MANICURE MONDAY
Nail bars, beauty & tanning salons to reopen in England from Monday
BRITS can finally get nail, beauty treatments and massages again as salons in England can reopen from Monday - but facial treatments will stay banned.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced that nail bars, beauty salons, spas, tattoo parlours and tanning salons this evening will be able to open their doors, saying "normal life is slowly returning".
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The beauty industry is one of the last group of businesses to be able to fling open their doors again - after pubs, restaurants, cafes and hotels were able to reopen from July 5.
Treatments such as manicures, massages, pedicures and body waxes will be able to restart.
But ones that involve touching another person's face - such as facials and eyebrow threading will stay banned because of the risk of spreading germs.
Staff have to wear visors or use screens when treating clients and walk-in treatments are banned - you have to book instead.
Businesses will need to keep records of staff and customers and share these with NHS Test and Trace where requested, and they will have to do a covid risk assessment before they reopen.
The guidance also applies to businesses that operate in different locations, such as massage therapists working in people’s homes, and those learning in vocational training environments.
It comes after The Sun has campaigned on the issue - highlighting the drastic effects on many thousands of women working in the industry.
Alice Bellamy, from Calne in Wiltshire, has been a beauty therapist for 27 years and runs specialist laser hair removal studio Woman to Woman & The Male Perspective Ltd.
"I'm very pleased and actually ecstatic - my phone is buzzing with messages from clients already," the 67-year-old said.
"But I'm shocked that we only have three days notice, which, frankly, is typical of the whole handling of this crisis."
Ms Bellamy said she had "very little" Government support during lockdown, and is glad to be able to earn again to mitigate debts she has incurred over four months of closure.
"I feel very lucky to have such loyal, lovely clients that are desperate to get back to having their treatments again," she added.
Salons slammed the Government for appearing to laugh when Boris Johnson was asked they will be allowed to reopen.
When William Wragg, Tory MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester, asked in the Commons last week when the sector could reopen, he joked that neither he nor the PM were likely to visit a beauty salon any time soon.
What else was announced this evening:
- Grassroots sport will be able to restart from this weekend - but clubs have to submit coronavirus "action plans";
- Brits will be able to hit the gym or go swimming as well as they reopen from July 25
- Outdoor pools can reopen from Saturday
- Theatres and music venues can start performances outdoors, and there will be some trials of indoor peformances
The reopening comes after MPs called on the Government for action telling them the beauty industry was being "decimated" by continued closures.
Labour MPs Carolyn Harris and Judith Cummins, Chair of the Beauty Aesthetics and Wellbeing APPG, said the Governmen was not taking the issue serious because it was dominated by women.
In a letter to the PM they said: "It is difficult to see that this is a laughing matter. Were people laughing because this is an industry in which women predominate?
"And is it because of the Government’s perception that this is just an industry of ‘nail bars’ that you have failed to give any indication as to when the industry can reopen?”
They outlined how the industry contributes a total of £28.4 billion to the UK’s economy and employs a total of 370,200 people across the entire industry.
"The beauty industry in this country is being decimated," they said in the letter.
Business Secretary, Alok Sharma said tonight: “We have been clear throughout this crisis that we want as many businesses as possible to reopen, but we must be confident it is safe for them to do so.
“From Monday 13 July thousands more businesses which offer close contact services like nail and beauty salons will be able to welcome customers back in a way that is safe for both workers and the public.
“Enabling these often small, independent businesses to reopen is yet another step in our plan to kickstart the economy to support jobs and incomes across the country.”
Millie Kendall MBE, British Beauty Council, said: “The decision to broaden the scope of available hair and beauty services will allow many more beauty professionals to get back to work, and will also allow customers to benefit from a range of beauty treatments which can be carried out safely for both client and practitioner.
“It’s a positive step, but we are still only part of the way there."
All the rules you'll have to follow in a salon or nail bar
- Using screens or barriers to separate clients from each other, and to separate practitioners from clients, such as in nail salons;
- Operating an appointment-only booking system to minimise the number of people on the premises at any one time;
- Keeping the activity time involved to a minimum;
- Increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning, as well as regularly cleaning equipment or using disposable equipment where possible;
- Avoiding skin to skin contact and wearing gloves where it is not crucial to the service, such as in nail bars and tanning salons;
- Maintaining sufficient spacing between customer chairs;
- Not allowing food or drink, other than water, to be consumed in the salon by customers; and
- Making sure a limited and fixed number of workers work together, if they have to be in close proximity to do their jobs.
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The Feel Good Group - which has over 90 tanning salons and employs more than 400 people across the country welcomed the move but said it was unfair they weren't able to reopen at the same time as hairdressers.
Founder and chief exec Adam Mooney said: “While we welcome the decision to finally allow us to reopen, the government could have allowed us to open last week, when hairdressers re-opened. We are ready to reopen today, not next week.”
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He added that many of the workers are among some of the hardest hit from the lockdown.
";More than 90 percent of our staff are women, and most in the 18-25 year-old age group, which is the demographic which has been worst hit, financially, by the pandemic, and they are very keen to get back to work," he said.
'Nail bars re-opening will be great for women struggling during lockdown'
By Georgia Kousoulou, TOWIE star
AN opening date for nail bars is brilliant news. Finally, we are being taken seriously.
These places are so much more than vanity. It’s a therapy session for women who are struggling during lockdown. Manicures are good for your mental health.
I’m absolutely chuffed to bits the Government has seen sense. It can be done safely.
Nail technicians have been wearing masks, gloves and sterilising equipment long before coronavirus came along.
It’s going to mean so much to my friends who are beauticians.
I’ll be one of the first through the salon doors when they reopen.
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