The Irish Hairdressers Federation (IHF) yesterday appealed to Government to allow salons to reopen for fully vaccinated people.
Waterford hairdresser and IHF president Danielle Kennedy said hairdressers were confident it could work seamlessly:
“We want to open on the earliest date possible. Looking at the gradual reopening of schools, we're thinking why not apply that same logic and that same process to other industries where possible.
“The indications are it will be the end of April but we're saying, 'why not two or three weeks before that and let us look after the vaccinated population?'
“Salon owners have a lot of bills racking up and those two weeks could really make a big difference.”
Ms Kennedy said how customers provided proof of vaccination would be a matter for Government.
However, she is confident this would not present an issue as hairdressers have already been pre-screening customers on matters such as whether they have come into contact with positive Covid cases.
“We know Government are considering opening up certain areas of society for vaccinated people, how it would roll out wouldn't be for us to decide,” she said.
“Salons obviously operate on appointments, and we've already introduced pre-screening last year. People are pre-screened before their appointment, asked if they've been in contact with anyone with Covid-19, if they've been out of the country, it's very easy to incorporate the vaccination question in that.
“As to how it would be policed it wouldn't be for us to decide, but the Government doesn't fully understand how our industry works, but we're just pointing out that we could make it work.”
She hopes the Government will consider the proposal ahead of decisions on the latest easing of restrictions on Tuesday.
if we've learnt anything from this it's that salons are the most essential non-essential service in Ireland
“Other countries have looked at areas that could be opened for vaccinated people and it's something we think could be incorporated and is worth looking at.
“The entire pandemic has been about personal responsibility, there will be an element of personal responsibility in this as well if it was rolled out and if we were to go forward with it.
“The staggered reopening on a practical level would work well for salons too. First we'll be looking after elderly clients, vulnerable clients and frontline healthcare workers who have been at the forefront of the fight against Covid.
“We saw last week when we reopened that many of our elderly clients, their own social interaction was the salon besides going to the shop. That's very, very important.
“There are a lot of elderly clients who can't care for themselves, can't maintain their hair, a lot of clients with arthritis can't even wash their hair properly.
“We have a lot of people coming to us liaising with home carers to help people so that's important.”
Black market
Black market hair cuts have been a huge problem during lockdown and Ms Kennedy feels reopening salons for vaccinated people would help to alleviate the issue.
“There are 30,000 people employed in this industry so to get them back into work a few weeks early, off of the PUP, can only be a good thing.
“It's because people don't see them as a risky activity to undertake but anything in the shadow economy is not a controlled environment like a salon, so we're eager to get them reopened.
“Salons were classed as essential in a lot of European countries, if we've learnt anything from this it's that salons are the most essential non-essential service in Ireland.”
by James Cox
