Your haircut after lockdown will be unlike any you had before

THERE are aspects of lockdown that are universal. Among them are overgrown bangs, split ends, unkempt beards and gray roots.

Months of confinement have left many around the world desperate for a haircut. They’ll have to wait a bit longer in places like the UK, where salons and barbers will remain shut until at least July 4 under current government plans. Such establishments have started to reopen in other parts of Europe, the US, Australia and Asia, and one thing is becoming clear: A trip to the local hairdresser will be very different in the era of social distancing.

Treatments such as facials, eyelash tinting and hot shaves may no longer be possible because of contagion risk. There are lingering questions about whether blow driers are safe. Amenities like complimentary beverages and magazines are likely to disappear. Fewer customers can be served at one time, while the cost of providing disposable gowns and masks for staff and customers could push up prices.

“To reopen, I think you have to forget everything you know and rewrite your business plan,” said Joe Mills, owner of the barbershop Joe & Co. and the unisex salon The Lounge, both in London’s Soho district.

At Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa in London’s exclusive Chelsea neighborhood, there is already a waiting list of 800 people for appointments when the business reopens, and managing director Hellen Ward anticipates many challenges.

She noted that a lip wax is a 15-minute appointment in a closed treatment room, and involves close contact between customers and staff. A full head of highlights requires less contact, but can take as long as two hours or more.

“How do you tick off all of these different factors safely for customers and staff?”she asked.

While the need for a trim, shave, or coloring, may seem insignificant in the face of a global pandemic, the hair, beauty and barber industry is a major employer worldwide. More than half a million people are employed as hairdressers in the US, according to Data USA. In Europe, more than a million work across about 400,000 salons and receive roughly 350 million customers a year, a report from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work showed.

In Britain, about 43,000 of such businesses generate more than 7.5 billion pounds ($9.2 billion) in revenue for the economy, according to the National Hair and Beauty Federation.

Bloomberg News