Is this even legal?

[girlfriend44]

Cousin works as a hairdresser buy recently left her job..

She got another job in another salon not far away.
Her old boss contacted her and said she couldn't do that. She had signed something in her contract which said she must work within a certain radius of her old job?
Is this legally binding? What could her old boss have done?

Why can't people just work where they want too?

Given that this is so common in the hairdressing industry, I'm surprised her new boss didn't bring it up at the job interview.

Never heard of it by distance. DP (different industry) was asked to renegotiate his contract so he couldn’t work for the competitors for 6 months. It’s quite a niche area so that would have been quite restrictive. He dug his heels in and in the end the employers dropped it. He’s stayed with them.