PEEBLES barber Stephen Mathison is celebrating a decade in business by hiring a helping hand.

The Off the Back Barbers boss has never been afraid to try new ideas.

The introduction of a loyalty card was a huge success and his online booking system, which went live on his website during October, has already been used by more than 300 customers.

Now Stephen has welcomed a new assistant to his School Brae premises.

Roxanne Linton has been a qualified hairdresser for some years but wanted to specialise in barbering and, after some additional training with Stephen, she is now ready to welcome lots of new and returning customers.

Stephen explained the need for an extra pair of scissors. He told us: "Life styles have changed over the last decade and customers lead increasingly busy lives with less time to spend waiting in line for anything.

"I introduced an appointment system in January and, more recently, an online booking system which is becoming more and more popular."

Roxanne will be working at Off the Back Barbers on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays each week.