A Falkirk beauty salon called Hair Dot Comb has won an internet competition to find business with the best punning name in the country.
Twenty-seven per cent of people who took part in the Local Data Company’s vote chose Hair Dot Comb as the most amusing pun of the year.
Other contenders included a hydroponics shops in Glasgow called Glasgrow, Portsmouth’s Hard Wok Cafe and Ace of Vapes in Nottingham.
This year’s top 10 is listed below but Matthew Hopkinson, director at the Local Data Company, said there is a serious reason why so may small businesses reach for the pun when naming their shops.
“Whilst a shop pun competition is fun there is sound sense as to why they exist,” he said.
“Independents are about being different, being recognised and ensuring that you can survive through regular customers coming through your door and spending money. Having a memorable name along side excellent service and products is an important way to retain the uniqueness in many of our high streets.”
Hair Dot Comb will receive £100 to donate to charity.
There are plenty of equally amusingly named businesses in and around Dundee, from The Tak A Wa Chinese takeaway on Clepington Road – which is also home to the Bites and Pieces sandwich shop – to dressmakers A Stitch in Time.
There is also a landscape gardener called Tree-Mend-Ous but anyone longing for linguistic lunacy just has to look at a list of hair and beauty salons to realise the industry has pun amok.
Not only did Hair Dot Combe win this year’s competition – there is also a salon with the same name in Perth – but Dundee has a number of other quality punning establishments.
There are salons called One Cut Above and Raving Beauty, while the Sophisticut in Fintry Drive offers a subtler play on words.
Further afield there are plenty more choice names, including Newcastle firm called Bonnie Tiler and a takeaway stall called Jason Donervan.
The top 10:
1) Hair Dot Comb, Falkirk 27%
2) Hard Wok Kafe, Portsmouth 15%
3) Glasgrow, Glasgow 12%
4) Bit-A-Sweet, Seahouses, Northumberland 12%
5) Ace of Vapes, Eastwood, Nottingham 9%
6) Caf Indie Pendent, Scunthorpe 8%
7) Peaches n Pairs, Uttoxeter 8%
8) Croc-A-Tile, Chesterfield 6%
9) Lunch & Judy, Birkenhead 4%
10) Peaches & Clean, Feltham 0%