Don't ask for a bowl cut... barber's shop opens for business in disused toilets

But when the loos shut more than two years ago Miss Willetts, who was working across the road at the time, became curious about the lease. After finding the building was going for a song and the preferred use was for hair-cutting she snapped it up.

She said: "When I got the keys it still had the toilets in. I got planning consent then had to rip everything out the building and insulate it."

Planning conditions stated the outside, which had separate entrances for men and women, had to be kept as it was, so the two chairs are only 50cms apart, but there is plenty of leg room.

Now open, the business is turning heads with its name – The Gents.

Miss Willetts, 26, from Clifton Moor, York, has been a hairdresser for 10 years and also runs The Salon at Tower Court at Clifton Moor.

She said site was ideal. "It was in a big residential area with no other barber shops around," she added.