‘ IT FEELS LIKE YOU ARE GIVING BACK...’
SA L ONS h a v e b e e n thoroughly missed since Covid restrictions put a pause on treatments. In the case of this salon, it’s more than just fix- ups for at- home nail polish jobs being lost out on.
Beauty With A Conscience, based on Battlefield Road in the South Side, is a salon which not only give clients their favourite treatments, but gives back to charity in the process.
Created by The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in 2018, the salon gives any profit made after paying expenses straight back to the charity.
However, lockdown closed the business for seven months and stopped the salon from helping to raise funds for the hospice.
Rhona Baillie, the chief executive of the charity, said: “The closure of the salon, along with our other retail shops and the cancellation of our fundraising events, has had a significant impact on our funds.
“We know how much the people of Battlefield and Glasgow have missed visiting the salon and having treatments knowing that they’re also helping the hospice care for people at the end of their lives. It really is a beauty salon with a conscience.”
The salon offers treatments such as nails, brows and waxing.
Salon manager Monika Dul said: “I’ve been working here for a few years now, since it opened actually, and I was in a few different places before but there’s something special about working here.
“It feels like you’re giving back while getting to do something that you love.”
Beauty With A Conscience not only lends a hand to the hospice by donating profits, but also gives a kickstart to those beginning in the industry.
Students from Glasgow Clyde College, conveniently situated across the road from the salon, are given the opportunity to gain work experience in the shop.
Monika said: “It’s really great for the students to be able to come in and get the experience.
“Beauty tech students normally ask their friends to come into college to get treatments done for practice but getting hands- on practice in the shop is the best for them.
“It’s so important that they get experience at doing the treatments, but also experience in the shop setting.
“It’s one thing practicing on your friends, but practicing on strangers is really important experience and something that I wish I had when I was a student.”
The salon has been kitted with perspex screens and staff and volunteers adhere guidelines.
The step- up in safety is something which hasn’t phased the staff, or customers, too much.
Monika said: “It’s important that we make the clients feel safe because they’ve been away for so long, but there really isn’t much of a difference to what we did before.
“The only difference really is the mask and the glass in- between yourself and them.
“We’ve been booked out since we reopened so the response has been great. It’s so nice to see that the community has missed us.” out all to