The beauty industry breathed a collective sigh of relief when Boris Johnson announced that personal care services, including hair and beauty salons, could reopen in seven weeks on April 12. This follows reports earlier today that personal care could fall into a delayed reopening schedule in May.
I am also delighted that he has not decided to stagger the reopening of hair and beauty, as the government did last summer in a totally unnecessary move.
Although this is great news, we can all get a haircut in just seven weeks (that’s it?) I wonder if there will be many salons left if there is no financial assistance for reopen their doors. Nearly 5,000 have already closed their doors permanently, while the market for “clandestine” haircuts rages on.
Under the roadmap for lifting the lockdownhairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact personal care services will be allowed to reopen at the same time as outdoor dining will be allowed in pubs and restaurants and non-essential retail businesses.
Although this is good news, let’s be clear: the hair and beauty industry does not pose a high risk of transmission of the coronavirus, as found by the Ministry of Health in November last year. In fact, personal care services only contribute ‘up to 0.05%’ to the rate of transmission, a tiny amount compared to the devastation caused to the industry worth £28.4billion. to UK GDP.
If the Prime Minister and the Government were so determined to ‘follow the data, not the dates’ as set out last week, then please tell us: why do we have to wait any longer seven weeks at the earliest to get our hair cut, when there has been absolutely no spike in covid cases related to hair or beauty services in the past 12 months?
This is an industry already on its knees and those working in the hair and beauty sector have waited months to hear about sector-specific financial support. The beauty industry is extremely well prepared with PPE (years before Covid-19) and can mitigate risks extremely well. This has been proven over and over again.
Salons come with out-of-the-box track and trace systems – again something they’ve been familiar with for years. The sector is also labor intensive. Unlike retail stores, there is very little revenue to be gained from online shopping or restaurants that may offer delivery services. You can’t order a haircut to go, can you?
The beauty industry has come together over the past 12 months, rallying to stress the need to be taken seriously by the government. There is now a dedicated personal care team, which is brand new and much needed.
But why should hairdressers and beauty salons – which are the beating heart of our shopping streets and play an important role in our communities – should they suffer so badly without financial support? Last year, the sector was tossed between the retail and hospitality industries, with a messy and totally unnecessary staggered reopening.
With vaccination levels rising in the UK and case rates steadily falling, I for one would feel very comfortable getting my hair cut sooner, particularly if orders stay at home are lifted and increased socializing is permitted from the end of March.
