LUSH is entering the hairdressing business and is looking to Bournemouth as the site of its first salon.

Mark Constantine, co-founder of the global cosmetics brand, made the announcement in a speech in which he also revealed that Lush’s Poole factories may no longer be able to supply all its UK stock after Brexit.

He also said Lush’s controversial #Spycops campaign – a protest at the tactics of some undercover police officers – had coincided with a sharp rise in sales, despite flak on social media.

Mr Constantine revealed plans for a Lush hair salon during his annual speech to the Jobshop UK Directors’ Lunch.

Reviewing Lush developments such as its first “naked”, plastic-free shops in Milan and Berlin, he said: “Another thing we’re working on is a Lush hairdressing salon that will use hard and soft water to wash your hair.

“It will be plastic-free and at present we are looking for the initial shop to be in Bournemouth.”

He added: “We haven’t found a shop yet.”

The 66-year-old chief executive began his working life as an apprentice hairdresser in Weymouth, on £3 a week, before moving to London and becoming a herbal trichologist.

The hair salon idea was developed at Lush’s new research and development lab on Poole’s Nuffield Estate, which was announced to the same lunch event last year.

The site has also been used to show Lush staff the layout and new products for its biggest ever shop, which will open in Liverpool next year.

But Mr Constantine said: “At present, we don’t anticipate being able to recruit enough people in Poole to fulfil our expansion, because of Brexit. If that’s the case, these products may have to be made in Croatia. It’s just a reality.

“We employ a lot of people every Christmas. At least 50 per cent are still from Europe and they’re coming less and less because they’re offended by our attitude. A lot of those people aren’t highly skilled as far as the government’s concerned. That’s irrelevant to me.”

He also addressed June’s #Spycops campaign, which used the slogan “Paid to lie” in highlighting the way some undercover police officers had relationships with members of campaign groups and unions.

He revealed that weekly sales rose 14 per cent year-on-year in the week the second campaign window went up.

“I don’t know how long as a group we’ve supported the women who were slept with by policemen as part of the undercover operations to infiltrate groups they spied on.

“A thousand groups were infiltrated by police over 50 years, where police would pick on women in those groups and use the identities of children who had died in childbirth or very young as their cover,” he told the audience at the West Hants Club in Bournemouth.

“We chose to put a sign in our window saying the police had crossed the line.”

He added: “You should tell your customers what you believe in and if they don’t agree, well they shouldn’t shop with you and if they do agree, well they should shop with you.”