After 14 weeks of lockdown, many Brits will be desperate to ditch their caveman hairstyles and give their roots a much needed covering.
As soon the Government the green light yesterday for hairdressers to re-open on July 4, people across the country reached for their phones to book an eagerly awaited appointment.
But such an overwhelming demand means you might have to wait a little bit longer, with a group of four south London hairdressers already building up a waiting list of 2,000 people. Katya Davies opened up her books a few weeks ago in anticipation for the Downing Street’s latest move and now the whole of July is looking full up.
The managing director of Myla and Davis said staff will be working an extra four hours every day to try and cope with demand, but new regulations requiring her business to be ‘Covid-secure’ are still likely to slow things down.
She told the BBC: ‘We can’t wait to get back to work and we’ve planned our reopening schedule around the two-metre distancing rule. We don’t plan to change that, although the switch to one-metre plus will ease the burden a little.
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‘Our salons will be able to work at around 65% capacity although wearing visors will be quite cumbersome and bring its own problems, especially for the comfort of our workers who will be dealing with clients back-to-back.’
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While the situation is by no means perfect, founder of Chelsea’s Salon Sloane Belle Cannan still welcomed the Government’s announcement, having been preparing to reopen based on the two-metre rule.
She added: ‘It means we will be able to work at around 75% capacity rather than 50%. There are some of our usual touches that have had to go, such as offering tea, coffee or magazines to clients. They will also have to put on their own gowns and hang up their own coats.’
But she said people have been waiting for so long that customers will be happy with ‘the new normal’.
As well as hairdressers and barbers, pubs, restaurants, cinemas and museums have been given the all clear to open up if they can abide by new guidelines.
Speaking to MPs yesterday, the Prime Minister acknowledged that the current two-metre social distancing rule ‘makes life impossible for large parts of our economy’.
The Government hopes businesses will be able to get back up and running more easily by reducing this to ‘one-metre plus.’
This means people should stay two metres apart when possible and take certain mitigations at one metre.
Measures could include wearing face masks, using protective screens and providing handwashing facilities.
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