Barber has had same clients for 60 years

Graham Evans started cutting hair six decades ago, ten years later he opened his shop in Tameside and has been based there ever since

A Tameside barber who has cut hair for six decades says he still has the same clients from when he first began his career - before he even had his own shop.

Graham Evans, 78, started cutting hair as an apprentice in Ashton when he was 15 years old, before opening Graham's Barber's, which is marking 50 years, on King Street in 1975.

"I still have clients whose hair I cut right at the very beginning, before I opened this shop – so they've been coming to me for about 60 years," Mr Evans said.

"It doesn't feel like work to me. It's really just a social occasion."

Graham Evans says being at his barber shop does not feel like work

Mr Evans's career has even allowed him to cut the hair of some famous faces, including some of the cast of the 1979 film Yanks, as well as Bill Waddington, who played Percy Sugden on Coronation Street.

He believes his shop is not just a place for cutting hair, but somewhere men can go for a distraction away from everyday life.

"It's one of the only places where you're just talking to someone without distraction for 30 to 40 minutes," he said.

"That's rare nowadays."

Although most of the day-to-day running is now left to his son, Gareth, who's been there for almost 30 years, he's still been able to build an environment that not only keeps customers coming back, but also its staff.

"The barber's shop has seen businesses on King Street come and go," Gareth said. "It's one of the last ones left here.

"When others come to work here, they tend to stay, like me."

Another member of the team is Chip Hanson, who they joke "arrived on a BMX" 30 years ago and never left, and is like one of the family now, as are Liam Watts and Brad Cooper, who handle the walk-ins.

Celebrating the shop's 50 year anniversary, the team say they hope the business will continue for another five decades to come.