‘The thing is the government doesn’t seem to really care’

Hairdressers and beauty salons could be allowed to reopen in May if the battle against Covid-19 moves in the right direction, but Romina Afrasani says her family’s barber shops in Mullingar and Athlone could open safely tomorrow.

Personal services such as barbers and the rest of the beauty industry have been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, and businesses such as the Afrasanis’ League Barbers chain have been closed for nine of the last 12 months. Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner last week, Romina said that she was “100 percent” sure their five barber shops around Leinster could open safely.

“The thing is, if you chat to any hairdresser or barber or anyone in the beauty industry, even pre-Covid we had to have such a high standard of cleanliness and sanitisation. Everything was wiped down. Everything was soaked in disinfectant. Everything was single use. Then Covid came in and we had to up that even more and no one complained [when salons were allowed to reopen last summer]. There was not one complaint from the industry – people didn’t mind what they had to do, they just wanted to open.”

Despite working in close contact with clients, there have been few outbreaks of Covid linked to the hair and beauty sector, Romina says, because maintaining high levels of hygiene is something that is “ingrained” in people from when they join the industry.

“It wasn’t something that they were just picking up and forgetting to follow. This was stuff that they had been trained to do and was second nature. It was no surprise when things opened up that there weren’t that many cases linked, because you had such a high level of cleanliness, upping that a bit more wasn’t a big deal for anybody.

“To give you an example, the staff pre-Covid would have washed their hands between customers, every single tool was disinfected between customers, the seats wiped down with anti-bacterial wipes. These were brought in as advice when Covid hit, but a lot of the salons were already doing all that.”

“There are health and safety modules when staff are being trained because of that. It comes with the career.

The Afrasani family employ around 25 barbers in the five outlets in Mullingar, Athlone, Athy, Blessington and Saggart. Romina says that being out of work for so long is taking its toll on colleagues.

“Our staff are going crazy, especially because the majority are in their 20s and 30s, so they’d be active people. They are not dealing that well being stuck at home, to be honest. They are used to having a lot of contact with people. They could see 25/30 people a day so from that to being stuck at home is tough on their mental state.”

A small number of staff have taken temporary jobs with courier firms to keep them busy, but Romina is confident that most, if not all, will return.

“They have made it clear that they are so eager to get back to their careers. Most people who go into hairdressing enjoy it – that’s why they go into it. I know a handful have taken up jobs in the meantime but they are all eager to get back to it.”

League Barbers had been due to expand this year. The firm has agreements to open barber shops in units at two of Lidl’s new stores in suburban Dublin. These plans are temporarily on hold.

In recent months a number of salon owners decided that they would reopen before but were closed down again by gardaí. Romina says many in the sector are struggling to make ends meet after being closed for so long.

“There are quite a few hairdressers who have given up and said ‘I have to open’. The likes of your hairdressers or nail salon are usually self employed. You are not talking about Peter Marks or big conglomerates. You are talking about people who might have one shop, maybe two. We are somewhere in the middle but had this happened a few years back, I don’t think we would have survived it.

“The thing is, the government doesn’t seem to really care. I don’t think they understand that the hairdressing industry is a large chunk of the retail sector.

“Any town you go to, there are multiple hairdressers, barbers, nail salons. They just don’t seem to care and there is no support whatsoever for those affected. When the government isn’t giving any support, what are people meant to do? We got one grant payment last year. What’s that going to do for someone with a mortgage, rent to pay on their premises and to keep a family going?

“People talk about rent freezes and all that, but landlords have their own bills to pay and mortgages to pay and they are not getting freezes, so they are still expecting rent paid.”

Joking that there “aren’t many politicians walking around with a mop of hair”, Romina says that the continued closure of the beauty sector has led to a boon in the black market. This brings its own set of risks when it comes to an infectious and potentially lethal virus like Covid-19.

“If you have people going to other people’s houses for haircuts, that’s not a sterile environment. They don’t have the equipment to clean and sanitise everything and make sure everything is up to scratch. The reality is that it does happen. People are making fortunes from it. You go to a normal barber shop you are paying €10 or €15 for a haircut, I’ve heard some of these at home hairdressers charging up to €100.

“I think that is where people get angry. Because it is like, ‘I am following the rules and doing what the government is asking me to do but they are giving me no support’. Here is this person breaking all the rules and they are making more money than they would usually.”

Looking ahead to the return to something resembling pre-Covid normality, Romina is confident the hair and beauty sector will be able to reopen with few if any problems.

“If you go into a supermarket and you pick up a loaf of bread, how many have touched that loaf of bread before you? You go into a barber shop and the only thing that you will be touching is the chair when you sit down.

“I guarantee you that it has been wiped down before you have touched it. This is the thing, I understand supermarkets have to be open but I don’t think there is much logic when they are talking about some industries being kept closed because they are high contact. You can be high contact and in a safe manner.”