Dianne Marshall worked in a celebrity salon before moving home to bring the new trend to Liverpool
Dianne Marshall at her salon on Stanley Street, Liverpool. Photo by Colin Lane
A mum who brought Beverley Hills beauty to Liverpool claims she was the first person to introduce hair extensions to the city’s salons. Dianne Marshall, 56, recently won Hair Extension Salon Technicians of the Year at the National Salon Awards 2025 for their Stanley Street salon, which customers travel to from across the UK.
Dianne, who lives in Ormskirk, trained as a hairdresser in Liverpool but spent much of her childhood and young adulthood living between Crosby and Los Angeles when her family relocated to the gold coast. The mum-of-one saw hair extensions for the first time at a Beverley Hills salon and brought the new beauty trend back to Liverpool.
Speaking to the ECHO, Dianne said: “I worked with a woman who specialised in hair extensions and did every celebrity under the sun and I thought ‘no one is doing this in the UK’. I was about 18 when I started there and I moved back here at 26. I always knew I was going to come back and I wanted to come back to Liverpool with something new.”
Upon her return to Liverpool, Diane went to see famous Liverpool hairdresser Herbert Howe to show him the new product. She said: “I went to see Herbert and said ‘do you think this is something that would take off in Liverpool’. He just said ‘wow’. I came back and ran the hair extensions department in Herbert’s for 13 years.”
Dianne Marshall at her salon on Stanley Street, Liverpool. Photo by Colin Lane(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
She added: “I dominated the market for about 10 years because no one else was doing it. Then it just took off, it just boomed and went crazy.”
Dianne decided to take the leap and set up her own brand more than 10 years ago – but she was juggling running a business alongside raising her son, Daniel, as a single mother. She said: “[I was doing it] for extra income and then when he got older I decided I have to go make this work.”
Dianne Marshall at her salon on Stanley Street, Liverpool. Photo by Colin Lane(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
She added: “Now we have got the salon in Liverpool where we fit, we do training course and we have got our own brand that we sell to salons across the country. It’s just a fab business and a fab team.
“We have seen hair extension brands come and go but I just think, I’m the original.
“There’s a lot of competition and it seems like every hairdresser wants to have their own brand but to be a serious supplier there’s a lot more involved in getting the products right consistently, with quality, and having the range. People order from us and they get it the next day.”
Now Dianne has been fitting, supplying and teaching people how to install extensions for more than 25 years.
Dianne Marshall salon(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
She said: “People thought it would be a fad and I laughed and said ‘not in a million years’ because there are people with thin hair and if you don’t have enough hair you can buy it. So many people struggle with their hair and they [get extensions] for confidence, for hair loss solutions, for every hormonal change for a woman.
“It’s about confidence and making you feel good again. You get people literally bursting into tears and hugging you – it makes people feel so good.
“People think it’s just for Barbie doll girls who want hair down to their waist but it’s also for your everyday person with confidence issues because of hair loss – people you wouldn’t even think have extensions.”
Dianne’s clients travel from across the UK to visit her Stanley Street store, with regulars who make journeys from as far afield as Devon and Somerset every five weeks to have their extensions from the industry experts.