Four Seasons Nursery may have the best-groomed children in Glasgow since it introduced hairdressing sessions two months ago. The hairdressers' monthly visits provide a valuable time-saving service for parents and have also proved a hit with the children.
Nursery owner Inez Murray said, 'I started thinking about hairdressing for children a while back, as getting a child's hair cut can be an incredibly stressful and time-consuming experience for parents.
'I'm always looking at ways to improve our services and realised it would be an added benefit if I could offer haircuts here.'
Gentkids, a hairdressing company that specialises in working with children's hair, visits the nursery every month. When booking an appointment at the session parents fill in a form to say what hairstyle they would like for their child and the hairdressers follow their instructions.
Ms Murray said, 'We have five rooms in the nursery and the children's hair is cut in their room, so they are in familiar surroundings. After the hair has been cut Gentkids send feedback to the parents about what they have done and offer advice. For instance, if a child has been swimming regularly and they have a build-up of chlorine in their hair, they will make suggestions about what to do about it. They also give a hair pack to each child which contains a disposable cape, their own comb and a paper towel to tuck into the cape. It's good value for 5,' says Ms Murray.
The hairdressing sessions are always held on a different day and at a different time to the previous month's appointments to ensure that all children, including those who do not attend nursery full time, can have access.
Ms Murray added, 'Because I offer flexible childcare I feel it's important that everyone gets the benefit. Parents are delighted with it and they've been saying things like, why didn't you start this earlier?'