​Bouffants, beehives, mullets and Mohicans have come and gone through the years – but one Longlevens hairdresser has outlasted them all.

Now it’s time for John Melton to put down his scissors and walk away from the hairdressing chair he’s sat on for 56 years – the same one that was used by his father before him.

Mr Melton, 70, has worked in Lords and Ladies in Cheltenham Road, Longlevens, since he was 15. He and his wife Anne took over the business, then called Melton’s Hairdressing, in 1982 when his father Wally retired.

The couple, who have more than 100 years of hairdressing between them, have now decided to call it a day.

The business and attached house will then be put up for sale.

Mr Melton, who grew up in Linden, said he had moved to the house with his family when he was just 10 years old and started cutting hair at 15.

“I’ve had the same chair since I started working here. I’ve spent the last 60 years in the same square foot,” he said.

With so long in the same location, Mr Melton has built up a series of clients, seeing youngsters grow up over the years and cutting their children’s hair in turn.

He has a collection of unusual stories as well.

“When I was 18, about 40 soldiers were lined up outside in the car park, standing to attention, and were being sent in one at a time to get their military haircut”, he said. “They were the new intake at Innsworth.

“It was a baking that day and I didn’t want them stood to attention for so long in the sun, so I asked if they could sit and relax in the garden while they waited instead.”

His father Wally Melton set up Melton’s Hairdressing in Southgate Street in 1949.

Within a year he was working with two assistants and three years later had bought the Cheltenham Road site as well.

The two premises were run by Wally and his wife Winifred, and their three children Ken, Pat and John.

Mrs Melton, 66, said many of their regular clients had been saddened by the news that Lords and Ladies was to close.

She added: ‘We want to thank our clients for their loyalty and friendship over the years’

The salon’s last day of trading will be Saturday April 3.