"I will accept the consequences."
A hairdresser in Limerick has vowed to give free "essential" haircuts to certain clients at his hair salon this week.
Niall Colgan runs a studio on O’Callaghan Strand in Limerick city and said he caters for a number of clients who have serious health conditions, and as a result, need to have hair treatment to help their mental wellbeing.
Hairdressers and barbers are currently closed due to the ongoing Level 5 restrictions on non-essential businesses.
“I am returning to the salon this week to do a few haircuts on clients that I am deeming essential," Colgan said in a video posted to social media this week.
“I have got clients that are post-chemotherapy, their hair is completely out of control and, for their mental health, after everything they have been through with illness, lockdown, and not being able to see people and so on and so forth.
"They really, really want to have their hair cut. They know how safe an environment it is going to be.
"We're going to be masked up and we're going to have everything that we had in place after the last two lockdowns."
Colgan added: "I’ve got a client who suffers from trichotillomania and if I don’t cut her hair, she is going to pull it out, and that is going to add to her mental health and anxiety issues.”
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CMaV9hxnqYU/?utm_source=ig_embed
He said he plans to make an exception by opening for some “essential” cases, but the salon will not be opening its doors outright and instead will be operating on a appointment basis.
Colgan said the service would be free of charge but he would only see his regular clients and among those, only the ones he feels really need it.
Other precautions he said he will take include clients coming with their hair previously shampooed. There will be no hair drying on the premises and he added it would be just him and the client in the room.
Earlier this year, a salon in Balbriggan in Dublin reopened its doors despite the Level 5 restrictions.
After initially being ordered to close, its owner, Christine McTiernan, reopened her salon C&N Beauty Rooms for a second day.
McTiernan was subsequently arrested for breaches of the Health Act 1947.
