Belfast barbers are being offered £200 for a haircut during the Coronavirus national emergency.
Along with hairdressers and beauticians, they are being encouraged to ignore the Government advice of social distancing to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Some are being telephoned others approached on social media to travel to houses in Northern Ireland for fade hair cuts and more, and a number of people are posting ads to buy and sell sites looking for barbers.
Co Down barber, Garry Jackson, said: “I’m deeply concerned about barbers nationwide going to do people’s haircuts in their homes and also about their customers sending messages to them, tempting them with a lot of money to do a home cut.
“My wife Mari, who is a nurse, made the joint decision to close our shop back on St Patrick’s Day, because in good conscience we couldn’t put our staff, customers and ourselves in danger from Coronavirus.”
Mari from Holywood, is a Healthcare Advisor for The British Master Barbers Council’s 7,000 members.
She said: “Some barbers are being offered up to £200 in Belfast for a haircut which would otherwise cost £10 to £20 depending on where they live.
“Thankfully many barbers have closed their shops on the strength of my advice which explains how very dangerous it is to remain open. I’ve been inundated with queries about the situation.
“There’s a massive amount of barbers, hairdressers and beauticians who are still doing house calls right now.
“Clients are actually contacting them on social media and offering way over the odds for treatments and haircuts.
“Many of them are doing this in a covert fashion, but others are actually posting up photos on social media of doing it - a disgraceful and very dangerous practice.
“This current ‘homer’ situation is now a massive problem and it needs to be address by the Government.
“Only this morning I discovered a beautician who is 30 weeks pregnant, is still being asked to do homers.
“There should be a deterrent set in place. The nature of these jobs is so tactile that gloves and precautionary measures cannot prevent the spread of this deadly virus.
“In any of these jobs it is impossible to practice social distancing and they are all breeding grounds for cross infection. Therefore the customers and practitioners are putting the general public and themselves at high risk by keeping this up. It needs to be stopped as soon as possible.”
