WATCH: Dingwall's Eclipz Barber Shop shares secret to success after national award win
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A Dingwall barber shop has shared the secret behind its success after a national award win.
The team behind Eclipz Barber Shop scooped the barber of the year award at the Official Scottish Hair and Beauty Awards in early December.
The business on Dingwall's High street, originally opened about 12 years ago as a hairdresser before taking on a separate barber shop too in 2020.
Owner Darren Kettle said: "Having a barber shop has always been the dream – I enjoy the business part of it as well as the social, the clients always come first and it's good to chat to the older guys and hear their story.
"We've got a really good team as it is, and we are just building up the team and making ourselves better. We also hope to expand into Inverness at some point, if the time comes when it's right."
He added: "Our modern apprentice Cooper started with us on day release at school when he was 15. As soon as he left school we took him on as a modern apprentice, and because my partner is an assessor we can actually do in-house assessments and then send them off to the college.
"Finding a barber shop apprenticeship is like hens' teeth, it's something that doesn't come up very often. Most shops are based on renting a chair, where everyone is self-employed – then the person that owns the shop has no need to to take someone on as an apprentice."
Over the last few months, the barber shop has started recording all the different folk who come into the shop with Polaroid pictures of their new haircuts added to a wall titled Dingwall's Most Wanted. The collection of photos creates a strong sense of the shop's presence within the community, as well as the diverse age range of clients who have visited.
