The man who brought the revolutionary hairdressing techniques of Vidal Sassoon to the north of England in the 1960s will be the guest of honour next month, when the salon he co-founded celebrates 60 years in business. 

Peter Harman opened Peter Gotthard Hairdressing at 36 Parliament Street in Harrogate in June 1964, with business partner Gotthard Passager, a Swiss stylist he had met in London. 

Speaking exclusively to the Stray Ferret, Peter said: 

“In those days, it was fashionable to combine the first names of business partners, so that’s what we did, and Peter Gotthard was born. 

“Sadly, Gotthard only stayed a couple of years. He went to Canada and opened an academy in Vancouver – and I was left holding the baby.” 

Peter worked hard to build up the business, sometimes doing four or five hair shows a week, “anywhere we could get an audience”, to spread the word.

Peter Harman at work in the 1960s.

It was in the mid-sixties when Peter learned the skills that would put his salon at the forefront of hairdressing innovation and make Peter Gotthard a by-word for cutting-edge style. He said: 

“I was inspired by Vidal Sassoon – he changed my life, and I attribute a lot of my success in hairdressing to him. He was a dear friend and completely changed hairdressing with his new ethos.  

“I spent a lot of time at his salon in Mayfair in the 1960s, doing advanced courses under his supervision. He threw out the old-fashioned hairdryers and rollers and suddenly it was all about the scissors and the hand-held hairdryer. When I started, it was 100% shampoo-and-sets, but by the ’70s, it was 85% cut-and-blowdrys.

“I was bowled over by Vidal’s way of hairdressing – it was pure artistry. That’s what I was inspired by, and that’s what I wanted to bring to the north of England, which I did.” 

In 1966, Peter put on a two-hour show at the Royal Hall in Harrogate, putting the salon’s name in lights: ‘Peter Gotthard Hair Show’. It attracted 950 people, who came just to see his demonstration of the new techniques. 

The hard work paid off, and the three-storey Parliament Street premises grew to accommodate 35 stations, with separate men’s and ladies’ salons and a beauty salon. 

He opened a second salon on Leeds Road in the 1970s and another on Westgate in Ripon in the ’80s, followed by a fourth on Coppergate in York in the 1990s, and there were as many as “70 or 80” people working in the business. 

Peter Gotthard was even invited to become a member of Intercoiffure Mondial, the Paris-based global network of elite salons. Peter said: 

“It called its logo ‘the sign of the best hairdressing salons in the world’ and only admitted one member per town. 

“When people came to Harrogate from overseas, they recognised the Intercoiffure sign. It was a real mark of excellence.” 

In fact, it was one that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher perhaps recognised when she came to Harrogate to give a speech at the conference centre in 1982. She asked Peter Gotthard to supply a hairdresser to style her hair, and Peter still has her handwritten letter of thanks. 

A letter sent to Peter Harman by Margaret Thatcher to thank him for Peter Gotthard’s services when she was in Harrogate.

But later, in the nineties and naughties, the hairdressing industry was revolutionised again, this time by technology, when everything became digitised. Peter said: 

“I’m a technophobe and I was way out of my depth – it was time to go!” 

So in February 2008, Peter Gotthard embarked on a new chapter when Peter sold it to one of his longest-serving employees, Cheryl Byrne. Cheryl had joined the business as a 16-year-old, straight from school, in May 1981 and even met her husband, Patrick, through a Peter Gotthard colleague. 

Cheryl said:

“Back in the ’80s, Peter was cutting hair most days. He was quite a perfectionist with extremely high standards, and that become the norm for us all. He was a great role model to follow in business, too.”

Peter Harman (back row, centre) and Peter Gotthard’s staff in the late 1970s. Note the Intercoiffure logo on the window.

She added:

“The 80s was an exciting time to become a young hairdresser. Styles were moving on from setting to blow-drying and perming, and then colouring hair took over.

“I watched the salon’s hooded hairdryers disappear one by one as blow-drying became so much more popular. But we still have one that we wheel out of the cupboard for our regular weekly clients who have supported the business for so long. 

“Cutting skills came to the forefront of hairdressing as we stopped relying on dressing the hair so much. Short shapes and bobs of all descriptions were popular, and creative colouring was exciting through into the 90s and 2000s, when straightening hair became huge in the industry. Some of the styles, such as the wolf, the mullet and the shag, just keep coming around.”

Patrick and Cheryl, who have been married now for 37 years, are carrying on Peter’s legacy from the Parliament Street premises he opened six decades ago. They have nine stylists, three receptionists and an apprentice, and there are an independent beauty business and a tattoo business under the same roof. 

Despite the longevity of the business – unparallelled in its sector locally – Peter Gotthard still counts some old friends among its customers. 

Patrick said: 

“We’ve got some clients who were coming right at the start and still come now – 60 years later. We’ve got at least 20 who have been coming for 40 years or more. 

“And we’ve still got some very long-serving stylists. Chris has been with us for 46 years, Cheryl for 43 years, and Linda for 40 years. The average length of service among our stylists is about 15 years. That’s very unusual in this industry.” 

