Local salons prepare for new style of hairdressing

Hairdressers have ‘more demand than they can handle’ but unfortunately the long awaited appointment may come at a higher price.

Hairdressers and customers have been scrambling around for the past week to sort out those much needed colours and cuts.

Salons across the county have been inundated with demand from customers who have gone almost three months without a visit to the hairdressers.

After weeks of uncertainty and delay, hairdressers are preparing to welcome their loyal customers back on July 6 and have been busy adding safety measures and extra PPE for their clients.

However, due to the extra measures being put in place, the price of the traditional services will be increased in many local salons.

Noeleen Devlin of Hi Tec Hair Salon in Omagh is looking forward to reopening again and has ‘more demand than the salon can handle.’

Noeleen used the lockdown period to revamp her salon and put safety measures in place but added that this all comes at a cost.

She said, “We are not going to have the same footfall as before so where we previously would have had three people in the salon, I will now only have one.

“I have also had to let two staff members leave and I feel bad about that but I had to make the right choices for the business.

“I have bought in an extortionate amount of PPE and I spent £900 on masks alone for my staff.

“All the salons are having to do this and we are all trying to do our best to keep people safe.

“Some of the local salons have not increased prices for two or three years – we get complacent and don’t put up our prices often.

“Some of the salons now have to put up the prices to cover the lesser amount of clients we can see and also the PPE equipment that we have had to purchase.”

Ms Devlin has spent the last week trying to get appointments sorted for her clients and getting the salon prepared.

She continued, “It is going to long and hard weeks but we are excited to get back but also worried.

“We concerned about whether we are going to be fit for this and we haven’t been in groups of people either so we are faced with the unknown.

“On July 5, it will be like going to a new job and we will see how it goes,” said Ms Devlin.

Claire Campbell of Claire’s Hair Studio in Campsie has also been inundated with appointment requests and is fully booked up for the first month.

She said, “We will doing less clients every day but we will be working more hours and days.

“I am envisaging it to be a bit like Christmas at the start until everything gets back to a bit of normality.

“The first month is fully booked up for the team and myself.

“It will be great to get back to what we do best,” said Ms Campbell.

Ms Campbell says they are still awaiting official guidelines on reopening but believes people need to practice their common sense when it comes to social distancing.

She said, “We are taking all precautions but we haven’t been given any guidelines yet but we are not depending on that.

“I think a lot of it is about using your common sense so we have taken down mirrors and set up dividers between the clients.

“We almost have the two metre distance between the bays but the dividers will leave that much safer.

“Staff will be on a rota so they are not all in at the one time, and the salon will never be crowded.

“We are restricting the numbers coming in but we want people to be able to relax and feel safe too.

“We will also be trying to keep our distance from people’s face and work from the back of the head rather than being very close to their faces,” concluded Ms Campbell.

Hairdressers have ‘more demand than they can handle’ but unfortunately the long awaited appointment may come at a higher price.

Hairdressers and customers have been scrambling around for the past week to sort out those much needed colours and cuts.

Salons across the county have been inundated with demand from customers who have gone almost three months without a visit to the hairdressers.

After weeks of uncertainty and delay, hairdressers are preparing to welcome their loyal customers back on July 6 and have been busy adding safety measures and extra PPE for their clients.

However, due to the extra measures being put in place, the price of the traditional services will be increased in many local salons.

Noeleen Devlin of Hi Tec Hair Salon in Omagh is looking forward to reopening again and has ‘more demand than the salon can handle.’

Noeleen used the lockdown period to revamp her salon and put safety measures in place but added that this all comes at a cost.

She said, “We are not going to have the same footfall as before so where we previously would have had three people in the salon, I will now only have one.

“I have also had to let two staff members leave and I feel bad about that but I had to make the right choices for the business.

“I have bought in an extortionate amount of PPE and I spent £900 on masks alone for my staff.

“All the salons are having to do this and we are all trying to do our best to keep people safe.

“Some of the local salons have not increased prices for two or three years – we get complacent and don’t put up our prices often.

“Some of the salons now have to put up the prices to cover the lesser amount of clients we can see and also the PPE equipment that we have had to purchase.”

Ms Devlin has spent the last week trying to get appointments sorted for her clients and getting the salon prepared.

She continued, “It is going to long and hard weeks but we are excited to get back but also worried.

“We concerned about whether we are going to be fit for this and we haven’t been in groups of people either so we are faced with the unknown.

“On July 5, it will be like going to a new job and we will see how it goes,” said Ms Devlin.

Claire Campbell of Claire’s Hair Studio in Campsie has also been inundated with appointment requests and is fully booked up for the first month.

She said, “We will doing less clients every day but we will be working more hours and days.

“I am envisaging it to be a bit like Christmas at the start until everything gets back to a bit of normality.

“The first month is fully booked up for the team and myself.

“It will be great to get back to what we do best,” said Ms Campbell.

Ms Campbell says they are still awaiting official guidelines on reopening but believes people need to practice their common sense when it comes to social distancing.

She said, “We are taking all precautions but we haven’t been given any guidelines yet but we are not depending on that.

“I think a lot of it is about using your common sense so we have taken down mirrors and set up dividers between the clients.

“We almost have the two metre distance between the bays but the dividers will leave that much safer.

“Staff will be on a rota so they are not all in at the one time, and the salon will never be crowded.

“We are restricting the numbers coming in but we want people to be able to relax and feel safe too.

“We will also be trying to keep our distance from people’s face and work from the back of the head rather than being very close to their faces,” concluded Ms Campbell.