Re-opening Meath: Salons and stylists dyeing to get back into the cut and thrust

The population at large has been waiting with bated breath for hair salons and barbers to reopen and will be beating down their doors when they reopen tomorrow.

John Green of John Paul Hairdressing at Market Square, Navan is looking forward to getting back to work.

“I've had a lot of phonecalls with people asking me to do their hair, but I couldn't oblige. Unfortunately it seems there has been a serious black market in hairdressing over the past while and it is sad to see.”

John has been busy preparing the salon for reopening, but already safety measures are in place from last year.

“We will be taking customers temperatures on arrival and we will have contact tracing in place, as well as the perspex dividers, hand sanitizers and personal protective equipment.

“Thankfully, we have not had any cases.”

He explained that people who haven't had their colour done in the salon in the past six months and those who have been vaccinated will need a patch test before colouring in case they have developed sensitivity to any product.

“We are all prepared and are looking forward to seeing out customers again,” he said. Sinead Monaghan, owner of Ischia Hair Salon in Johnstown is really looking forward to reopening.

“It is not as stressful preparing to reopen as it was the first time. We have everything in place. Our salon is a safe place to be with our dividers, partitions and sanitizers.

“We are ready to go and the phones are hopping. We don't have a waiting list or anything because after all this time, everyone needs to be done.

“I hope this time round we can stay open.” She expects customers will be flooding in the door and will be working flat out over the next two to three weeks to get through the backlog. Jenny Fitzsimons who runs Jenny’s Hair Design with her daughter Sarah on Railway Street, Navan is busy at the moment preparing the salon.

“We have everything ready – all our screens are in place, the sanitizers are ready to go and we will operate at half capacity.

“Unfortunately the coronavirus took us all by surprise. It impacted everyone in different ways, my business was greatly affected.

“When the pandemic first hit, we were forced to close, not knowing what the future held. While we were closed, the bills kept coming but without any income.

“We had to kit out the salon with personal protective equipment, dividing screens, sanitisation points and signage, which was quite costly.

Not to mention being down to half capacity of our salon to keep the two meter rule.

“Fortunately there was a small help with a restart grant by Meath County Council which helped us stay afloat. We then got back for a short while between lockdowns but as the second and third lockdowns came it got worse, with no help this time.

“We were closed for longer with all the bills still flooding in - rates, mortgage, insurance vat and tax. All these bills must be paid and we felt cheated on by the many people doing hair in the black market, while I was forced to stay closed.”

She said she understood why they had to close and all that matters is the health and safety of both her staff and clients.

“Please God this will all pass, and things will slowly return to normal, but until then we cannot wait to return to doing what we love and open the doors to the salon, and welcome back all our customers and our amazing staff.”