Hair industry being treated unfairly
DEAR Madam Speaker – I am unreservedly disgusted about the way our industry is treated.
First of all, I have been in the hair-dressing industry for more than 17 years. To become the successful hairdresser and salon owner that I am today, I had to study and work hard. I studied eight years in total. I have a degree and a master’s in colour. Yes, you read that right. A degree and a master’s.
I’m sorry. I did not spend all that time and money studying for someone to tell me I should maybe give my clients online lessons to do their own hair at home.
Excuse me, Madam Speaker, and I say this with the utmost respect for you, but I would like to see you take your doek off and let your hairdresser visually video guide you to colouring or weaving your hair, telling you where to over-direct and under-direct your sectioned guideline at your occipital bone, vertically towards the point of demarcation on the hair.
Second of all, part of our education as hairdressers/stylists is a whole extensive section on disinfection and sterilisation, including infection/disease prevention and control. It is some of the foundation knowledge that we are taught from the beginning, as the risk of exposure to viruses and diseases is much higher in our industry than in most others because we work face to face.
You will not tell me that I can’t serve one client at a time under a strictly controlled environment with all the safety precautions in place. You won’t tell me that I am not allowed to work when you allow seven people to get into a taxi, an uncontrolled environment, with no means of social distancing between the occupants of the vehicle or no proper means of sanitisation.
So how do two people working under a strictly controlled environment that’s stationary in one place, lose against seven random people who travel around in a taxi?
Like many South African business owners, I was forced to close my business for three weeks during lockdown because hairdressing wasn’t classed as an essential service.
While you still get your pay cheque every month, my business stays closed. I make no money. I can’t pay my employees, and they can’t provide for their families. I cannot give them an answer – I don’t even know if I will be able to open my doors again for business. My industry has pleaded to be classed as an essential service, like it is in other countries.
I plead with you to open our sector up for business in level 3. STEFAN ELLIS | George, Western Cape