Relaunch green light at long last for salon boss
open at this earlier juncture.
Lorraine Livesey, owner of Tanfantastic Sunbeds in St Mary’s Gate, said: “It’s the best news ever - it’s like Christmas come early!
“I’ve been Covid secure for weeks, just waiting and waiting for Boris to let me open my doors.”
For Katie Lapidus, owner of Beauty Boutique on Bury Road, the chance to reopen can’t come soon enough after almost a year of effort to renovate and relaunch her salon.
Having worked in the beauty industry for 20 years and always subleased her salon space from local hairdressers, Katie took the plunge a year ago to move into a larger space, in an upstairs apartment at Murray and Murray hairdressers on Bury Road.
Around five months of waiting for planning permission followed, before a renovation period of six months, with the renovated salon finally opening in March. Katie, 37, said: “Myself and the girls that work with me have found these uncertain times very difficult.
“The salon looked stunning and we were all so excited to start using it but sadly didn’t get to use it for long, which is what’s been so upsetting.
“We only had about four weeks before we had to close for lockdown - our first week was just when people started cancelling appointments because they were anxious to go out.”
She described being told the salon would not be able to open on July 4 alongside hair salons was ‘another blow and unhappiness for us’.
Katie added: “We were just dying to open - we had our clients’ names and numbers down and ready to go but then we heard it was just hairdressers.
“Now we’re really keen to get back in now - we’re setting up screens on the desks, we’ve got all our hand gel and PPE.
“We’re a lot larger now and have got lots more space, which is definitely in our favour - at our previous premises we wouldn’t have been able to open.”
She added: “I don’t see why the hair salons were allowed to open early we’re not doing any of our facial treatments to keep social distancing, but you can still get a beard trimmed at the hairdressers.
“We’ve got gloves and screens just like they have, so I don’t see what the difference is.”
However, Katie added that she and her team were ‘really excited’ to get back to work, initially offering a limited range of nail and lower body treatments in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.
And the mum of two, who lives on Camberley Drive, Bamford with her partner Daniel and daughters Francesca, three, and 10-month-old Jorgie, paid tribute to her family, without whose support she says the salon may not have survived lockdown at all.
Katie said: “My partner and my family have been helping to pay the overhead costs while we were closed - I feel really grateful for their support.
“I have heard of lots of salons having to close - if I hadn’t had that help from my family I don’t know what would have happened to us.”
Before the pandemic, makeup artist Stevie Hayhurst, rented out a chair at a salon in Middleton, which has now closed.
She was often hired to do make up for weddings, christenings and events she mainly worked at the weekends.
She said the press briefing on Thursday, in which the announcement was made about beauty salons, was vague.
The government didn’t make it clear that she couldn’t resume her work.
Stevie said many people working in the industry feel ‘forgotten about’.
“It’s been frustrating,” she said.
“I feel forgotten about. We feel left in the lurch.”
“(Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden) said ‘there will be certain restrictions’. It was as though we were a tiny throw away comment. Why can’t you get brows done but you you can get a beard trim? It’s not really thought out.
“I’m a bit lost for words. I wouldn’t want women and men in my industry to feel as forgotten about. I have looked on the government website and make up is on the list of people who can go ahead.
“On the bottom section it says you can’t carry out (treatments) if it’s in the high risk area (like the face).
“There are things like body art (that you can do), the body sweats which is another way to transmit (the infection). My mind really does boggle.”
Stevie, who used to work in a cafe, retrained in October as a make up artist after having a break to raise her children.
She described make up as a ‘passion’.
“You live for it,” Stevie added.
“I love doing it. I retrained in my 30s. I thought ‘this is my career now’. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Everyone was forced to cancel their appointments when the lockdown was introduced.
Stevie has two brides booked in for the rest of the year - and one wedding booked in for next March.
She feels there has been a lack of financial help available for the newly self employed.
They go off the previous tax year, the cut off is April 2019. I’m not entitled to a grant,” Stevie added.
“There are some girls who do other treatments like nails, and they can go back to work.
“We are not allowed to work on the face.”
The 31-year-old said they can make their treatments safe - she could wear a face shield and mask when she works, and they use specialist cleaning equipment. properly