Government U-turn on remaining beauty services 'on the face'
On July 17 Boris Johnson announced that spas and all the remaining beauty services could reopen on August 1. However following the Prime Minister’s coronavirus update today, we can reveal that the government has postponed reopening remaining beauty services until August 15th at the earliest. “At every point I said the plan to reopen is conditional and we will not hesitate to put the brakes on,” Boris added.
The news will come as a huge shock to the remaining beauty services that were due to reopen tomorrow - with many treatment rooms having bookings from 8am in the morning. Close-contact services includes facials and eyebrow threading.
“I am incredibly disappointed by this news, and these last minute announcements are devastating for our sector,” says Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council.
“This will further impact us financially and morally. I am increasingly concerned about the statement from the Chief Medical Officer saying we've reached the other limits of what we can reopen, because we don’t know what this means for close contact services.”
For over 900 spas in the UK, they cannot reopen for thermal experiences including saunas and steam rooms. The U-turn means that customers can go into spas for a massage, but won’t be able to stick around for any other spa services.
Considering massages are classed as ‘add-ons’ in spa settings, with many customers booking in for spa days without treatments, this will mean many spas will have to weigh up the financial viability of opening up for treatments alone. The spa industry alone generates £2.1 billion for the UK economy, employing 45,000 people.
“It’s the worst possible news and absolutely devastating for spas in England,” says Helena Grzesk, the General Manager of the UK Spa Association. “This was the last hurdle in the beauty sector. There’s been a lot of preparation, teams back off furlough and opened up booked guests on spas days.
"Without facilities you’ve got no spa to run. It loses business confidence and consumer confidence. They’d potentially have to change websites, cancel guests, cancel staff, a huge task to now do in less than a day.”
Beauty services that can remain open include hairdressers, manicures, pedicures and massages. However the National Hair & Beauty Federation has called for the businesses that are currently opened to make sure they comply with government guidelines.
“We want to stress how important it is for everyone in the hair, beauty and barbering industries to follow the guidelines and operate in a COVID secure way to protect yourselves, your employees, clients and to protect our industry from being locked down again,” says Hilary Hall, the chief executive of the National Hair & Beauty Federation.
