Beauty Salons, along with everyone who needed to get their nails done, were left shocked when news of prolonged closure were disclosed. Many Salon owners were preparing to reopen their doors from July 4 along with hairdressers but have only been partially allowed to reopen since Monday 13 July, so when will it be safer to go back to normal?
The good news? Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that all beauty services in England can resume from August 1. This will include close contact services, such as eyebrow threading and facials, which have been under heavy restrictions since lockdown first commenced in March.
From August 1, we will reopen most remaining leisure settings, namely bowling, skating rinks, casinos and we will enable close contact services – beauticians- to resume.”
Boris Johnson
Although vague the Friday 17th July briefing by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will come as a relief to many beauty professionals up and down the country who have been preparing for the reopening of their businesses for weeks.
Previous to this the government announced that beauty services, including manicures and body massages were allowed to resume from Monday 13 July. However, treatments involving touching of the face – such as facials and eyebrow threading – were still under restrictions. This provoked the people in the beauty industry to appeal to Members of Parliament to take them seriously like Sarah Jossel, who wrote an article in The Sunday Times about the issue.
Mr Johnson had also previously said: “We also intend to allow some other close contact services, such as nail bars, to reopen as soon as we can; when we’re confident they can operate in a secure way.”
So, it seems that time has come. However, the reasoning behind these decisions to reopen close contact services, don’t come with any new evidence that it is actually safer to visit them. Only with time will we be able to fully understand the impact these interactions will have on the progression of the pandemic.
