How to help clients feel safe during COVID-19 outbreak
In the last few months, the world has been hit by the rapidly spreading ‘Coronavirus’, also known as COVID-19. Originating in China, the virus has spread across the world resulting in a complete lock-down of many cities and causing a big hit to global economy.
One of biggest consumer facing industries – salon and spa industry too was badly impacted along with industry related events that were unfortunately postponed.
In an effort to gain insight into how the industry was managing to deal with the COVID 19 infection, StyleSpeak consulted salons and spas from different cities on the steps they took to manage the business safely. Needless to say that now the latest Indian government lockdown directive is applicable to them too.
Global Solidarity
Several global beauty giants like Unilever and LVMH, have risen to the needs of the consumer due to COVID 19 spread. Amongst them, BABOR has launched a global solidarity campaign under the name #baborunited. The campaign involved all BABOR partner spas donating disinfectants and masks to hospitals near them. “We stand united with our partners and are supporting them whenever we can with strategies and inspiration to get through this crisis,” says Michael Schummert, CEO, BABOR.
Social Responsibility
Sadiya Naseem, Founder Glam Studios, Delhi mentions, “we’ve always been very particular about hygiene. With COVID19 outbreak spreading rapidly, we doubled our sanitizing practices at our facilities, offered pick up and drop services for our clients to avoid exposure to crowds, avoided threading services and offered masks and sanitizers to clients. We also made sure of sterilizing all our tools following an alcohol wash before and after every use.”
With the growing cases in Mumbai, the salons in the city have taken sanitizing very seriously. Shine Janardhan, Owner at Time Machine Unisex Salon, Vashi, New Bombay said “We’ve been very careful with sanitizing each and every equipment including tools, chairs and everything we touch. We did not specifically stop any services, instead, we made sure to use masks and gloves all the time.”
Vasundhra Venkatraman, Founder of Visible Difference Salon, Chennai said, “although we were open until the government declared a lock-down, considering the seriousness of the situation all over the world, we stopped all the services and sanitized every corner of the salon and all the equipment.”
Megha Walia, Owner at Ashton Pereira Salon, Hyderabad, said “sanitization is a part of basic hygiene, and we believe in advising our clients about our treatments being safe always. Ever since we’ve started in 2010, we’ve always used gloves and masks while working. With the COVID19 outbreak, we’ve avoided all services and immediately got fumigation and sanitization done professionally.”
In a chat with Adhuna Bhabani, Celebrity Hairstylist, Founder & Creative Director BBLUNT India and HBS Hair Jury Member, she said, “This is an unprecedented scenario that is very difficult to know what to do…due to the fact that there is no clear indication of how long this will last. initially when the news about COVID19 broke out, we immediately stopped all facial and beauty
services. We’ve been following guidelines by WHO and the government, split our teams to avoid crowding and worked in rotational shifts until the government announced a complete lock-down.”
At Savio John Pereira Salons, apart from practicing top notch sterilizing and sanitizing techniques, they also made sure of rescheduling appointments for all the clients who’ve been travelling internationally. Savio John Pereira, CEO & Creative Director and HBS Hair Jury Member said, “With health and well-being of our people, customers and our team being our priority, we think practicing salon and personal hygiene is important not just during public health emergencies but always. We have been following every step of precaution, be it sanitization with a 90% alcohol sanitizer or basic precautions of the 20 second hand wash.”
Asha Hariharan, Owner, Beyond the Fringe Salons and HBS Hair Jury Member, took a responsible initiative by informing people of the precautionary measures taken by the salon to ensure that clients are not just safe but also comfortable during the services until the lock-down was announced.
While COVID-19 is a declared pandemic there’s certainly a need for our industry to pay extra attention to health and sanitization. Top salons and spas across India like Jean-Claude Biguine India, Enrich Salons and Academy, Bounce Style Lounge and many more have taken stringent initiatives for the safety of their clients and staff to abide by WHO guidelines to curb COVID19 from spreading. Vikram Bhatt, Founder & Director – Enrich Salons and Academy, along with his team sent out a message to all their clients saying; “At Enrich, your safety and well-being is our first priority and We continue using hand sanitizers, disposable kits, aprons, towels and sterilized equipment. In addition, we have implemented measures like face masks, infrared thermometers and self-declaration forms for even more diligence.” However, after the lock-down was announced Enrich Salons came up with creative social media campaigns highlighting the importance of social distancing and sanitization practices to stop the virus spread further.
Samir Srivastav, CEO, Jean-Claude Biguine, India said, “Hygiene has always been a No.1 priority at Jean Claude Biguine. However, we’ve set up extra safety measures to ensure a healthy environment for all and have increased the frequency of sanitizing the entire salon premises before we get back on the floor again.”
So let’s learn from one another in this difficult period, take plenty of precautions and stay safe. The beauty industry will bounce back very soon to making a beautiful difference to the world!
