Pardes Hanna is a funny old place. Its residents would be among the first to admit it is a bit sleepy and not a little dull. The heart of the town is four not very long shopping streets converging on a circle of gamboling goats - they look quite realistic from a distance. One direction takes you to Binyamina and the other to Route 65 and Hadera. Unless you live here, it is not the sort of place you would come to for anything very much. That was, of course, before Lisa Kuperman arrived.

Lisa, who had been living in Israel four years, was a free-lance hairdresser in Zichron Ya’akov. She had a number of clients, a jewelry making husband and two teenage daughters. She woke up one morning and decided to open a hairdressing salon. “I wanted English speakers to know that here was an English speaking salon”, she says.

Opening any business in Israel is a challenge, but Lisa said she knew from the first moment it was going to be a success. She found the property almost immediately and ‘Lisa of London’ opened in a side street in Pardes Hanna in June 2008. “Frightening to think, but I have been a hairdresser for 27 years. It is in the family, my grandfather was a hairdresser in London’s East End. My brother was also a hairdresser, although he isn’t now. The great thing about hairdressing”, continued Lisa, “is that you can work anywhere. Scissors and comb will travel.”

“I know things are different in my salon. Israelis comment on the cleanliness; they are astonished that I bother to sterilize combs and brushes. It’s just what you are used to. I never talk on my cell-phone when I work, I never pop out for a cigarette. I always listen to what the client wants before I start cutting.” Lisa (of London) has a very large fan base from Hadera to Zichron Ya’akov and beyond. All her clients come by recommendation. When she opened the salon there was a flurry of activity on the local English language Yahoo group. A surprising number of satisfied customers sang her praises and told us all to try out this fantastic new hairdresser. They were not wrong. I speak from experience.

The salon is attractively decorated, with a large pile of English language magazines on a table. Lisa tells me, “I’ll be able to offer proper Tetley’s tea next month.” Most of her clients are English speakers, but Lisa assures me that she didn’t want to cater only for Anglo clients. She has a growing Hebrew speaking clientele too: “But I won’t always do what they want. I won’t over-process if I think it will spoil the condition of the hair.”

I pushed Lisa to tell me about things which hadn’t worked out. Didn’t she have any disappointments? She vaguely remembered a flood in the middle of a busy day, when the pipe from the backwash burst. “The clients helped me sponge the floor and get the water out.”

“I’d like to expand,” she said, “it would be great to have a larger salon and more services. Perhaps we could include massage, a beautician, even another hairdresser.” At present Lisa has two part timers, one does nail extensions and the other, Ruth, also English, is a manicurist. A pretty display case shows Ari’s elegant silver and gold jewelry; but Lisa would never tell you to have a look. She doesn’t believe in product pushing, although a range of L’Oréal shampoos and conditioners sits on a shelf, just in case.

Having opened the salon, Lisa and Ari decided to move home. They found an idyllic house on a moshav off Route 65, with a large garden and lots of fruit trees. “The closest I can get to Gan Eden in this lifetime,” she says.

Lisa of London is right next to Bank Leumi in Pardes Hanna. Closed on Tuesdays. Tel: 0547 734 483.