When Sharon Bartram and Audrey De Silva met in back in 1968 when they were both working at the Bank of Butterfield, neither of the women dreamed that 35 years later they would be going into business together.

Because Ms Bartram, who owns the Hair Studio currently located in Brunswick Mall off Front Street and Ms De Silva, who owns Shapers Hair, Beauty and Nails in the Walker Arcade, are joining forces to create a salon that will do both ethnic and Caucasian hair as well as provide the whole gamut of beauty salon services.

"It is almost like an answer to a prayer," said Ms De Silva. "We had a need and they had a need and we came together."

Ms De Silva had too much space and was struggling to find stylists to fill the needs of her business, while Ms Bartram had been forced to move after the new owner of the building where she rents space put up her rent to a price she said she could not afford. She would not disclose how much the rent had gone up, but The Royal Gazette understands that it was in the region of 70 percent.

"There is a point where it becomes too expensive to operate," said Ms Bartram. "The option was move or close." But with a long and loyal list of clients built up over 20 years, Ms Bartram was determined not to give up.

And Ms De Silva had been struggling over the past few years to fill posts with stylists and keep them. By the time she trained people, they left to either work from home or moved on to other salons for small pay rises.

"There are not enough stylists to go around. Because of the size of Bermuda we do not have a big enough pool of stylists to go around. For a while now we have had problems getting enough staff. We used to have a staff of between 13 and 15 staff, now we have six."

So the women, who used to recommend clients to each other when their books were full, found the perfect solution by merging their businesses.

The businesses will merge on August 4 after moving through Cup Match and will carry out some renovations to make sure the place is ship shape and ready for both sets of clients to come through their doors. It will now become Shapers Hair Studio, Body and Nail Salon.

The two women have a lot more in common than just being in the beauty business. Both set up their businesses with a view to giving their daughters something to do when they came of age.

Ms Bartram started the Hair Studio 20 years ago when her daughter was just 14, but she later went off to study hair at Allen International in London.

"When my daughter was looking for a career, she decided right off to do hair," said Ms Bartram. And it was natural for Ms Bartram to open a salon for her daughter after already having a successful business with 27th Century, which is currently located in Burnaby Street - retailing was in her blood.

Hair Studio started its life on Queen Street, but 12 years ago moved to Brunswick Mall. He daughter Kim-keta is now the senior stylist in the salon, and her mother does all the books and keeps things straightened out on the business side.

Ms De Silva also set up Shapers with her children in mind. She had three girls and had visions of them all working together when the salon opened its doors in its current location in 1987. But one soon trained to be a teacher, the other had a family and went to work from home, and now the only one left, Geralyn, who is now the floor manager at the store.

"This is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another," said Ms Bartram. "We are two well-known established names and we will be pooling our resources in Bermuda to become more effective and efficient salons."

The salon will be open seven days a week, and the women are looking forward to combing their client list.

Ms Bartram and Ms De Silva said they both wanted to assure her customers and those from the Hair Studio that the same service will be their for them - just all under one roof now.