A BEAUTY salon that has had a hand in helping the ladies of Bicester look lovely across two decades has celebrated 20 years in business.

And to mark the milestone, Belle, in Bell Lane, has opened a hair salon to help women complete their look.

Bicester’s mayor Rose Stratford, pictured front with staff, cut the ribbon on Saturday to officially open the new service.

The salon opened its doors in 1991 and offered beauty treatments and toning tables. Five years later it was taken over by Carole Bowerman, who expanded the business adding more beauty rooms and treatments. In 2008 she handed over the reins to her daughter Suzanne Bowerman and daughter-in-law Louise-Jayne Bowerman.

Miss Bowerman put the firm’s success down to the longevity of staff and keeping up with trends and developments in the beauty industry.

She added: “People are cutting back and looking for cheaper alternatives, but we just try to go that extra mile for customers.”

l After months of being badgered by friends, Barbara Hooper finally persuaded her husband Richard to open a hair salon with a difference in Bicester.

Earlier this month the couple, right, opened Prestige Unisex Salon and Afro Shop, in Evans Yard, offering hair products and extensions for Afro Caribbean and European hair. The shop is the first dedicated Afro-Caribbean hair salon in the town, and people previously had to travel to Banbury or Oxford.