A BEAUTY salon has proved to be a cut above the rest after being named salon of the year.

Staff at Lucy Becket’s Hair and Beauty, in Austen Road, Basildon, were presented with a trophy after taking top spot in an Echo competition.

Owner Lucy Becket, 39, from Vange, was “over the moon”.

Lucy opened the salon two years ago after her partner encouraged her to take the plunge.

She had been working as a senior stylist at Toni & Guy for over ten years.

Lucy, said: “I was amazed to hear we’d won.

“I was so happy, we’ve only been here two years so it’s a real achievement for us.

“All the girls here work so hard and we have built it up to what it is now.

“All the other salons are more established so we weren’t even going to enter.

“We were just really glad to be nominated, we are really over the moon to have won.”

She added: “It’s my first ever salon. When my partner encouraged me to open my own salon I wasn’t sure, but I thought if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

The swanky salon offers hair services as well as beauty treatments, and a wide range of “the best” products.

Each year The Echo runs a range of awards and the public gets to choose the nominations by voting for two weeks.

The top 20 business then go into the final round where the firm with the most votes wins.

The Echo received 704 votes in total and Lucy Becket’s received 284 of them, meaning it took the prize with 40 per cent of the vote.

Lucy Becket and her team were presented with the trophy by an Echo representative.

Lucy, added: “I just want to give a special shout out to our Saturday girl Frankie Bartlett, who couldn’t be with us for the trophy presentation.”