The Irish Mail on Sunday

Ready, steady, groom! Salons set to reopen

- By Niamh Walsh

READY, steady… groom! Beauty businesses across the nation have been a hive of activity as they prepare to throw open their doors for the first time in months.

The manager of Brazilia waxing salons on Dublin’s

South William Street and in Sandyford say their phones have been ‘ringing off the hook’ ahead of tomorrow’s grand reopening.

Kathryn Lowry told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘By the time we started booking in our appointmen­ts on Monday we had hundreds of booking requests from customers for each of our salons.’ While appointmen­ts for the next few weeks were booked up within hours’ Ms Lowry said her team have gone into overdrive to ensure they meet their clients’ demands.

‘We are booked up for the first few weeks, but slots are becoming available every day as people’s plans change.’

However, like every salon, adhering to the guidelines has meant their capacity has been reduced considerab­ly.

Ms Lowry adds: ‘It’s appointmen­t only, everything we use now is single use and disposable after every treatment. Since the start of the pandemic our capacity is down about 30%.’

Premium Dublin hair and beauty salon Brown Sugar has also been inundated with frantic clients. MD Mark O’Keeffe said the salon was fielding ‘thousands of calls’.

He told the MoS: ‘When we closed on December 24 we had over 4,000 future appointmen­ts booked in. The reality is our business looks after over 1,000 clients each week, across all salons. The demand has been incredible. It’s roughly 2,500 calls across my three Brown Sugar salons.’

He says staff have been working extremely hard to accommodat­e all their clients.

‘The salons are more or less at capacity until the end of June. But we do what we can to ensure that everyone is accommodat­ed,’ said Mr O’Keeffe.

Ceira Lambert’s eponymous star-stacked salon in Shankill, Co. Dublin, also confirmed it is completely ‘booked up’ for the next few weeks.

Ms Lambert said: ‘We are fielding a lot of customers desperatel­y looking to get their hair done… But safety measures from the previous reopening have ensured this time is far less frantic.

‘We have had all necessary measures in place. But like all salons our capacity has been affected in that our priority is to keep our clients and staff safe.

‘The staff are so looking forward to getting back to work. I know they have had a lot of time off, but I do feel it’s a lot on them going from not working for so long. But we are just so happy to get back open.’

 ??  ?? ready to go: Brown Sugar’s Alannah and Reece
ready to go: Brown Sugar’s Alannah and Reece

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