Irish hair and beauty industry urges Government to reopen salons ahead of 20 July date
Irish hair and beauty salons are urging the Government to allow them to reopen ahead of the planned 20 July date. The industry was listed in the road map for reopening the country in Phase 4, but it claims this long waiting period will only see an even bigger surge in the black market, particularly with the easing of travel restrictions.
Vice-president of the Irish Hairdressers Federation (IHF) Danielle Kennedy told RTE Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke that the organisation has set out plans, which would enable salons open next month instead. She said that the black market for hairdressing has sprung up, with huge sums being offered to stylists as people are unwilling to wait for salons to reopen.
“We have come up with a set of structures, Covid protection guidelines,” said Kennedy. “Obviously a salon is a much more sterile environment, they're much more equipped to cope with this kind of stuff because we're used to working in sterile environments anyway, and we are quite happy to take it up a notch. Our federation is a committee of salon owners, so we know what we suggest is stuff that will work, it’s stuff that is practical for the industry. So we really want to push it forward to the end of June, to Phase 3.
“We’re quite happy to reduce the numbers of the premises, reduce the interactions from client to client, so yes we will temporarily lose an element of the hospitality side of the industry, but we're prepared to do that to get the industry back open.”
On the same show, Professor Kim Roberts, assistant professor of virology at Trinity College Dublin, said that wearing a mask for the time it takes for a hair cut might be of benefit. “But it needs to be worn properly and people need to realise that wearing a mask does not give you 100% protection,” she said.
She also said that the number of clients in a salon would need to be reduced and cutting hair outside would help as “the air flow can reduce the time in which the virus is alive for and particles can reduce more quickly”.
The Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation (HABIC) is planning on bringing proposals to reopen the sector earlier forward to the Government and spoke with Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation Heather Humphreys last Thursday, 7 May. It is now working on a road map to recovery for the industry to include the Government's new return to work safely protocol.
The Irish Spa Association is also hoping its industry can reopen earlier with co-founder Anita Murray telling RTE last week that it would like to see the date changed to June.
