Alison Burns

Alison has been doing hair and beauty in Burnley for twenty-five years, and Escape on Briercliffe Road has been hers for seventeen of them. It has been named Best Hair & Beauty Salon in Burnley at the England’s Business Awards.

None of which is the reason women keep coming back, or keep sending their friends. That is much simpler. She listens, she is honest with you, and she is lovely to sit with for two hours.

Nobody gets rushed

Your first appointment is a chat, and it is free. You will be asked what you like, what you hate, and what you have always been self-conscious about — and then Alison draws your brows on in pencil and hands you a mirror.

If you are not sure, she wipes it off and does it again. And again, if that is what it takes. Nobody has ever been made to feel silly for changing their mind three times, because that is exactly what that part of the appointment is for. Nothing goes any further until you look in the mirror and genuinely like what you see.

She will tell you the truth

If the brows you have saved on your phone belong on somebody else’s face, she will say so — kindly — and show you what will suit yours instead. If your skin will not hold what you are asking for, you will hear it at the consultation rather than find out at week six.

And if semi-permanent make-up is not right for you at all, she will say that too, and you will not be charged for finding out. Twenty-five years is long enough to know that one honest no is worth more than a booking you regret.

Everything explained, in plain words

Alison is a qualified teacher as well as an artist, and you notice it. You are told what she is doing and why, which colour she has chosen for your skin and what it will settle to, and exactly what your brows will look like on day four when they start to flake — because knowing that in advance is the difference between a normal week and a week of panicking.

No jargon, no rushing you through a form, and no question is a daft one. Ask her the same thing twice and she will answer it twice.

Still there in a year

This is not a treatment you have once. Your perfecting session is four to six weeks later, and your colour boost a year or so after that — so it matters that the person who did your brows is still going to be there.

Seventeen years in the same building, a salon she owns and runs with her family, and the same pair of hands from your first consultation to your boost in eighteen months’ time.

You are trusting somebody with your face, so ask. Alison would far rather you did.

• Licensed. Registered with Burnley Borough Council for semi-permanent skin colouring — and so is the treatment room, which is a separate registration people often forget to ask about.
• Insured. Fully insured through Professional Beauty Direct, specifically for this work.
• Qualified. Twenty-five years in the trade and a teaching qualification on top of it.

Every needle is single-use and opened in front of you. Your patch test happens at the free consultation, at least forty-eight hours before anything else, and there is no version of this where that gets skipped.