WOMAN has travelled weekly across Bolton for 36 years to visit the same hairdresser — and spent the equivalent of £30,000 on hair appointments.

Joyce Butler, from Great Lever, visits John Mc- Loughlin’s Cutting Edge salon in Blackburn Road, Egerton, for a shampoo and blow-dry or occasional trim.

And the hairdresser and his customer have become firm friends during those years.

Mrs Butler, a Friends of Bolton Museum stalwart and retired covenants worker for Salford RC Diocese, said: “I first met John as a teenager in the 1970s through a recommendation.

Since then he’s been all over the place in different salons. Wherever he’s gone, I’ve followed him.

When he became a mobile hairdresser he visited me at home.

“When he moved to Egerton I visited him there.

The only time I’ve been scared was when a friend of his brought a snake into the salon.

“I remember one day when John talked about moving to Spain. I told him I’d followed him for years but I didn’t know if I’d be able to make to Spain.

Thankfully, he stayed.”

Her late husband, Gerald, was chairman of the Friends of Bolton Museum.

Mrs Butler said: “My husband died two years ago.

When bad weather stopped me travelling to relatives for Christmas in 2010, John and his wife, Christine, visited me at home.

“They brought flowers and wine and spent time with me.

“Over the years, we’ve become good friends. I’ve been to his children’s christenings and family events, and he came to our silver and ruby anniversaries.”

Mr McLoughlin, aged 54, added: “I’ve been doing Mrs Butler’s hair since I was 19 when I worked in Bolton town centre and then Chorley Old Road.

“She catches two buses to get to the salon where I’ve been based for the past 23 years.

“If all her visits were charged at today’s £17 rate, she will have spent £30,000 with me.

“None of my other clients can beat her consistency, although some have clocked up 33, 31 and 29 years.”