“AT the end of the day,” said Joshua Goldsworthy, “our job is to make people look as fantastic as they possibly can.

“It’s to give confidence to people who don’t have confidence, and to make confident people feel even better about themselves.

“If somebody goes out there and they feel timid, a little bit timid and their hair hasn’t enhanced them, then you’ve not really done your job – you haven’t helped them out.”

Good hairdressing, he believes is a matter not just of skill but temperament.

“We’ve always said that you can make somebody a great hairdresser technically, but when it comes to being a fantastic hairdresser in the salon you always have to have a bedside manner. You can’t really train somebody to have a personality.

“Sometimes you can have a person who has the best personality and not be a fantastic hairdresser but still be the most popular person in a salon because people are drawn to them.”

Goldsworthy’s, based in Catherine Street, is one of a small number of Swindon firms which have remained under the control of their founding families.

Joshua is acutely aware of his heritage and determined to see the business continue to thrive. He said: “My grandparents, Peter and Peggy Goldsworthy, began it 54 years ago. You then have my auntie, my dad’s sister, Nicola, who came in and then three years later my dad, Steven, followed.

“Then my mum, Tracy, joined the team and now she runs the office side, day to day. Nicola works in our Marlborough salon and my sister, Sophie, works in our Cirencester salon.

“It was never put upon me when I was younger to come into the business, to carry it on, not in any way, shape or form, but having now come into it I want to further the legacy.

“Somebody once told me that it takes one generation to make something, the second one to build it up and the third to destroy it, so I’d like to make sure I don’t fulfil that prophecy!“ Joshua’s initial career plans were a world away from styling hair.

“I’ve always played football,” he said, “so football was key for me growing up.

“I suppose that the competitive side of my nature from that has come into hairdressing.

“At about 16 I had looked into going into physiotherapy and done some days with the hospital here in the Kingfisher Ward.

“I’d also done some stuff with the County ground, so it was always very sports oriented.”

What he describes as his “lightbulb moment” happened when he was 16.

Coming into the salon for a haircut – he’d only ever had his hair cut by his father – the teenager began talking to an old school friend who had just started working there.

“She washed my hair, and being the same age she said: ‘Did you never want to come into hairdressing?’”

After discussing his choice with his parents, he began training with his father.

He readily acknowledges that there may be a genetic component in his abilities, but that didn’t mean his training was plain sailing.

“In my head I assumed that because my dad’s a good hairdresser, my grandfather’s a good hairdresser then some sort of skill set must be passed on,” he said.

“But I really did struggle and I used to get so temperamental and angry, and throw the toys out of the pram.

“Obviously, when your dad’s the one showing you those skills and how to do it, it becomes even harder because you end up resorting, almost, to how you are at home.But he kept me under control and one by one things started to slot into place.”

Within six months he won an industry award for best trainee, the first of many accolades.

He is simultaneously proud of his heritage and glad to be making his own way in the styling world.

Part of that means entering competitions, giving exhibitions and being involved with fashion shoots.

“My career path started with being salon-based but we’ve always entered a lot of photographic competitions and been quite key within the hairdressing industry as a whole,” he said.

“We do a lot of education and go globally to educate and present on stage.

“That was really what brought me into the business in the first place when I was younger.

“I looked at what my dad was doing – he was often going away and I always knew where he’d been because he always used to buy me a football shirt from whichever country he’d been to.

“I always knew he travelled a lot, I always knew he was around beautiful models, and to me that was kind of the appeal.

“So from the moment I started, my initial instinct was to try to further myself into that side of things as well as having a solid clientele at the salon.

“Through years of doing things like Fashion Week and travelling to Paris and Milan for those I’ve kind of built up a large skill set and a bit of a reputation for myself in what we call the session world, which is editorial and magazine-based.”

In spite of successes in the wider world, Joshua never loses sight of his home town and the family firm.

“I want to further the business as a whole and continue to grow it around the south west area,” he said.

“To continue work of my family is key to me.

“For me to be able to have a platform for the next generation of hairdressers like my dad and my grandfather have done for me would be great.”

Hair stylist Joshua Goldsworthy, 25, recently returned from a three-and-a-half-week Britain’s Top Model shoot in Jamaica, where he worked with both models and judges. He was also a recent finalist in the British Hairdresser Of The Year awards. Joshua is one of two third-generation Goldsworthys involved in a Swindon family business founded more than half a century ago