Irish Hairdressers Federation to present recommendations to Government in effort to get salons reopened earlier
The Irish Hairdressers Federation (IHF) announced this week that it plans to present over 100 comprehensive recommendations to the Government in an effort to open salons earlier.
Salons are currently listed in Phase 4 of the Government’s road map, which means they are due to reopen on 20 July. The IHF wants the industry to be moved to Phase 3, which would mean opening on 29 June.
The organisation, which represents over 400 salon owners nationwide, said the recommendations cover critical areas of the day-to-day operations of salons and will enable them to reopen in a manner that is safe to both staff and customers. They have been developed with the input of a health and safety expert and are supported by several other organisations in the hair and beauty sector.
“The Government released the road map and they specifically said that they are not experts in any one industry and they were inviting industries that feel that they could reopen earlier to put their case forward,” incoming IHF president Danielle Kennedy told Professional Beauty and Hairdressers Journal Ireland.
“So we feel that we’ve a really good case to put forward. We work in a a very sterile environment anyway, we’re used to sterilising all our instruments and tools and sanitising stations. We operate on appointments mostly, we’re already set up for contact tracing – we know who’s in our building, who’s been in contact with all those people who’ve been in our building, and all that’s very important to satisfy the Government’s Return to Work Safely Protocol.”
Kennedy says that the perception is that when it comes to health and safety and adhering to guidelines, there will be less involved in reopening in Phase 4. But this is not the case, she stresses. “The reason we are asking to be considered to be moved forward to Phase 3 is because there is going to be no difference in how we operate in Phase 3 and Phase 4. And with the cost involved, we have a very good case to be considered to be moved forward. There are a lot of industries looking to be moved forward to an earlier phase and we strongly feel that we should be one of those that should be considered.”
Giving salons direction
Kennedy maintains that most salons are already preparing to reopen, but they need better direction. “What we are very concerned about is that the guidelines in the Return to Work Safely Protocol are very vague for our industry. They don’t offer a huge amount of guidance, everything is very much ‘if and where possible’, so what we want to do is bring some of the questions we have answered for our industry to Government, engage with the heath authorities, hopefully get them to be satisfied with what we are saying: that we are able to offer a solution for the industry and for all the questions.
“It’s up to us to bring it to the Government and it’s the same for other industries, I think the Government was very clear on that. They said they are not experts in any one industry and that the industries will have to come to them. We used a health and safety expert to help us draw up the guidelines, it was very important that we used the right type of people who would satisfy what the Government is looking for from a health and safety point of view.”
If the IHF is not successful in getting the reopening date moved to Phase 3, it will still be releasing its recommendations to the industry to help guide them to reopen safely, says Kennedy.
“There’s so much misinformation at the moment. People have gone out and spent thousands of euro on screens and we are not 100% certain if they are really necessary. We’ve engaged with the HSA and they’ve been very, very vague on it. They’re saying where social distancing is not possible, extra measures have to be put in place. That’s all they are saying. But what exactly do they mean by that?”
Meanwhile, for any hair salons with a beauty offering, Kennedy says they are directing them to the Irish Spa Association (ISA). “We’ve got a really good relationship with the ISA and it has already released a document with guidelines and it’s very good. It’s for spas but some of the services would be the same so we are guiding any beauty therapists to that.”
The ISA recently said it believes that if spas and salons around the country follow strict protocols and safety guidelines, they should be allowed to reopen in June. It published a business continuity plan with industry guidelines for Irish spas and salons to recalibrate and restart their businesses, and it also launched an additional certification, which requires businesses to complete a checklist and successfully fulfil an assessment based on the ISA guidelines for best practice.
