A majority of salons in the city reopened on the first day of lockdown 4.0 with precautions.
The precautionary measures, according to salon owners, included sanitisation of salons, allowing entry to only one person at a time, providing only essential services to customers by appointments, no walk-in services, limited staff, preference to online payments, etc.
The essential services, according to owners, are haircut, dyeing hair, waxing and threading.
Pardeep Kumar, owner of Venus Salon in Sarabha Nagar, and also chairman of the Ludhiana Barber Association, said the association had issued guidelines to around 1,000 members of the association. These guidelines were recommended by the Georgia State Board of Cosmologists and Barbers for reopening barber shops and salons.
The guidelines also recommended checking temperature of the client, limited number of people at a time in the salon, wearing a mask, gloves, eye shield, eye goggles, caps, neck strip along with other preventive measures, he said.
‘NO WALK-INS, ONLY ONLINE PAYMENT’
Abhay Girdhar, owner of Abhay’s Piazza Hair Beauty Make-up Salon and Academy, Mall Road, said, “We are taking all preventive measures and providing essential services to customers by appointment only. No walk-in customers are allowed. We are also checking the temperature of each client, and ensure that they are wearing masks, gloves and taking all measures for the safety of our staff as well.” “Customers are asked to make online payments only,” he added.
Sunny Kumar Doliya, owner of Unisex Salon, situated in the Model Town market, said only one customer came to his salon on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}Sunny Kumar Doliya, owner of Unisex Salon, situated in the Model Town market, said only one customer came to his salon on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}“We will attend customers with prior appointment only. To follow the social distancing rule, I will be calling only one staff member a day. We are wearing gloves, aprons while providing services to the clients and also checking their temperature during entry,” he said.
Doliya said he would not be providing skin-related services in his salon till further guidelines by the government.
“Jaan hai toh Jaahan hai! My first priority is the safety of my family and my staff members. Therefore, skin care services including facial, cleansing or bleach are suspended for now,” he added.
However, some beauty parlours have started providing skin services and also slashed rates by at least half to attract customers.
Sweety Dua, owner of Shine Beauty Clinic in Model Town Extension, said, “I am entertaining customers with prior appointment only. I have also reduced charges of all the services in view of the financial distress faced by people at this time.”
“As all economic operations remained shut for around two months, not every woman can afford a facial costing Rs 1,000, so I have cut down rates of all services, including facial, cleansing, threading, bleaching to half,” said Dua.
Dua said trust between service provider and client remains a prime factor at this time.
“Since morning, I received three clients. They are my regular customers. They know that I have been taking all preventive measures, including sanitisation of the parlour, wearing gloves and masks, keeping disposable towels and attending one customer at a time. During the pandemic, customers will take services of only those salons in which they have trust,” she said.
Amarjot Kaur, a resident of BRS Nagar, who visited Dua’s beauty parlour for threading, said she decided to go to her since they are relatives.
Riya Sharma, a resident of Ghumar Mandi, said, “I took an appointment to visit the parlour for waxing and was happy to see that the owner has taken all preventive measures. I was asked to wash hands at the gate, was given a new mask to wear and I made the payment through Paytm.”