Laura Bermingham on the new normal for salons

For weeks the hair and beauty sector has been on hold, waiting to get clarity on measures required to reopen safely. Across the country salon owners have been installing Perspex on till areas, getting essential PPE equipment such as masks and gowns, and rearranging treatment stations to adhere to the two metre rule. Clients are no doubt eager to get back to their regular cut and colour, and for beauty routines like nails, brows and facials. But will all these new measures mean a heftier price tag for the consumer?

We asked Alan Keville of award-winning salon, Alan Keville for Hair, if prices will be affected going forward. He said, ‘Yes, there will obviously be a lot more time dedicated to health and safety and this will have to be added to the final bill or salons will suffer. Currently we are looking at a 5% increase to cover the cost of everything . I don’t feel the time of an appointment will be affected, it could actually speed up, as the salons won’t be as busy because of the amount of people in the salon at one time! It’s very important for me that when a client comes in that they get the best experience possible and the whole treatment is as seamless as possible. The last thing any hairdresser wants is a client to be in your salon feeling stressed, especially after three months of lockdown.’ Another change on the way that might happen because of safety protocols is the service, that rather than having every aspect of your hair appointment catered for by two or three people, this may be reduced to just one stylist. Alan says, ‘I feel it will become a bit more slowed down, a more personal service with the hairdresser looking after every aspect of the service rather than a few different people. I feel the day of three to four people looking after one client is over, but to be honest, I feel this is not a bad thing. This is something I have been hoping to change for a long time now.’

So many salons across the country have created waitlists with customers paying deposits for appointments to get their hair done. Alan decided against this, he explains why saying, ‘We decided not to have a waiting list because I felt that by not having a definite time it could have left us open to a lot of cancellations at the last minute. We also felt it wouldn’t be good to take deposits either because of the same reason.’ We are all aware that difficult times lie ahead for the hair and beauty industry which employs 25,000 people in Ireland, we can do our best to support them by booking an appointment and wait our turn to get in the chair.

Alan Keville for Hair has salons in Dublin 2, Naas and Wexford.

The days of three or four people looking after one client are over