Stuart Coates was a hairdresser's salesman who called at Alan Howard's Salon and tried his wares on Elsie Tanner when she was manageress of that establishment. As her own son Dennis had been employed a similar job some years earlier and as Stuart's manner reminded him of her son, she allowed herself to listen to his banter about his sprays being the coming thing of the 1970s and bought a job lot of his goods, although she didn't fall for his patter about having three kids and being broke.