Beauty salon owners claim ‘north-south divide’ will hamper their recovery

BEAUTY salon owners today spoke of their mixed feelings about reopening on Monday as they claim they face a north-south divide on what services they can offer in a bid to boost their recovery.

While they will be able to welcome customers through their doors for the first time since last December, restrictions mean in Scotland they will be limited in what they can offer.

Clients are unable to remove their masks in the salon environment, even if the therapists are fully equipped with PPE and it rules out facial treatments which for many salons can make up to 50 per cent of their business.

The health and beauty sector is calling for a level playing field with the rest of the UK and say they are also affected by which grant aid category they fall into.

The National Hair and Beauty Federation had written a joint letter, together with British Association of Beauty Therapy & Cosmetology, The UK Spa Association and the British Beauty Council, to the Scottish Government seeking urgent clarification ahead of reopening on April 26.

They are urging that clients to be permitted to remove face masks temporarily for the purposes of treatments to the face in line with the rest of the UK. They say it would allow beauty therapists and salons to carry out a fuller range of treatments with the hope of keeping their businesses afloat.

Justine Mitchell, who runs the Chamomile Sanctuary in Edinburgh, and an ambassador for business network Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) said: “We have been closed for eight out of the last 12 months and now even when we reopen on Monday it is with restrictions. I’ll only be able to operate at 35% of my normal turn over as facials account for 50 to 55% of the business and we can’t carry these out.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Beauticians and other close contact services are due to open from April 26. As we have previously said, we all want to get back to normal as soon as it is safely possible, but we must move very carefully to ensure continued suppression of the virus.”

However, while guidance hasn’t changed it is now understood that a rapid review will be carried out.

Becky Woodhouse, founder of the PURE Spa chain, which operates in a number of sites in Scotland including in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a fellow WES member, said they are affected by business grant divisions as the sector has been classed as non-essential retail.

Ms Woodhouse said: “In the rest of the UK, close contact services are being treated the same as the rest of hospitality and leisure.

“For PURE Spa alone, this means we are receiving £60,0000 less than if we were based in England. This is all due simply to the Scottish Government’s last minute decision to class us as non-essential retail rather than leisure, which is quite frankly bizarre.”