WHILE for many it is seen as a relaxing occasion to look forward to, for many, a trip to the hairdresser is as stressful as going to the dentist.

Sitting there in the chair you can feel at their mercy, and if your hairdresser makes a cock-up it’s there for weeks for the world to see.

I’ve been reading this week about women who travel round trips of more than 500 miles to visit tried and trusted hairdressers, one making the journey from Sussex to Yorkshire every six weeks.

I can understand this. Finding a hairdresser with whom you feel comfortable can take years, and when you do, you don’t want to go anywhere else.

I have been going to the same hairdresser for at least 25 years. It’s not a swanky city centre salon, but a small suburban hairdresser’s next to a take-away in a blink-and-you-miss-it row of shops.

My hairdresser knows my unruly, hard-to-manage hair and all its foibles. In less than an hour he turns it from a bird’s nest into something I can be proud of.

How people feel about your hair can affect them psychologically. A study at Yale University in the US, discovered there are measurable effects to having bad hair, including increased feelings of insecurity and self-criticism.

On the flip side, a good hair day has a powerful psychological impact. Research by Stanford University found that simply believing you look your best can make you feel like you belong in a higher social class.

One of the worst experiences I have had was in one of the swankiest salons I’ve ever visited, in central London. Though hard-up students, my friend and I, thought we would treat ourselves.

During the cut we were plied with the usual distracting tactics - cups of tea, magazines, there were even videos playing overhead, unheard of in the early 1980s - anything to stop us looking in the mirror.

A sheep shearer could have achieved a better result. Both of us left distraught, me looking like Noddy Holder - the nickname lingered for weeks.

The cuts were so bad we wondered at the time if it was done deliberately, because we didn’t fit the bill as posh, wealthy clients and they didn’t want us to go back.

Even now, with my trusted stylist David, the experiences of the past render me slightly nervous when I feel he is cutting too much off or leaving too much on. But the niggles are always unfounded - no matter what he does it always comes good in the end. I hope he never retires, because I don’t know what I would do.

I spoke to a woman recently who travels across two counties to a salon in Shipley to have her hair done by a trusted stylist.

It’s so important that those who can afford it fly hairdressers across the world rather than submit their locks to the attentions of an unknown. Kate Middleton takes her stylist Amanda with her on all her overseas trips.

Of course hairdressers have their gripes about us customers too. Top moans include people being too controlling. But, short of grabbing the scissors, surely we should be in control as to what takes place - it’s our hair, after all.

Stylists also don’t like client’s touching their hair too much, but again, isn’t touch the best way to indicate what you want? It also shows the customer is nervous to some degree.

Talking on the phone - now that is unacceptable. I’d be inclined to stick those people under a dryer for three hours and turn it on full.