Health & Beauty: the new normal

Written on the eve of reopening the salon, Sophie captures the feelings of the moment in her column this month.

Tomorrow marks the day that I can return to my salon and clients post lockdown. I knew it was going to be tough, but I truly had no idea how hard it would be to open a salon under the new guidelines given.

As a contact service we have had to restructure the way we do everything. Making sure our staff and clients are safe has always been our priority, however we have never experienced anything like this pandemic and fear has been established in all of our minds over the last few months.

Cross-checking guidelines, risk assessments, panic buying, 9 hours a day on the phone, deep cleaning and responding to messages until midnight has been my reality for the last two weeks. My team have been incredible, understanding of changes that need to happen, and just ready and willing to adapt to anything thrown at them. I’m not going to lie: my head is bursting.

The reality is that this is a completely new way of working for hairdressers across the country. It’s not just PPE; we know we will get used to that. It’s the things you may not see – timings, equipment, the way you enter the building, the way we work together. It’s any kind of human contact; and that is really difficult for us.

If we all work super-hard to get this right, maybe the new normal doesn’t have to be the new normal? Maybe it’s just the beginning of our return to living without fear.

The Hair column is contributed by Sophie Laidlaw. Sophie is Director @wonderland Livingston. www.wonderlandlivingston.co.uk