Popular husband and wife hairdressing duo retire after more than 40 years in the salon
The owner of a popular Black Country hair salon has retired after 46 years of ownership.
Gary Edge, owner of Zaks Hairdressing, who started the business in 1976 retired last weekend along with his wife Sharman Edge, 61, who started working with Gary not long after opening the first store in Queen Square, Wolverhampton.
Gary went onto become a household name in the hairdressing industry, building relationships with other hairdressers in the business, and hairstyling company Wella.
Sharman and Gary, both from Wolverhampton, have been married since 1980 and have two daughters - Charlotte, who owns popular bar North Street Social, and Rebecca, who will be managing the two salons which are based in Wolverhampton and Kingswinford.
Speaking about the reaction of their joint retirement, Sharman said: "So many people have written to Gary praising him and calling him a legend.
"There has been so much nice reaction from clients, teams we work with, fellow hairdressers - everyone has been saying how amazing he is.
"Even companies like Wella have been in touch to share some nice words as we have worked with them for so long."
After starting out at Queen Square, the hairdressers moved locations but is now set on School Street in Wolverhampton, and they have a second branch in Townsend Place, Kingswinford.
Gary, who turned 70 in September, felt this was the moment for him to retire but admitted he will miss the industry, the clients and the work. However, he felt it was nice that both himself and Sharman could finish together.
On what they plan to do now they will have a lot of spare time, Sharman added: "We're going to take a bit of time out to slow down, go on holiday and enjoy doing things together.
"We plan to spend time family and just enjoy each others company and the free time that we have.
"We have worked incredibly hard over the years and so it will be a well earned break.
"It will be strange and take some getting used to but we're both very much looking forward to it and will have a good time."
The Wolverhampton salon will be managed by Emma Price, 39, who has worked for Zaks for over 20 years, while Rebecca overlooks both sites.
Zaks Hairdressing also has a training academy where Gary taught a lot of hairdressers during his almost 50-year career in the industry.