Nevertheless, there have been scores of other employees who have gone on to work elsewhere – Patrick says that Peter Gotthard has “probably trained half of Harrogate” – and many of them have set up their own businesses.

Cheryl Byrne (back row, far right) and her staff.

Cheryl and Patrick are hoping that as many of them and Peter Gotthard’s long-standing clients as possible will join them at the salon for the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ celebrations from noon till 4pm on Monday, June 10.

Two guests who are certain to be there are Peter and his wife Brenda, whom he met in 1965, within months of arriving in Harrogate. 

Peter, who moved with Brenda back to his home county of Surrey a few years ago after 50 years in Yorkshire, said: 

“I loved all my staff, and I love Yorkshire – I like to think I’m an adopted Yorkshireman! But my main reason for coming back up here is to congratulate Cheryl and Patrick and to thank them. 

“Harrogate was always the number-one salon and my original ‘baby’, and I’m so thrilled that the Peter Gotthard name is still over the door.

Cheryl and Patrick have kept it up-to-date and modern and it’s still going strong. It’s a fantastic achievement on their part – they’ve done an amazing job.” 

The Peter Gotthard salon on Parliament Street in Harrogate today.

After the party, Patrick says it will be business as usual – he and Cheryl have no plans to turn off the lights just yet. 

He said: 

“Peter was 72 when he retired. I’m 61, so I’ve still got a few years left in me. 

“We’re the current custodians of a name that’s been in this town for a very long time and which most people here above a certain age know. Our job is to make sure the next generation know about it too. 

“Our ultimate aim is to pass the business on in good shape, hopefully to a current employee, just as Peter did.”

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Harrogate hair and beauty salon Dangerfield and Keane is to close after 15 years.

Owner Gerri Dangerfield announced the news on social media today, saying he “needed to address my work-life balance and spend more time with my husband, Andrew”.

The salon has been a fixture on Cold Bath Road most of this century. Mr Dangerfield, who has been a hairdresser for 49 years, previously managed Saks Hair and Beauty on Parliament Street in Harrogate.

He told the Stray Ferret he was “going out on a high” and intended to stay in the hairdressing profession, adding:

“Everything changes and it’s the right time to move on. We’ve had a great time and this is a positive decision. I’ve been flooded with emails today.”

The salon will continue to operate as normal until October 14.

Read more:

• Harrogate town centre shop to close due to low footfall
• Historic Harrogate house to be auctioned next month

Mr Dangerfield added style director Marcus Hanson planned to open his own salon in Harrogate, and was in talks with each stylist at Dangerfield and Keane about roles, adding:

“I will almost certainly have a chair with Marcus wherever that may be.”

Explaining his decision to close the business on social media, Mr Dangerfield said:

“As you can imagine the demands of running a business the size of Dangerfield and Keane has not been easy and I now feel the time is right to take advantage of the five-year break clause in our business lease.

“I have served notice to our landlord that Dangerfield and Keane will not continue as a business once we close the current premises on Cold Bath Road on Saturday October 14.

“Although I am 62, I still have a list of things I want to achieve in my life before I retire fully from hairdressing. Retiring from running a large salon is simply the first step.

“I can only express my gratitude to all our loyal clients who have supported us over so many years. I hope I have served you well and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

He added beauty therapist Katy Smith had opened her own treatment room on Westmorland St trading under the name KS Beauty Harrogate.

A training centre for the hair and beauty industry in Harrogate is set to be wound up after its director said she could no longer work in the “broken” education system.

Intuitions Ltd, previously based in Tower Street before moving to Station Parade, had been working with salons to train hairdressers for almost three decades.

However, Michelle Oliver said she closed the company in January after the Education and Skills Funding Agency reduced funding by 23%.

She said Intuitions had been heavily subsidising functional skills funding for a number of years, and the government had now removed funding for some areas of training including induction, initial assessments, and formal assessments of skills.

Ms Oliver added:

“Despite almost 30 years of trading, gaining a ‘good’ Ofsted result in July 2022 and an excellent relationship with our local employers, I no longer wanted to be part of what I feel is a broken education system with layer upon layer of meaningless bureaucracy that appears to have been put in place to prevent small independent training providers from succeeding.”

Intuitions had moved to Station Parade from Tower Street

The last Ofsted report praised Intuitions’ move to a salon-based approach, offering one-to-one and small group training. As part of this, the company had moved to an office in shared workspace Wizu on Station Parade.

However, Ms Oliver said the number of apprenticeships on offer with local salons had fallen since the covid pandemic, having an impact on the number of students training with Intuitions.

Ms Oliver is one of two remaining directors of Intuitions Ltd, having taken up the post in March 2000, alongside company secretary Berenika Wilkins. The company was founded in summer 1993 by John and Sheila Morton, who resigned as directors following Ms Oliver’s appointment.

She said former Intuitions employees had been given paid notice or made redundant and all had found jobs elsewhere.

Trainees and their employers, meanwhile, were supported to find other training providers.

A meeting of creditors has been called for April 11 at 10am, when liquidators are expected to be appointed.

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