Hairdresser Geoff Hall opened his garden salon in Carlisle at the end of last year. He moved there with partner Bev Newton, a quantity surveyor originally from Penrith. The couple met online and Bev moved to Bristol to be with Geoff, 60, but soon after he was diagnosed with cancer.

When he recovered, Geoff, who trained in the Vidal Sassoon chain of salons and worked at the franchise in Germany for nearly a decade, decided to speed up semi-retirement plans by making the move to Carlisle. The couple live in Linstock with their springador puppy Max. Here Geoff explains the stories behind his treasured items.

Picture 1: It’s been my dream for five years to have a salon in the garden. It got to the point where I felt it would be nice to take things a little bit easier. This was the first house we looked at and we realised we’d never find anywhere as nice as this in terms of views. The summerhouse was finished by the end of November last year and I have quite a few regular clients already.

Picture 2: It was my 60th birthday in August. Having cancer makes you reassess your life in so many ways. It’s about quality of life. People were saying ‘what about presents?’. I just made it very clear and set up a page on Just Giving for Cancer Research UK. I had a celebration with friends and family in Bristol and a barbecue in the garden here.

Picture 3: I started hairdressing in 1974 in Bristol. My sister was working in London and got me an interview for an apprenticeship at Vidal Sassoon. I started in that hot summer of 1976 and loved every minute of it. In 1977 they said would I like to work at Vidal Sassoon in Dusseldorf. I spent 18 months there and then I got up to Hamburg and spent eight years there.

Picture 4: I used to play the southerner’s game of skittles down in Bristol. It was Bev’s suggestion, to meet people when I first came up, to play bowls. I play with Wetheral and they are really nice people.

Picture 5: Bev’s dog Ben was a great comfort to me when I had three bouts of surgery and then chemotherapy. He just knew. He sensed when I was getting better. He would nudge me to get me to take him for a walk. Ben died just over a year ago. We said we’d wait before getting another dog, but we felt bare without a dog so we got Max. He’s a springador. He’s a bundle of fun and we like him that way.

Picture 6: Bev got me a Fitbit for my 60th birthday. I do 11,000 steps a day. It’s amazing how quickly it mounts up. It makes you exercise. It tells you every so often that it’s time you moved.

Picture 7: Hairdressers are very precious about their scissors. Mine are Japanese and you can’t get them anymore. They are Suntachi, made from cobalt steel. I’ve had them five years and I’ve just had them sharpened for the first time. My drier is the Elchim Titanium 3900 Ionic from Italy. It’s ionic so it dries hair quickly without drying it out. I use products by Davines. I wanted to get hold of products that fit the location, so we use something as environmentally friendly as possible.

Picture 8: This is a picture of Concorde’s last flight into Filton in Bristol in 2003. I took time off work to go and watch it.

* This article is in the current edition of Carlisle Living on sale now