Hidden Jem, a salon in Brecon that only opened up in December 2022, has already been nominated for two UK-wide awards.

Jasmine Atkinson and Jessica Barclay who set up the salon have been nominated for The Best New Salon Award in the UK and for The Best Colour Salon in the UK.

Having been nominated for the awards, Jasmine told The Brecon & Radnor Express: "We’ve been overwhelmed with the response really.

“It’s been amazing, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of the community, we've met so many lovely people and made good friends along the way.”

Jasmine and Jessica have embraced the local community and received a lot of support for their business.

Around Christmas time they started to offer a free walk-in service for anyone that was in need, and had a couple of people that were homeless or struggling come in and have a free wash, cut and blow dry.

The salon is still offering this service to people in need.

They opened the salon with the help of Andrew Powell from Brecon Chamber of Trade.

Jasmine used to be manager of a salon in Brecon and decided to open up her own after moving into the area, she said: "I’ve been in management for years but it’s always been my dream to open up my own salon.

"When I moved to Brecon and saw so many empty shops, I met up with Andrew Powell and he explained there was quite a few empty places but there is a lot of business support here through the community."

Andrew helped Jasmine and Jessica set up their first salon, but due to incredible demand, Hidden Jem has recently moved to a new larger location.

Jasmine believes that the support of The Brecon community has helped them be nominated for the awards, and that it makes Brecon an excellent place to set up a business, she said: "The town has got a lot of empty shops, but I think we’re quite a good success story because it is a scary time to open up a salon, or any business, but it is possible and it can be done, especially with the community we’ve got supporting us.”