Kirkcaldy hairdresser brothers’ final cut after 45 years in business

Norman (70) and Brian (71) Arnott opened Arnott’s in the town’s Victoria Road in 1974 when they decided to set up their own business together after working for several years in Edinburgh, then for separate salons in Kirkcaldy – Brian for Marshall’s in the High Street and Norman for Adams’ in Templehall.

“We both live in Kirkcaldy and we thought it would be ideal to have our own business so we bought this shop and the rest is history,” said Brian.

And the brothers are proud to say that they still have quite a few of their original customers from when they first opened.

“We have kept lots of the same customers from the beginning and have grown old with them,” joked Norman. “Most of them are now retired, and we plan to join them.

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“This has meant that we haven’t seen that many changes, although the products we use these days are much kinder on the hair and scalp.

“When we first started out here we used to have 15-minute appointments for our customers and we managed to get through four an hour, which you couldn’t do these days.

“At one point we believe we were the busiest hairdresser’s in Britain from the numbers that came through our doors.”

Over the years things have quietened down a lot and five years ago the duo decided just to open in the mornings as it suited their customers.

“It has been great working in Kirkcaldy and we have really enjoyed being here because we used to hate having to travel to Edinburgh by train in the early days,” said Norman.

“We are going to miss being here, but we are looking forward to retiring on June 22.”

Brian said he was looking forward to spending more time with his family – wife Francine, two sons, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.

And Norman, who has one son, said he had tried golf but was “rubbish” at it, and was looking to going on more holidays with his wife, Annette.

The shop is being sold to the newsagent next door.