‘I’ve heard of loads of beauty salons opening for fillers and Botox near me,’ says Charlotte*, 27 from Liverpool. ‘It’s for regular clients only and they just keep the shutters down on the shop but you can see the lights on inside when you drive past.’
Charlotte is an avid fan of Botox and fillers, usually getting Botox around her forehead and filler in her nose, cheeks, jaw and lips every six months. And so, over the past 12 weeks in lockdown, she’s been craving it as she watched her typical reflection slowly dissolve. That was until yesterday, when she received Botox once more, despite lockdown rules.
While the government has said that anyone who can’t work from home should go back to work, and non-essential shops will be open from Monday, beauty salons are still meant to be closed to the public. According to the 50-page document released by the government, personal care services like hairdressers and beauty salons sit under step three of the phased return to normal life.
‘The Government’s current planning assumption is that this step will be no earlier than 4 July,’ it reads. ‘Subject to the five tests justifying some or all of the measures… and further detailed scientific advice, provided closer to the time, on how far we can go. The ambition at this step [would be] to open at least some of the remaining businesses and premises that have been required to close, including personal care (such as hairdressers and beauty salons).’
But Charlotte’s beauty therapist, salon owner Emma*, has other plans. 'I' was off totally for eight weeks,' she tells Grazia. 'I really thought at some point in May we’d be able to go back a little bit, but when [Boris Johnson] said it would be 4 July I thought, There’s no way I’m staying closed for another two months. That’s ridiculous, I'd have no clients to go back to!
'Everybody’s already opening so all my clients would just find someone else who is doing it,' Emma continues. 'That's the only reason I've re-opened – because the competition is. Plus, people were asking me to come to their homes all the time and as well as not being insured to do that, it's a much less clinical environment. It's safer for me to open the salon.'
Putting together a waiting list of eager clients that she can trust not to share details of the currently illegal activity, Emma initially found it difficult getting back to work as stock deliveries proved slow.
In a screenshot of a 48-person group chat shared with Grazia, Emma tells the clients on 5 May, ‘My stock still hasn’t arrived so my clinic I had planned for tomorrow and Thursday doesn’t look like it’s going ahead.’
‘If everyone can keep their slots and I will let you know as soon as it arrives,’ the text continues. ‘I’m absolutely gutted. All my suppliers are either shut or taking extremely long for deliveries. [SIC]'
With the stock arriving yesterday, Charlotte went in for a 15-minute midday appointment where she expected to wait outside until the shutters opened and she could sneak in. As it happened, the shop was already open with Emma working since 9am that morning. ‘She didn’t have any PPE on or anything when she let me in,’ she says. ‘We chatted for a bit, then she put PPE on to perform the treatment but it was just like a normal appointment really.’
According to Emma, when injecting filler or botox, PPE is expected. 'I always wear a mask, gloves and apron and change it between every person,' she says. 'Now I'm being extra clean, I have hand sanitisers and let the client put their own [numbing] cream on. In between clients, I spray everywhere and mop the floor.'
There’s no way I’m staying closed for another two months. That’s ridiculous, I'd have no clients to go back to!
With an 85-person waiting list and receiving messages daily, Emma is now seeing up to 10 people a day over a period of eight hours. She owns two salons across the North West, working one day a week in each.
'I’m booking in clients for 45 minutes to give them enough time to come and for me to clean everywhere in between and make sure it's only one person in at a time,' she says.
But is she not worried about being reported? According to new rules, businesses that don't comply with lockdown rules face unlimited fines and if they continue to stay open, could be closed down forcibly.
'A business or venue operating in contravention of the law will be committing an offence,’ the government website reads. ‘Businesses and venues that breach the law will be subject to prohibition notices and fixed penalty notices. Businesses that continue to contravene the law will be forced to close down. For both individuals and companies, if you do not pay, you may also be taken to court, with magistrates able to impose potentially unlimited fines.’
That isn't exactly clear to Emma though, who admits she doesn't know what the penalty is for staying open during lockdown.
'I haven’t even looked into it because I just don't care,' she says. 'I thought if anyone comes I’ll just say I’m doing consultations to find out what treatments people want in future and that we’re social distancing.'
*Names have been changed.
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