“I THINK where it started originally,” explained Salym Sutton, “was that I had a client who lost her hair due to cancer.

“This was back in California. Her name was Nancy; she was such an angel.

“She said to me, ‘There really aren’t good services for women who are losing their hair.’ That’s really where the seed got planted. She drove about two-and-a-half or three hours to get her wig in Sacramento.

“She said it would be really great if women had a place to go in times of hair loss. Women can lose their hair for many reasons.

“I did do a lot of trimming her wig to make it fit her face better. She had a little bit of her natural hair that came out of the bottom of the wig and I really just made it look as natural as possible.

“I think that for women in hair salons sometimes it’s like a mini culture of its own and women go to feel better.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of that – really making people feel beautiful from the inside out. I think when you don’t feel well, if you feel prettier it does make you feel better.

“Sometimes when you’re just having a bad day, having your hair washed and blow-dried makes you feel good. When you don’t feel well it’s like therapy when you go and get your hair done. These women could really use that and there hasn’t been a great service for them.

“I would like to make a change in that way for people.”

Salym – it’s pronounced ‘Salem’ like the city in Oregon – is one of seven siblings who grew up just north of San Francisco: “I’m a wine country girl in Swindon.”

He mother is a housewife and her father’s career has been spent in retail.

Salym studied for her professional qualifications in at the Carsten Institute in Tempe, Arizona.

“In the United States if you want to do hair you have to get certified in hair, skin and nails. You can’t just do hair. The licensing there, I feel, is a little bit stricter than it is here.”

Having established herself as a stylist, she decided to go travelling – as did her British future husband, Scott.

The two first set eyes on one another in 2008.

“He decided to travel through South East Asia and so did I. We met in a little café in Hue, Vietnam and struck up a conversation. I thought he was hilarious. We had a great chat while I was waiting for a bus to meet my girlfriend in the next town.

“I had to get on the bus but as I was leaving the café he said: ‘Maybe I should get your email address.’”

About a week later he sent an email inviting her to meet him in Thailand, and the two became firm friends as they travelled around the country.

When they parted, Salym was certain they would meet again, and the two kept in touch for six and a half years.

“In 2014 it was my friend’s 40th birthday and she really wanted to go to Croatia, but she loves London.”

During the stop in the capital, Salym planned to meet Scott for a beer in Bath, but the two ended up spending four days together. Visits back and forth across the Atlantic followed and in March of last year Scott proposed.

“We got engaged on the beach in Bournemouth. He actually wrote ‘Will you marry me?’ in the sand. It was really cute. We were under the pier, so there was a bunch of people on the pier and some lady screamed down ‘You better say yes!’ or something along those lines. I remember saying to her I’d be crazy not to. There was a really sweet girl up there who asked to take our picture and send it to us.”

The couple celebrate their first anniversary next month. Salym has been in Swindon since last September. She soon began working as a hair stylist and also noticed a need for wig styling and colouring.

The wigs she offers are made exclusively from real human hair, which she says makes all the difference.

“As far as wigs go, they look, often times, like wigs. There really isn’t a great avenue for wigs that look natural – that maybe look like they have a little bit of outgrowth on them with a natural colour or even just fit to your face.

“They tend to be just mono-coloured, just one colour. I’m just starting to do wigs and colour them, because I’ve been a colourist for 12 years and make them much more natural to make women feel better about wearing them.”

She caters not just for women who undergo hair loss due to medical treatment, but also people with alopecia and hormonal and other issues.

“Alopecia is so much more common than people talk about. Just having areas of alopecia gestationally – through pregnancy – is very, very common. Hair loss after giving birth is super-common. Just talking about it a little bit more, I think, would bring it to light and then people wouldn’t feel so bad or alone about it.

“A lot of women as they age or hormonally lose hair on top of their head and it gets really see-through and flat. Just finding the best way to work with it instead of being ashamed of it is really important.

“I want them to feel good. I think it’s really valuable.

“Basically I fell in love with a man from Swindon, moved here and now I just want to do hair and make people feel nice.”

Further information about Salym’s work can be found on her Facebook page, Salym doing hair in Swindon.