Prince's eye caught by dreadlocks

Prince Charles was said to be impressed by Lance Deem's hair

Prince Charles revealed himself as a fan of a builder's dreadlocks on the first day of an annual tour of Wales.

Lance Deem's hairstyle attracted the prince's attention as he visited a firm which makes environmentally-friendly building materials near Brecon, Powys.

Mr Deem, 40, was introduced as master mixer of lime-based products and joked: "This is what lime does to your hair."

The prince and the Duchess of Cornwall earlier kicked off their summer tour with a visit to Brecon Cathedral.

Mr Deem mixes lime used in restoration work on the prince's residence at Llwynywermod, near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, where the royal couple are expected to stay during their visit.

Mr Deem, who said the prince talked about his dreadlocks, said: "The prince laughed and said he quite liked them. I said I didn't look this way nine years ago when I first got started."

The tour of Ty-Mawr was designed to give the couple an insight into the range of locally sourced environmentally-friendly products available in the region.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd

Ty-Mawr was set up by husband and wife entrepreneurs Nigel and Joyce Gervis who started out by manufacturing materials to renovate their own Welsh farmhouse.

When Prince Charles bought in materials for the renovation of his own Welsh farmhouse the resulting publicity did their business no harm at all.

Now they are hoping the royal couple's visit will give business a timely boost as the building industry comes out of recession.

"I think that the visit today gives our products a degree of legitimacy," said Mrs Gervis.

"Environmentally-friendly building products today are about at the same point as organic food products were 10 years ago, so there is a way to go.

"But the fact that we are being visited today by both of them will do us no harm at all."

The royal couple have a number of engagements over four days but started their visit in Brecon with a tour of the cathedral, meeting choristers and learning about the progress of fundraising for the choir.

The prince is patron of the Brecon Cathedral Choir Appeal which aims to raise £1m to support the salaries of the cathedral's director of music and an assistant organist and to provide the choristers with subsidised singing lessons.

Belly dancing

Prince Charles also met volunteers from Prime Cymru, the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise (Prime) in Wales, and saw a showcase of work in Llandovery.

"I happen to believe that experience and skills are an invaluable resource," he told a crowd of up to 200 gathered in the market square of the town for a Prime Cymru exhibition.

He said that when it was first launched "many people had said they felt that after the age of 50 they were on the scrapheap and faced insurmountable problems in finding paid employment".

He added: "I think it is madness not to use them. Prime Cymru is the only organisation in Wales which exists purely to help the over 50s."

The prince also toured the organisation's public exhibition and spoke to volunteers, including part-time belly dancer Susan Spalding.

She explained that she held belly dancing workshops throughout the region, attended charity events and had often worked closely with Prime Cymru.

"The prince asked me to show him a few moves and I asked him to join in, but he said he'd better leave that to the ladies," she said.

"I couldn't get him to join in but he did say he liked my costume."

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall sample some bread during their visit to the Ty Mawr Lime head office and training centre in Llangasty, Powys

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