Staff and customers at Jazz in South Shields have had their hair stand on end numerous times – not because of a beauty treatment, but because of what staff suspect is a ghost.

The spooky goings-on started as soon as salon owner Sheena Carmichael moved into the shop in Frederick Street, Laygate, 11 years ago.

She said: "Strange things have always been happening in here, right from the very beginning. We'd often hear footsteps, along with whistling and knocking sounds.

"At first, we just thought we were hearing things, but now we definitely think we have a friendly ghost."

Originally a sceptic, salon boss Joanne Robson has been the target of many of the invisible visitor's pranks.

She said: "One night, I had locked up the shop and decided to go on the sun-bed in the cubicle. I heard a loud crash, so I got up and realised a tub of cream had been flung over from the beauty room.

"Another time, towels were spinning round the dryer, but it wasn't switched on, and just last Friday, I felt someone tickling my neck, but nobody was there.

"I've run out of the shop on a few occasions now. I think maybe I was targeted more than the others because I was a sceptic, but I'm not any more."

Customers have been told to go away by a gruff man's voice, some have seen what they described as "old fashioned people" standing in the upstairs window, and others have heard conversations in empty cubicles.

One of the most recent appearances of the ghost was on Christmas Eve, when Sheena went into the staff room at the back of the salon and saw a cloud-like white mass hovering.

She said: "It was so strange, it's hard to describe. It was like a solid cloud just floating there. By the time I'd gone to get the others and returned, it was gone, and all that was left was a chemical smell, but it was certainly none of our products."

Legend has it that when the building was being used as a Unionist club back in the 1950s, a barman died after falling down the cellar's stairs, which would have been in Mrs Carmichael's shop.

Staff believe the ghost of the man could be responsible for the unexplained antics.