Hairdressers told keep it short to curb Covid

Salons advised to avoid long treatments like highlights or braids to cut time in the chair when doors reopen

HAIRDRESSERS and beauty salons have been told to avoid long and complex treatments when they open on Monday to reduce the length of time customers spend in the chair.

Britons returning to the salon for a long-awaited hair appointment may find that they cannot book longer procedures, like highlights or braids, as businesses have been told to keep their services simple.

Guidance published on the Government’s website says hair and beauty salons “should consider providing shorter, more basic treatments to keep the time to a minimum”.

The guidance adds that when doing longer procedures such as “braiding or massages”, workers should “consider how the length of the appointment could be minimised”.

Judith Cummins, a Labour MP who co-chairs Parliament’s group on beauty, aesthetics and well-being, said the rules showed a “slapdash approach” and called for more clarity from ministers.

“It’s very difficult to make a living if you’re given guidance that is very woolly and very unclear,” she said. “What’s a short appointment, and what’s the medium appointment, and what’s a long appointment? I’ve got no idea, and I doubt whether the government has any idea either.”

Richard Lambert, the chief executive of the National Hair and Beauty Federation, said massage parlours may choose to shorten appointments to stay within the new guidelines. “There are places that offer massages of 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes,” he said. They may decide that they’d rather not do 90-minute massages.”

Mr Lambert said many businesses would continue to offer a full range of services, but will “understand the risks, make sure [they] take all the relevant safety precautions and make sure it can be done properly”.

The second step of Boris Johnson’s lockdown roadmap on Monday will see the reopening of “close contact services” like hair and beauty salons and nail bars for the first time since the beginning of the third national lockdown on Jan 5. Many hairdressers have reported they are solidly booked for the first month after reopening. Toni & Guy, which operates more than 100 branches in the UK, said most of its salons were fully booked until at least the second week of May.

The UK’S rush to get a haircut will be a boon to the industry, which has suffered during three successive lockdowns. Almost 5,000 hair and beauty businesses have already closed, and the British Beauty Council estimates the sector will shrink by around 20 per cent as a result of the pandemic.

When salons open, staff must wear PPE, including a visor, and customers should wear a face mask when they are sitting in waiting rooms. The guidance says salons should operate an appointment-only system to avoid a build-up of walk-in customers in waiting areas.

Staff should also turn down music in their salons to avoid customers raising their voices and spreading more of the virus through droplets, and visitors must register their details with NHS Test and Trace on arrival.

Industry bosses have raised concerns about new guidelines on ventilation in salons – which was added after new evidence suggested that the virus could be kept at bay if there was enough air flow indoors.

Millie Kendall, the chief executive of the British Beauty Council, said small beauty businesses were more likely to be hit by additional costs. “A lot of the largest businesses have got great ventilation, but it will be those small freelance or sole practitioners that rent a room at the back of a shop where there’s not enough ventilation,” she said.