LATE last year leading retail guru Mary Portas worked with town centre hair salon John Peers for the new series of her popular BBC show Mary Queen of Shops.

Mary and her team gave the South Parade-based salon a dramatic new look – and introduced a new concept to the salon called 'fashion hair'.

John says he is thrilled with his new-look salon, but admits the experience was at times gruelling, to say the least.

Now he has agreed to share every detail of experience he and his staff went through in the Observer – and he's holding nothing back.

How did this all come about?

"It all started last year in about March. Mary Portas was doing a speech at a convention at the NEC in Birmingham and afterwards she was being interviewed by hair magazines.

"She asked Professional Hair Dresser Magazine if they knew of any hair salons in Rochdale which would be interested in taking part in the show.

"They recommended me, because I write a column for them and it just went from there."

Why did you decide to go ahead? Did you think the businesses needed it?

"I'd be telling lies if I said that everything was fantastic, but we were keeping the boat sailing and couldn't grumble.

'Compared to some other shops we were doing well, but there was a lot of doom and gloom about, what with the closure of Woolworths and other town centre businesses.

"When I was first asked to do the show, I decided to to think about it for a few days before deciding what to do.

"The reasons why I decided, were that I thought it would be a bit of fun and great for the shop, while at the same time do the town a bit of good."

Is that how it turned out to be?

"I was wrong about it being a bit of fun - it was really, really hard work.

"Lots of in depth questions, lots of travelling to London and lots of having a camera in your face, every day for four weeks."

What was your relationship with Mary like?

"Mary Portas is a very headstrong lady. But I loved her.

"There was a lot of criticism and I had a fair few slanging matches with her. But sometimes I had to bite my tongue to go along with her ideas.

"At the forefront of my mind was always the thought ‘let's just get through this. Let's get out of it whatever we can’."

So what did you have to do for the show?

"My first trip for the show was to spend a day in London at Trevor Sorbie's salon for half a day.

"I didn't feel a bit nervous because, as a hairdresser, I thought I was as good, if not better, than everyone in the shop.

"That sounds arrogant, but after 42 years cutting hair in the salon and cutting hair on stage at least 10 times a year, it means I can't be bad.

"But, at the same time, I felt that the TV people were keen to try to trip me up.

"For example, I didn't know until 10am that morning where I was going, so consequently I didn't have any of my tackle with me.

"When I asked Trevor if I could borrow a pair of scissors to cut this girl's hair from very long to short, he whipped out a pair of three and a half inch scissors, which were ridiculously small.

"They were the kind of scissors I'd normally use just for edging side burns.

"I also spent a day at Harpers Bazaar magazine, looking over the clothes which are coming out this summer. I loved that day.

"The editor of the magazine was very grounded. Very posh, but very normal and did not give Mary the chance to trip me up.

"The next day in London after that was at Harvey Nichols, in their clothing department in London. There I had to style and dress two models in clothes I got to pick.

"The model went to get changed, and when she came back, she had on a garment that was two sizes too big for her, which I think was switched in the changing room.

"The model looked like a bag of rags in the oversize garment.

"I still learned things in Harvey Nichols though, especially about designer clothes and designers who I had never heard of before, but which I now look out for in fashion magazines, Vogue, Harpers, Tatler and Grazia."

NEXT month, John shares more behind-the-scenes details about his experience with the Queen of Shops.