If you have been desperate for getting your haircut during lockdown, then you can expect to be happier very soon! The lockdown is going to be relaxed this April and then you will be allowed to visit salons and hairdressers soon for beautifying yourself. However, there are certain guidelines that you should still need to follow while enjoying this relaxation.
The government has declared that all hair salons and hairdressers will be allowed to start trading again from April 12, 2021. The government will review the current Covid situation on April 5 and finally, all these retail businesses will be opened for the public this April. Hence, many salon owners have started accepting bookings for haircuts, cutting beards, and shaping nails etc from April 12 onwards. People can also attend gyms and swimming pools regularly from that day. Therefore, you may look forward to making yourself healthier and more beautiful again from April 12, 2021.
However, the government has laid some special safety rules for preventing the spread of Covid among people visiting salons and beauty parlors. These rules were initially created in June 2020 due to the first wave of the Coronavirus throughout the country. Later, the government revised these rules in November 2020 as Covid seemed to recede to some extent. Now, all hairdressers are supposed to strictly abide by these rules, to ensure the safety of their customers from this horrible/deadly disease.
These guidelines are mainly for services where customers need to come in close contact with service providers. Hence, all hair salons, spas, makeup studios, tattoo artists, physiotherapists, nail artists, fashion designers, dress fitters, and tailors need to follow the safety rules mentioned by the government. All these rules are also applicable to those carrying on these above-mentioned businesses from their homes. Students pursuing beautician courses, massage therapy courses, and fashion designing or tailoring course also need to observe these guidelines for their own safety against Covid.
The following rules are essential to be maintained in all salons and beauty parlors:
- Now, no one can visit a hair salon without a prior appointment. Salon owners should provide appointments in such a way so that the social distancing can be well maintained there.
- Social distancing should also be strictly maintained in the waiting lounge of each shop. If the entire lounge is filled up with customers, the shop owner should let a new customer in only when a customer goes out of the shop.
- Newspapers and magazines should not be provided for entertaining customers in beauty parlors and salons, as it used to be done before the lockdown, to prevent the gathering of people as much as possible.
- The floors and counter surfaces should be cleaned and sanitized frequently, to wipe off all possibilities of the virus there. Chairs, tables, and beds should be sanitized after being used by each customer. All trash bins should be emptied regularly and the entire shop premises should remain free of debris.
- Staff should frequently wash their hands with disinfectant soap and water, mainly after serving each customer. They should also spray sanitizer on the hands of customers as soon as they enter the shop. Customers are also encouraged to wash their hands, for which clean toilets should be available in these business centers.
- Beauticians or salon staff should encircle their customers while providing the desired services. They may also try to work from the back or side of a customer, avoiding standing in front of him/her as much as possible. In this way, they can prevent the risk of infection directly from a Covid positive customer.
- If the staff of a business center need to work too close to their customers, they may take turns to provide service to each customer. Thus, they can avoid close contact with customers for too long if they work in pairs.
- All staff should wear only three-layered face masks during their duty hours in a beauty salon. In this way, they can prevent the spread of Covid infection from them to customers and vice versa. They may also wear a protective face visor or goggles to prevent the entry of germs through their eyes.
- The time needed for all customer servicing activities should be minimized as much as possible, to reduce the risk of spreading infection. The business hours of every shop should also be reduced to minimize the risk of Covid infection.
- No loud music should be played on the music system within the shop premises and the volume of radio should be kept at a minimum level in confined spaces. High-pitched sound can result in people shouting there to make themselves audible, which leads to more spraying out of droplets from their mouths.
- Every customer should be asked whether he/she has any kind of Covid symptom in the last few days. Their contact details should be noted down so that they can be informed if a Covid test is necessary for their wellbeing.
- Every shop premises should be kept well ventilated to eliminate all kinds of germs, for which all doors and windows should remain open. Large spaces need to have specific entry and exit points so that customers do not wander around in a shop. If there is a queue of customers before a shop, there should be staff entitled to queue management while maintaining social distance.
- Screens or partitions should be provided to keep each customer at safe distance from others while they are in a beauty salon. They should be encouraged for digital payment of the service charge, to minimize the body contact.
- It is better to provide disposable materials, like towels and gowns, while servicing customers, to prevent the spread of infection from one customer to another. All tools, like scissors and nail files, should be treated by spraying disinfectant after each use. Staff should wear gloves if they need to have skin contact with their customers, mainly in cases of beauty treatments.
However, some special beauty treatments are considered riskier than others in a beauty parlor. Waxing, threading, shaving of beards, facial treatments, dermarolling for reducing scars, dermaplaning to remove fine wrinkles, microblading for creating tattoos, and other advanced beauty treatments can impose high risks for both beauticians and their customers.
As always, if you are not clear on some of these points please feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to help you with any issues/questions you may have.