Cutting it close: Barber stays open until midnight to meet demand
WE’RE all glammed up with nowhere to go.
Salon owners and hairdressers report a huge surge in demand for lastminute appointments, with many staying open until midnight to cope with prelockdown clients. Eyebrow tinting and shaping are among the treatments most in demand as well as hair extensions, Shellac nail treatments and even spray tans before Level 5 restrictions kick in today.
Cole & Co barbers in Greystones, Co Wicklow, stayed open until midnight to deal with the deluge of men looking for some emergency grooming and ‘man-scaping’. Owner Paul Cole, who owns the premises with wife Louise, estimated he and his fellow barber Libre saw 60 clients between them in one day alone.
“We have had a lot of lads asking for a six-week haircut to get them through until December and we were completely booked out the past two days,” he said.
They opened the business on March 14, only to close a day later with lockdown. But since reopening over the summer, he said they’ve been “flying it”.
“It is a bit of a knock-back having to close again but there should be a little of a bounce when we reopen again, hopefully in December,” he said.
Hair consultant Ceira Lambert, who specialises in hair extensions at her salon in Shankill, Co Dublin said she’s been swamped trying to cater for clients who booked in this week.
“I literally don’t have enough staff to cater for the demand,” she said.
“We all worked 9am-9pm yesterday as we were closed on Monday – and then we had just two days to fit everyone in as we don’t want
to leave anybody out.”
A lot of clients are asking for things like blow-dries just to get that “feel-good factor”. Others are looking to get their colour or extensions done. “It’s funny because nobody’s going anywhere but they just want to feel good. It’s self-care and a way of making themselves feel a bit better,” she said.
Salons catering to the wellness industry are also lamenting having to close, like Calm Beauty in Dublin’s Drumcondra, where staff have been working 9am-9pm this week. They do massages for post-op patients as well as reflexology for women undergoing fertility treatment and pre-natal massages.
“A lot of our clients were coming up stressed to the gills and there’s a few really wobbling this week,” said co-owner Jenny Faison.
“It’s a nice diversion for them coming in here. It’s an hour that they’re not on their phone and they get to switch off and they need that head space. It helps reduce their adrenalin levels because everyone is in that fight-orflight mode right now.
“We all have heightened stress levels, so it’s hard for them to hear we’re going to be closed for six weeks.”