Post Lockdown

An Interview with Mandy Clarke Owner of Nailz2Beauty Salon and Nailz2Beauty Training Academy Isle of Man

Mandy, being on the Isle of Man you were one of the first salons and academies who were able to go back to work. Were you apprehensive about being in close contact with clients?

We were very apprehensive going back, although we were prepared as I had started sourcing ppe the second week of lockdown so we did have everything in place, we were told we were phase 4 and looking at July so it was a surprise in May when we could open 10 days later.

How did your clients react to

the fact you were able to offer appointments and treatments again?

Most clients were excited for us to be back open, once we had announced a date to open I sat for 2 days solid arranging appointments. Some clients were not ready to come back straight away.

What precautions did you have to put in place?

(PPE, spacing out in the salon, limiting students in courses) We had a great system in place - clients would ring the bell and wait for their therapist, the therapist would open the door to them wearing a mask and apron let them in, ask them to use the sanitizer at the station by the door and ask them to put on their mask, if they didn’t have a mask we could provide one for £1 which I put in a charity box as we had a local company donate some masks to us. We would then take their temperature with an infrared thermometer, we weren’t too sure how clients would react to this to start with but feedback was great, they loved knowing what their temperature was (whoever takes their own) The therapist would then take the client to have their treatment, the therapist wore gloves and additional visors depending on the treatment.

We have 5 nail stations, 4 treatment rooms a brow bar area and a tanning area, as we had to social distance we removed one of the nail stations to the brow bar area and made sure there was 2m distance between the remaining 4, we installed sneeze guards and additional sterilising units for each desk, our seats are velvet so we purchased some mechanic seat covers and change them after each client, the treatment rooms are designated to therapists and they are responsible for their rooms. We removed our waiting area because of the social distancing as we couldn’t adhere to that with the waiting area. We have had to reduce the number of clients in the salon throughout the day as we need extra time in between for deep cleaning.

We had certain treatments we weren’t allowed to do to begin with being facials, semi permanent makeup - lips and nasal waxing, lip and chin waxing/threading were classed as high risk but could do these treatments with precaution, we would tell the client we were going to remove the mask and ask them not to talk.

Unfortunately we couldn’t do any training courses as first and then we were allowed to do 1-1 training.

How were the first few weeks back and what is the feedback?

We have had great feedback from clients saying they felt very safe and how we had thought of everything (I have to thank my husband for most to be honest, he’ll love that)

Do you think that things will get back to what they used to be or will it be a “new normal” that we have to get used to?

We were discussing only today how we like how things are and although we have been covid free for over 45 days now we are staying as we are for the foreseeable to continue to protect ourselves and our clients.

What would be your advice for all the therapists who are eagerly waiting to go back to work?

I would advise to take things at your own pace, if you are not ready don’t open, don’t feel pressure to do so, although I’m pretty sure everyone will be!

Do a run through first with a member of your household and anything you don’t feel sure if you can change, we put the bell system in last minute and it was the best thing, we all love it.

Is there anything you would or could have done differently?

I don’t honestly think there was anything we could have done any different, we followed guidelines from government, everyone that came into the salon we took their name, address and contact number for government track and trace, did risk assessments on all treatments for covid 19, we have left longer between clients which obviously does mean less clients but it’s actually nice not to feel rushed and sometimes even managing to get a HOT coffee

Has your set up changed or have you made plans to adapt anything for the future?

Our set up has changed but I personally think for the better and we are happy to keep things as they are.