Hairdressers bulk buying bleach and offering illegal mobile services during lockdown
HAIRDRESSERS are bulk buying bleaches and dyes to meet overwhelming demand for styling during lockdown.
Thousands of crimpers are getting hair care products delivered to their homes.
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Many are carrying out trims wearing masks and gloves.
Some stylists are even advertising mobile services.
It comes as many people do DIY makeovers, including singer Dua Lipa, who has dyed her black and blonde hair red.
Hairdressing for anyone other than a household member is forbidden under lockdown rules.
One professional body urged ministers to apply the ban on salons and barbers “to the sector as a whole” — and pleaded with the public not to fuel demand.
But thousands of hair care orders were being processed at the Coty/Wella distribution centre in Basingstoke, Hants.
Some staff are on furlough but a core remain.
Parcels are delivered by UPS.
An industry source said: “After lockdown demand for salon professional products fell off a cliff before hairdressers started ordering small tubs of bleach and dye but it’s rocketed.
GIANT ORDERS
“We’re getting giant orders from hairdressers and it can’t all be for them.
“There’s no doubt they’re working from home. There must be a secret salon on every street.”
One colourist told The Sun she was “making a fortune” by trimming hair and touching up roots from a makeshift salon in her kitchen.
She said: “I’ve not been self-employed long so I can’t get government assistance and I need to be able to pay the rent.”
A stylist who advertised on website Gumtree added: “People really want to get their roots done and look nice.
“I have masks and gloves for me and the clients and big bottles of hand sanitiser. I’m taking lots of precautions.”
The National Hairdressers’ Federation said a lack of clarity from the Government was driving crimpers and customers to break the law.
Guidelines issued on Monday ban hairdressers and salons opening until at least July 4.
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The NHF, which represents 5,000 of the UK’s 35,000 salons, which employ 250,000 people, said it wanted “absolute clarity that any future guidance for the hair and beauty industry applies to the sector as a whole”.
A spokesman added: “We would implore the Government to send a strong message to the public that they should not be asking hairdressers, barbers and beauty therapists to come into their home or vice versa.
“Without demand, those few irresponsibly flouting current rules, would not be doing it.”
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