Moulton, Holbeach and Spalding hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons are thrilled to reopen
It’s hard to tell who was more delighted that hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons were able to reopen this week.
Customers in desperate need of a cut or colour were seen queuing outside salons in South Holland on Monday as the restrictions surrounding close contact services were eased - but businesses were also relieved to reopen.
Steph Lakey, who owns The Little Village Salon in Moulton with her sister Lucy Adams, feels lucky that the business has survived.
She said: “Financially, we’ve lost around £80,000 in revenue due to being closed - it’s great that the start-up grants are available but we don’t have access to them until the end of April, meaning we’ve needed to use our own personal money to get open.
“But I think we are one of the lucky ones as we’re still here and we are able to open. There’s so many businesses who haven’t survived.”
Staff at the salon are very pleased to be back in business and Steph says the feeling is very mutual with clients.
She said: “We are all so pleased to be back - the past three months have been really hard.
“For a lot of people I think it’s also the social interaction side of things.
“I have one client coming to see me who hasn’t seen anyone in 434 days due to self-isolating. I can’t wait to see her.”
Cameron McKenzie, of McKenzie’s Traditional Barbers in Holbeach, saw his first customer at 7.30am on Monday - and they just kept coming.
He said: “It has been berserk! We’ve had people queueing up outside and we must have seen around 50 people on Monday. There’s not been as many home haircuts this time - I think people have learnt their lesson.
“It’s been really good and I’m over the moon with it. We must be doing something right!”
Kelly Dowse, who ows Spalding’s Avoca Hair & Beauty Clinique, wanted to make the most of a difficult time by giving the premises a makeover.
She said: “It’s been a bittersweet time. It’s not been great but we used the time to think of our clients and our growing business.
“Downstairs was previously a hairdressers but we’ve now created an area with nail bars and a treatment room. Next week we will be bringing in some pedicure chairs too.
“It’s so nice to be able to see clients again - many of them haven’t had any treatments in around four months so we are working extra hours to accommodate everyone.”