Salons reopen, crowd not to expected level

Chennai

“There were hardly any appointments today. Customers now prefer to walk into parlours in their area, said Mahendra, proprietor of Studio 11 Salon and Spa at Kilpauk.

He added that customers are still sceptical even though the establishment regularly check the temperature of its staff, makes sure that both customers and staff wear masks. The parlour is also working with minimum staff and provide appointment-only service to ensure social distancing.

“As it was the first day since the phase 4 of lockdown ended, we did not receive many customers. We used to have at least 15 to 20 customers every day. But now, appointments have gone down to around five. If a customer calls to book an appointment, we collect details such as their area of residence, if any of their family members are symptomatic, etc,” said Jennifer, manager of Kanya Beauty Salon at Anna Nagar.

However, many parlours remain shut and wait for the situation to improve. K Indhumathi, a makeup artist, said that they are waiting to see if there is any improvement in the number of cases in the city. “We might open the parlour in June itself in that case. Several products that we purchased before the lockdown have to be dumped as it’s past their expiry date now. This is leading to a huge loss,” Indhumathi added.