Back to business – preparing your salon to reopen

With the COVID-19 restrictions for beauty salons due to end or at least be relaxed soon, it’s time for salons to start thinking about how they’re going to reopen. Looking at other countries and businesses, it won’t simply be business as usual. Being prepared for the time ahead of us is half the work – and luckily, we have some time on our hands to get ready!

A quick note: The below list is based on what we know at this time and might not reflect the regulations the government will implement. Always follow your local government regulations.

Prepare extra hygiene measures
First and foremost, it’s imperative to look at your salon’s hygiene through COVID-glasses. Impeccable hygiene has always been incredibly important, but it’s now become vital. There are 2 types of hygiene products that can help prevent the spread of coronavirus; barrier products like gloves, masks and bed sheets, and disinfecting products like sprays, soaps and gels. For total salon hygiene, you need a combination of both.

Barrier products are designed to stop germs from spreading by putting a barrier in place that keeps the germs where they are. Face masks do a great job at preventing germs to spread through the air and they help protect you against breathing them in. Make sure to use your face mask correctly: dispose of it after every client and sanitise your hands before touching anything else. Your beds are one of the key contact areas in your salon. We suggest using a vinyl bedsheet to maintain the optimal hygiene. Vinyl can be sanitised between clients and is a more hygienic alternative to paper bed sheets. Gloves, although very important for waxing and performing facials, are not very helpful for preventing the spread of coronavirus. After all, if you touch anything with your dirty gloves, germs will still transmit. It’s more important to have good hand hygiene: wash your hands with soap regularly and use a hand sanitiser between clients. Barrier products don’t kill germs, so they need to be disposed of or sanitised between clients. You can still transmit the virus while wearing gloves or a mask, and germs that are left on your vinyl bed sheets will easily transmit to the next client.

Disinfectant products should be used to kill germs on door handles, beds, hands and key contact areas before moving on to your next client. All disinfectants kill germs, but not all disinfectants are equal – some products take up to 3 minutes to work where others (like our Micro Defence range) kill germs within 20 seconds of contact. Before opening your salon, you should have a checklist in place that helps you follow all the necessary steps and use all products correctly.

Decide what treatments you’re going to offer and which ones will have to wait until the restrictions are fully lifted
At this moment, we don’t know what restrictions the government will put on how we perform our treatments. Other countries have taken measures like mandatory use of a face mask for client and therapist or limiting the type of treatments that can be performed. In any case it’s important to start thinking about what you will offer when you reopen your salon. Many beauty treatments require close face to face contact for longer periods of time. Especially facial treatments like brow tattooing, brow henna, facials, peels, dermal blading and teeth whitening. It’s best to consider not offering these treatments just yet. Facial treatments where the face-to-face contact is limited like brow shaping and waxing, lip waxing and LED treatments can be considered, but with increased hygiene measures. LED masks should be thoroughly disinfected with alcohol wipes after every use and for facial waxing you should wear a face mask and keep your distance as much as possible. Treatments with no direct face to face contact, like leg waxes, brazilians, manis/pedis and massages impose a lower risk, but we still highly recommend increasing your personal protection by wearing a face mask and asking your client to wear a face mask as well. We also recommend you allow 15 extra minutes for every treatment. This gives you time to disinfect the room and ensures that the waiting time for your clients is minimised. While multitasking is a big part of our usual working day, the new normal should be that you have your full attention on 1 client at a time. To minimise the spread of germs it’s important that you don’t answer phones during treatments or check in on a client while you’re working on another. Work in one room at a time and sanitise your hands before leaving that room. If you don’t have a receptionist, it might be good to dedicate a staff member to answering the phone, greeting clients and keeping the waiting room sanitised. Make sure your clients see that you disinfect regularly – this will ease their minds if they’re worried about getting sick. And finally, always stay close to yourself: don’t perform treatments if you don’t feel comfortable performing them. You can always offer your clients a DIY alternative for the time being.

Prepare your salon for social distancing
Adhering to the strict social distancing rules is just as important as increasing hygiene measures. This will be very difficult as we need to touch our clients during treatments, but hairdressers have been doing an excellent job throughout this whole pandemic – and so can we. We should take control so our clients know exactly what’s expected from them. This might mean you have to rethink your waiting room setup so people can practice social distancing while waiting and applying social distancing markers to let people know what a safe distance is. Other things to consider are removing any magazines and brochures from the waiting room and offering beverages in a disposable cup only. Your staff room should be set up to adhere to social distancing as well. To keep the staff room from overcrowding, it helps to stagger your staff’s breaks.  To ease your client’s minds about the their health, add a poster to your shopfront door and to each treatment room with what you’ve put in place to keep them safe.

What can you expect from your clients?
Most people have gotten used to social distancing and know what to do when they enter a place of business – people will understand that they’re expected to use the social distancing markers you’ve put in place. The most obvious rule that you will have to enforce is that if a client is sick, showing relevant symptoms or if they’ve been in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case; they will not be treated. We also recommend displaying an alcohol based hand sanitiser and encouraging the use of it upon arrival. Making sure your clients know what’s expected of them will make all the difference. We recommend working on an appointments-only basis so you can inform people about your hygiene measures upfront. No walk-ins will also keep your foot traffic in the salon down, which will help with social distancing and focussing on one client at a time. Germs travel via cash, so it’s safest to only accept card payments. It’s even better if clients book and pay for their treatment online. To keep yourself and your clients safe, you can make sure your clients have downloaded the COVIDSafe app and have it running when they’re in your salon. You can also require all clients to come to their appointment by themselves, unless they need a carer or interpreter.

What existing systems can be tweaked?
It won’t be business as usual for a while, but some existing systems might be tweaked to help inform clients about the new ‘normal’. Booking and paying online will help with the sudden influx of clients wanting to book in for their much needed treatments. It will also allow you to take their payment completely contactless. People can be persuaded to book online if you offer them a 10% discount on all online bookings. If you use an SMS system to remind your clients about their appointment, you can tweak the message to inform people of your policy. This way you can ensure they don’t come in if they are sick or have any relevant symptoms and that they’ve downloaded the COVIDSafe app.

Before you open: brief your team about all the updated hygiene practices
Your team needs to know exactly what you’ve done to create a safe working environment for them and what they are expected to do before you open your doors. All staff members need to be informed about what their role is and how they can direct their clients so they can enjoy a safe treatment. This includes giving your staff a rundown of the proper use of a face mask, proper hand hygiene, how to keep your distance during treatments and what you expect from your clients.

Make sure your stock levels are healthy
Finally, this is the time to do a good stocktake. Your clients may not have been able to buy your retail products, so it’s important that you have plenty in stock. Do you have enough hygiene products like sanitising gel, disinfectant spray or wipes, masks, gloves and vinyl bed sheets? Can you offer your clients a DIY option for services you’re currently not providing? Do you have enough hand sanitiser, wax, ancillaries and disposables for your treatment rooms? This is the time to place your orders at your preferred wholesaler.

Business as (un)usual
This situation has been very difficult for many of us, but we have seen the beauty industry come together and work hard to come out of it stronger! It has been a time to reset, work on our skills and improve our salons. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the road that lies ahead of us. No doubt the new ‘normal’ will feel strange in the beginning, but we will adapt and before we know it, it’s business as (un)usual!