parking nearby and Old Town is a fantastic place for a salon.

“We’ve had good feedback since opening on Tuesday.

“The girls are very motivated and are keen to make our customers feel as comfortable as possible.

“They have a good number of clients and we are keen to welcome more. “I was self-employed and then some of the girls from Talk Of The Town approached, worried about how things were going there.

“They said they’d like to work with me again in the future, so it was never a case of staff being poached.”

Talk Of The Town, which had been running since 1968, closed after allegedly going into liquidation.

A sign posted in the salon’s window read: “Please note that Talk Of The Town has ceased trading due to circumstances out of the company’s control.

“This has been a very upsetting time for staff members and myself. I would like to thank all our staff.

“I would like to thank all our customers over the many years. Please accept our heartfelt apologies.”

Former staff member Lee Fordom, who now works for Salon 52, believes Talk of the Town started suffering when owner Simon Holmes moved to Australia last August.

Lee said: “It was fine to begin with when he moved to Australia but it was very difficult to get answers when we had questions or needed help after a while.

“There was mention of Salon 52 poaching staff from Talk Of The Town – that wasn’t the case, we approached Kelly as we said we were not happy where we were.”