As a young child, Kerryann Gray loved sitting under the dryer at her mum's salon with her hair full of rollers, and now she is back at the scene of those early childhood memories and opening up a Norwich beauty salon in her mum's old hairdressers.

Mrs Gray, who has opened KA's Beauty in the Upper St Giles building where her mum Sadie Ann Brooks ran her hairdressers, Sadie Ann, said: 'It is nice to come back to my roots.

'It has brought back a lot of memories. My favourite memory is mum putting rollers in my hair and me sitting under the dryer.

'It feels like home in a way, it feels calming, and my main aim is to give our clients a relaxing experience.'

Mrs Gray's proud mum Sadie Ann Brooks, 65, who lives in Bracon Ash, said she was delighted to see her daughter following in her footsteps.

Mrs Brooks said: 'I feel proud really. I think it is lovely for Kerryann. It is quite emotional really.

'When she was little she used to come in and have her hair done and potter about and keep all the girls on their toes!'

She added that her daughter visited the hair salon even before she was born.

'I opened the shop in 1970. Kerryann was born in 1972 and I worked in the shop until a week before she was born,' Mrs Brooks said.

'I kept the shop until shortly after my second daughter, Sarahjane, was born, and Kerryann used to come in the shop right from a baby in a carry cot and all the staff and customers knew her.'

Mrs Brooks continued to own the building after she stopped her hairdressing business in 1978 and has rented it out to a number of other businesses over the years including another hairdressers, a flower shop, a framing shop, and most recently children's clothes shop Coccolino which is now based at Timberhill.

Mrs Gray, 40, who trained in beauty at Champneys, opened KA's Beauty on November 20 after previously running a hair and beauty salon in Newton Flotman where she lives.

Mrs Gray has also employed two other beauty therapists, Kirsty Leadbetter and Amy Atkins. Between the three of them, they have 45 years of beauty experience.

Mrs Gray has two daughters, Bethany, 17, and Annaliese, 13, and her eldest daughter is also following in the family tradition of working in hair and beauty as she is doing a hairdressing apprenticeship with Barry Alan in Pottergate.

KA's Beauty is offering a 20pc discount for a first appointment. For more about KA's Beauty visit www.ka-s.co.uk

During the Upper St Giles Christmas street party on Thursday, December 6 from 5pm until 8pm KA's Beauty will be offering some special mini beauty treatments.

Are you starting a business venture in Norwich? Call Norwich Evening News reporter Emma Knights on 01603 772428 or email emma.knights@archant.co.uk