He also wants them to remain open as an essential service.
A member of the Executive Committee for the Irish Hairdressers Federation has revealed he would like to see salons open their doors again by 17 May, and be allowed to remain open as an essential service.
Mark O’Keeffe, Founder and Director of Sugar Culture Hair and Beauty Group told JOE that he believes hair salons are one of the “safest environments” and called on the Government to allow salons to reopen when they meet to discuss the next phase of easing restrictions on Thursday.
“We’re hoping that we will be open by mid-May, somewhere around the 17th of May is what we’re hoping for cause it will give us enough time not just to restock our salons, get our salons recleaned, also to get our staff in the right frame of mind because they have all been off now since Christmas Eve, it’s a long time to be out of work. Mentally we have to get our staff geared up,” he said.
“We reopened after the first lockdown with very strict protocols that the industry put together and the government approved, so we’ve been all over that the last two reopenings, salon owners up and down the country have done an amazing job adhering to those protocols and making sure that staff and clients alike are aware of them and following them.
“We have no need to change them, they’re absolutely perfect, we proved that over the last two reopenings that salons are the safest environment to be in.”
The hairdresser with 30+ years of experience in the industry is also worried about the recent boom in black market hairdressing happening in homes across the country.
“It is a worry, it’s a worry because when salons reopen, salon owners are going to need a sustained period of time for our business to be very good so that we can get cash flow back up again. Obviously, the last two lockdowns that was the case, there was a big surge, but certainly this time it is very obvious that people have been getting their hair done at home professionally,” he added.
“I think home visits are very dodgy, somebody going from home to home to home to home is exactly what the government is trying to ask people not to do. I think it is a big risk for everyone involved.”
However, O’Keeffe is not worried about losing clients due to the appointments, as he believes customers are only having hairdressers in their home as they have “no choice” and will be eager to return to salons once given the opportunity to do so.
O’Keeffe continued: “This is something that was forced upon clients because of the need, whether it was a mental health issue or just because it was a look good feel good issue, they had no choice but to get their hair done.
“I have no doubt that once salons reopen they’re going to want to get back to that safe, fun, happy environment, the experience of getting your hair done at home is nothing like getting your hair done in a salon. I’ve no doubt that it will return.
“People are taking chances bringing hairdressers into their home to get their hair done, unnecessary chances that I’m sure they would rather not have to take, but again, they didn’t have a choice. I’d be fairly confident the vast majority of people will come back to the salons as soon as they can.”
The salon owner said he would like to see Irish salons be allowed to remain open as an essential service during any subsequent lockdowns due to the negative impact the continual reopening and closing of the economy has had on businesses.
“I personally think that hair salons should be an essential service. I think that salon owners have done such a fabulous job at making sure their salons are a safe environment, we can keep Covid out of our salons, I’m very confident of that, so personally.
“I would love to see them being essential. A lot of people think they should be, I’m not alone in that, I think we should be allowed to reopen and remain open no matter what happens.
“Salons are incredibly safe, the standards we maintain are of the highest level, you can’t beat a salon environment, it would be great for everyone to come back into work and for clients to come back and to get business up and going as it was before Covid as soon as possible, and get things back to some sort of normality.”
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