A HAIR salon is ditching the gossip magazines for old-fashioned books.

Kimberley Howe and Stacey Simpson who own Vanity hair salon in Willington, County Durham, have binned all the gossip magazines in their waiting room and replaced them with cooking, gardening and home magazines as well as colouring and reading books.

A post on Facebook announcing the decision said: “We have made the decision as a salon to remove the gossip magazines and will no longer be offering you these whilst you’re at the salon.”

The salon used to have a copies of Heat, Closer, New, and OK! magazines for customers – which are now all in the bin.

The Facebook post received more than 750 likes and 350 shares, to the surprise of Mrs Howe who said: “I just popped the post on and it went viral, I think a lot of people are getting behind the message and hope that other salons follow suit.”

Mrs Howe added: “We won’t have gossip in here it’s not tolerated. We want to make people feel good about themselves. The magazines are full of air brushed people and awful comments. The new magazines focus on real people and real lives.

“We are all guilty of opening one of the magazines and thinking 'I wish I looked like that or what have they done to themselves?' Gossip magazines are all about hearsay with so-and-so said this and so-and-so said that. Books and magazines will help people relax better.”

An online trend has started after the death of former ITV Love Island host Caroline Flack to ‘raise the crowns’ of women and to be kind to each other. Vanity Hair Salon hopes to help by 'raising the crowns' of its customers.

Mrs Simpson said: “It’s the best feeling in the world when you can raise someone up and make them feel good about themselves.”

“People can feel intimidated because hairdressers have a bad reputation for gossip but there is none of that here.”

Now the pair would like other salons as well as hospitals, doctors and dentists to take note and ditch the glam magazines.

The pair said they have been influenced by Instagrammer 'Mrs Hinch' who uses the platform to give cleaning tips and life stories, to help with her anxiety and mental health and has written several books.

“She’s a role model and has a positive mental attitude,” said Mrs Howe.