Beauty industry back in business but still struggling

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the operation of all businesses in the country, with the beauty industry especially hard hit. Some businesses had to close or operate within certain hours to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Beauty salons are taking a financial hit as they were forced to close their doors for almost three months. Teboho Khofu reports.

Less than four months ago, before the Covid-19 lockdown was implemented, the beauty salon industry was doing well. Barely three months into lockdown, it was one of the most negatively impacted industries.

According to the regulations published in the Government Gazette Vol. 660 dated June 19, 2020, the restrictions were lifted after 80 days of lockdown, consequently allowing hair salons, nail studios and massage parlours to start operating with immediate effect.

The groups of services that were allowed to start operating again, included the following:

• Hairdressing;
• Barbering;
• Nail and toe treatment;
• Facial treatment and make-up;
• Body massage; and
• Tattooing and body piercing

Some hair salons in Potchefstroom started operating the day following Ramaphosa’s address, even though the Government Gazette directed that the allowed services under this direction may only continue working upon warranting full compliance with the procedures for their services.

The Government Gazette further said that the salons have to follow a standard operating procedure for formal salons to provide a hand sanitising / hand washing station for customers before they enter the business premises.

The salon attendants should wash their hands with fresh warm water and soap and sanitise their hands before and after helping a client. The attendants should also wash their hands after handling cash. Contactless payment is encouraged, where possible.

The Gazette saidthat premises must be cleaned before and after use, and that common areas should be disinfected before and after use, including the serving of each customer.

The attendants should wash with soap or sanitise the hair equipment or tools before and after each use and all bottles with products must be wiped down with 70% alcohol based solution after serving each customer and at the end and beginning of each business day.

Fresh and clean towels must be used for each customer and the salon should keep the windows and doors open to ensure adequate ventilation.  

On the customer’s side, the Gazette gives directions that queuing customers must maintain the lockdown rule of 1.5 metre distance between each other and that both the employees and customers must wear masks at all times to follow the guidelines of the South African Department of Health.

Some salons and massage parlours were not be able to re-open because of the financial strain the owners faced for almost three months, said Tumelo Rathobei, a young entrepreneur based in a small village in the Free State called Thaba Nchu.

Rathobei owns Botshelo Wellness and Fitness that offers health and wellness services, from a spa treatment parlour, a gymnasium to a nail bar. “Covid-19 has had a very negative impact on our businesses because they had to close down. We had to pay employees’ salaries and wages and ensure that the rent was paid for from our personal savings,” Rathobei said.

She said their main source of livelihood, walk-in clients, was cut by the lockdown implementation.

Another small entrepreneur who owns a nail bar based in Johannesburg, Makoanyane Ntlama, said that Covid-19 erased their means to make a living. “Covid-19 affected us in a bad way, I had to resort to doing house-calls to put bread on the table,” Ntlama said.

Sethukani Sibanda, who owns a hair salon in Ikageng in Potchefstroom, said that she had to resort to taking out loans to pay rent and to buy food. “I’m glad that the salons are back in business because the lockdown affected us a lot and I ended up resorting to ‘bomashonisa’ (loan sharks),” Sibanda said.

Debbie Hattingh who works at Roxanne’s Hair Salon at Die Bult in Potchefstroom said they are very relieved to start working again. “Trying to survive and pay utilities and rent without any form of income for three months is impossible, this has really been a sad time for us,” Hattingh said.

Earlier, the South African government established a debt relief finance scheme to help SMME’s which are adversely affected directly or indirectly by the Coronavirus pandemic. The debt relief finance scheme is a soft-loan facility, meant to help existing SMME’s during the Covid-19 pandemic for the duration of six months from April 2020.

An official personal care service website called Professional Beauty identified ways to help beauty salons to generate revenue during Covid-19 lockdown. These include keeping in touch with existing clients through emails, SMS or WhatsApp to offer them a virtual one-on-one session on how to take care of themselves while at home.

Another way is to create self-care home packages which clients can give to loved ones, friends and co-workers who cannot cope with the lockdown. Lastly, beauty salon owners can generate income by hosting weekly beauty classes online, with each class having a different topic.

The website has also established a comprehensive resource repository for beauty salons, to offer the owners financial advice, free mental health tools, how to offer digital services to clients and practical plans to make for the re-opening of business post Covid-19.

“The lifting of the restrictions on the beauty industry is going to change our lives and give us financial freedom again,” said Rathobei in closing.