A traditional gents’ barber’s shop has a new owner.

Holly Brittain has taken over the business that in one form or another has been operating at the top of Cripple Street in Loose near Maidstone since 1956.

Holly, who lives in Cranbrook, grew up on the Isle of Wight where she trained as a ladies’ hairdresser at the tender age of 16.

But she found ladies’ hairdressing not to her taste.

She said: “I didn’t like ladies at all, so I left and worked as a carer for a couple of years.”

She then retrained as a gents’ barber and worked at a barber’s shop on the island until 2020, when she moved to Kent.

She said: “I just like the atmosphere in a gents’ salon more. It’s also more of a challenge.

“Ladies, with their longer hair - if you make a mistake, there’s always the opportunity to correct it. Men, with their shorter hair - you have to get it right the first time.”

She has worked in barber’s shops around Maidstone for a few years, but it was while waiting at The Swan crossroads at the top of Cripple Street on her way home last October that she noticed Ali Barbers.

She said: “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, really. I rang up and asked if they had a job going, and the business owner, Alan Jenner, happened to mention that he was thinking of selling up.

“I worked here a few weeks, then I thought, why don’t I take it on?”

She took over the business in February and after a quick refit has reopened it as Jack Of All Fades. A fade is a style of haircut where the hair is tapered from nothing on the sides to a full head of hair at the top.

She said: “The shop already had a strong reputation and a loyal customer base. I’m looking to build on that and hopefully get it to back to the position where we have three full-time barbers here.”

The business was started in a tin shed on the opposite side of the road to its current location by the Fullbrook family, father and sons, in the mid-50s.

Known then simply as The Barbers, it moved after a couple of years to a rear room of the Shepherd’s grocer’s shop close by in Boughton Parade (the building is now a Premier store).

Alan Jenner joined the firm as an apprentice barber in 1975 and took over the business from brothers Jim and Calvin Fullbrook a few years later in 1978.

He moved it back to the top of Cripple Street, in the building next to where it is now, into what had previously been a greengrocer’s and is now the Loose Chiropody and Podiatry Practice.

The business made its final move, just next door, to its current location in 1982, into what had been Skippon’s bakery.

Nick Hoile joined the business as a 16-year-old in 1979.

Mr Jenner ceased cutting hair in 1987, although he continued to own the business.

He was replaced by Ted Palmer and for many years it was Mr Hoile, Mr Palmer and another barber, Ian Lotts, cutting the hair of residents.

But after Mr Palmer died in 2017 and then Mr Lotts retired through ill-health, it has been solely Nick Hoile who has kept the hair of locals looking smart.

Holly, 34, said: “I’m delighted Nick has agreed to stay on.

“I’ve wanted my own shop for a couple of years, but I was never in the right position before.

“This opportunity came out of the blue. Now I’m really looking forward to getting to know all the shop’s old customers and welcoming many new ones!”