Rochdale tanning salon lands first award after beating nine other north west salons

A Rochdale tanning salon has beaten nine other north west salons to win a prestigious award.

Tanfantastic Sunbeds on St Mary’s Gate was awarded the title of Tanning Salon of 2023 in the English Hair and Beauty Awards on 26 February.

The salon was opened in 2017 by Lorraine Livesey, who employs two staff members, Joanne Parkinson and Liane Cope. She now has over 3,000 regular customers and can have as many as 95 people through the doors in a single day.

 

 

This marks the first award for Tanfantastic, after Lorraine entered on a whim. After her customers voted for her, the salon was shortlisted alongside nine other salons before going to customer votes again.

Lorraine said: “I wanted to thank my customers and pay them back for supporting me. I decided to go in for the ward but I didn’t think I was worthy at the start. I've got a taste for it now though!”

Lorraine said she didn’t think she’d win, due to her independent salon going up against several sunbed chains.

 

 

“I was out of my comfort zone,” she added. “But I’d really like to thank my customers for keeping me up and running and busy. It’d been a struggle, then Covid hit and we had to shut. The day Boris said we could re-open, there were people queuing to come in because they’d not had a holiday.

“I’ve persevered and put in hard work because I love the industry and meeting new people, people who have become friends. I might be the only person they’ve seen that day but if I can put a smile on someone’s face, I’ve done my job.”