Malagoli, Gianni – Began cutting hair as a 10-year-old

Gianni Malagoli (b 1947)

Gianni Malagoli was brought up on his family’s farm in Modena, Italy.

He was just 10-years-old when he first picked up a pair of scissors to style hair working at the local salon to earn pocket money, becoming a barber three years later.

Wanting to take his job seriously he decided to go to school to become fully qualified and was awarded his diploma in 1964.

Five years later, after an 18-month stint in the Italian Army, a friend asked if he wanted to go to England, and, being a huge fan of the Beatles, jumped at the chance to visit his idols’ home country.

He said: “I wrote to Mario, who owned a salon in Watergate, and I was offered a job.

“I came to Grantham and just coped without the language and, bit by bit, I learned it.”

Planning one day to run his own salon, he repaired and sold cars after work and at weekends to make enough money to start up his own business.

He opened his own salon in Castlegate and stayed there for 10 years before moving to the Avanti Hair Salon Westgate in 1997.