Customers at Bradford's newest hairdressing salon are washing down their haircuts with a free glass of beer or wine.

And Gabby Hefti believes her Baildon salon, gh Hairdressing, is the only one in the district offering a complimentary alcoholic alternative to tea or coffee.

Meanwhile, gh is the latest addition to the Swiss family Hefti's hairdressing dynasty which has spanned three generations.

Gabby, 31, of Saltaire, who opened the salon a few days ago in a former betting shop in Westgate, said: "People can have tea, herbal tea or proper Italian cappuccino or espresso but we decided it would be nice to be able to offer a complimentary glass of wine or beer as an alternative.

"Nobody else round here does it but after a stressful day at work I thought people might prefer to unwind with a beer or wine. When I've been working in the past and people have been offered a tea or coffee they've sometimes joked they'd prefer something stronger.

"We had a gentleman in the other day and to start with he thought I was joking when I asked if he'd like a beer but he had a glass and thought it was a wonderful idea."

Gabby's grandparents, Martin and Emma Hefti, started in 1927, running a salon in Glarus near Zurich. The Shipley-born Swiss passport holder's father Willy Hefti, formerly known as Anton, opened a salon in Kirkgate, Shipley, after coming to England in the 1960s.

Her English mother Joyce ran Salon Gabriella in Baildon for several years during the 1970s and one of her two brothers, Dominic, works for hairdressing chain Tony and Guy in Oxford.

The other, Christian, runs the Christian on Highgate salon in Bradford and was featured in the Telegraph & Argus earlier this week after it emerged he is shelling out £5,000 to take his staff on an Alpine skiing holiday as a thank you for their hard work.

Gabby - whose partner, graphic designer Kevin Taylor, helped design the modern-looking salon - said: "It's going really well so far and everyone's said it's very classy."

Gabby added that her father, who returned to Switzerland 13 years ago to run his late parents' salon, had been so impressed with gh he had asked her to help re-design his.

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