Therapists and beauty salons back to work Q&A

How can salons and mobile therapists best prepare themselves for this new way of working?

1. Due to distance management, the salon will not take as many clients as normal. Define your new layout and understand what your capacity will be. Bear in mind you will need 10-15 minutes between appointments to fully sanitise the working area/treatment room.
2. Adapt your working day to fit as many clients in as you can. Longer working hours will allow you to fit more clients in, and will probably suit many people who are juggling child care, home working and partners shift patterns. Discuss your options with your team and establish your new appointment times. Market this heavily to your client base, as many weeks before you open as you can.
3. Prepare your PPE and Salon Hygiene Program. Be clear on how you and your team will present yourselves and also how you want your clients to be presented. Write this down as a procedure and put it into your procedures manual. Set out your hygiene program. This must cover how you will sanitise your treatment area/room after each client and what what the overarching salon cleaning and sanitisation program will be.
4. Mobile Therapists must establish their PPE and Hygiene Program. They should present themselves to their client with their apron, gloves and mask on. They should hand the client a leaflet explaining how they need to present themselves, and have that equipment already prepared for them in a plastic bag. They should also have a full cleaning kit with them at all times, and a program to sanitise the treatment area when they enter it.
5. Put all the above together as a Risk Assessment. It seems likely that on inspection by HSE or Local Council, the first thing they will ask for is your Health and Safety Risk Assessment.
6. Market your clients with the measures you have put in place to protect them and your team. Highlight your additional cleaning program but take care in what you say. Its right to say you are taking extra precautions due to Covid, but you cannot make claims such as it’s Covid Free, 

Is there an essential kit list of products, PPE and cleaning items they should definitely have in ready supply? 

PPE

Therapist – Disposable Apron, mask, face shield, gloves

Client – Disposable Kimono or Gown, disposable gloves, and all the usual disposables you would use in nail treatments, tanning, waxing and other services disposable pants such as disposable slippers, disposable shower caps, disposable headbands 

Salon/Room – Sneeze screens (essential for services where your client is sat opposite you, and a good idea to have at reception desks), Couch Roll, disposable towels, tissues

If you have the facilities, certain single use products can be replaced with re-usable products, such as salon robes and couch covers. Those products must only be used on one client and then taken to be washed. They must be washed at a higher temperature than normal, preferably 60 degrees. Again, you must write a procedure for this and ensure your staff fully understand it.

Hygiene and Cleaning

Hand sanitisers should be readily available throughout the salon in every treatment Room. Mobile Therapists should always have Hand Sanitiser as part of their kit bag.

Treatment Rooms and Spaces must be sanitised after every client. Gloves must be worn. All hard surfaces must be cleaned using anti-bacterial products. All disposable PPE must be gathered and disposed of. All tools and implements must be sterilised if they are re-usable. Couches and chairs must be disinfected and re-presented. 

For salon cleaning and disinfecting you should follow a set program. The salon should be cleaned at the end of the day, and during the day. There should be no clients in the salon at this time. A more robust program than usual should be followed, which works on the principle of cleaning then disinfecting. 

Try to keep the room as ventilated as possible during the cleaning process and protect yourself with PPE.

Clean the general area first, then go over it again to disinfect it. To do this, use a normal cleaning agent or soap and water on the first clean. Sweep the floor. Then clean the surfaces again with anti-bac products and use anti-bac cleaner or bleach for the floor. If using a vacuum cleaner replace the bag after each use and wipe it down with Anti-bac Cleaner after each use. Clean the towel, gown and laundry hampers every evening.

The basics you will need

• General Cleaning Products. Anti-bacterial cleaning products. Household Bleach. 
• Cleaning wipes, small couch roll or blue, pull through roll.
• Cleaning cloths – only one use before washing. 
• Brooms and pans, mops and buckets, vacuum cleaner.
• UV or LED Steriliser, Barbicide or similar sterilising jars and liquid.
• Bins with lids
• Bin Bags with tie handles

What do they need to do pre-opening daily and weekly? 

That’s all answered above, apart from the once a week question. In terms of hygiene and sanitisation, everything should be done every day.

I would advise that Covid specific programs and processes are looked at every day and reviewed once a week. This would entail discussions with staff and feedback from clients. You should also pay close attention to government announcements and advice from trade bodies. 

They key is to take in as much information as you can, and be prepared to act quickly to any change in the circumstances or guidelines. 

I would also advise that your regular client base are marketed once a week to remind them of your new working hours and conditions.

What might not have been thought of in terms of staying safe and healthy in terms of this situation? 

The staff room or where your team take their break is a key area some people are not thinking of initially.

You will need to provide a safe, socially distanced space for every team member. They need to have a chair and a place for their personal belongings. At the end of each shift, they must sanitise this space if others will use it. You may well have to sacrifice a treatment room to create more space for your staff to spread out. 

You must create a staff notice board which has all the new procedures on it. It should also have the team rota, the cleaning schedule and the allocation of the safe spaces for each team member. A magnetic white board works well if you don’t have anything suitable. 

Should beauty and hair professionals think about charging more for services given less appointments, more PPE costs etc? 

Yes, its appropriate and good business sense. The cost of the additional PPE for each client should only be around £2 – apron, kimono/gown, masks, gloves and shield. The additional cleaning products should not be too costly but buying additional equipment will add cost. The key issue is how many clients you can see. Only you will know what your break-even point is, and you must work up from that. I would imagine that most salons will have a ‘corona tax’ of between £5 and £10 depending on the service.

 Anything else a team should do and/or put in place to continue their success in tricky circumstances? 

Time and running costs are the most significant factors in the opportunity for business success over this next stage of the pandemic. It will be harder to see your normal volume of clients, yet most of your costs will stay the same.

The two areas that you can look to change and that will have a positive impact, are your cost of goods and the types of service you offer. Services that take less time than normal, and products that cost you less than normal are where the wins will be. Make your service list strong in time hungry treatments and look at what you are buying. Can you get it, or something like it, cheaper? The answer usually is yes!