Trend setting
Having hip, funky and original hair styles has never been more popular. Programmes like The Salon on Channel 4 have encouraged us all to show off our luscious locks rather than scraping them back in a pony tail, and about time too!

Now two new young (twenty-something, they say!) hair stylists Kelly Lees and Asha Tank are set to go one step further.

Extreme Do's
The enterprising ladies have taken a fly into the world of business by opening their own salon - quaintly called Devilish Do's.

This Stoke-on-Trent salon could sure give the TV one a run for its money. I saw some transformations here far more extreme than those we see from Paul and his team on the telly.

Kelly explained that young people are getting far more experimental - looking for, not only braids, but synthetic dreads, loose extensions, wraps, dreadlocks, and even wierder styles involving plastic, wool and foam.

Celebs
Of course, as Asha outlined, their business idea is helped by the world of fashion moving in this direction.
Loads of celebs are doing extreme things with their hair. Pink changes her colour almost every day, while I've seen deadlocks denser than Whoopie Goldberg's down in Tamworth on a Friday night.
What the dynamic duo is hoping is that the craze to give Christina Aguilera a run for her money will not be short-lived!

Out and about
If you think Kelly and Asha don't practise what they preach, well, check them out on nights such as Electric Head in Hanley, which they also help run. Easy to spot.
They're pretty friendly, you can spot them them by their VERY brightly-coloured crops - and they're happy to give out free advice.

Website
If you need to worry about how right you are for a head-change, you can check out lots of websites, but the girls have made a website of their own an integral part of the business idea.
Very bright.

The site has loads of pictures so you can see what sort of style is fashionable. Of course, all it did for me was make me realise that my mousey hair is SAFER!

An FAQ section, such as they provide, is one idea they're proud of, as it can prove useful to any one new to this kind of hairdressing.

They mean business
Kelly and Asha have of course had to borrow considerable money to set up their business (though they wouldn't tell me how much!), and also write up a complicated business plan, which all took some courage for these young people new to the world of cut-throat competition.

But they said, on the day the salon opened, that it was suddenly all worth while!

If, as Mr Blair hopes, the new generation is one that will take business seriously and risk a little to gain a lot, then Kelly and Asha will surely one ay be invited to Number Ten? Here's hoping.

Sarah Williams

If you need or want business advice, Connexions provides career and financial counselling for young people.