Hair salon owners have reported a huge rush of London bookings and enquiries after the Prime Minister gave them the green-light to reopen.
Brits will be able to get a haircut from July 4 under the latest government guidance announced yesterday.
Sites first closed in March for the Covid-19 lockdown. Social distancing measures will be in place, but Boris Johnson said the two-metre rule will be halved.
Richard Marshall, chief executive of Pall Mall Barbers, which has six central London sites, said he saw “hundreds of booking requests” in the hours after the update.
Mayfair salon Jo Hansford estimated it had an an uplift of between 60% and 70% in calls and emails from yesterday afternoon. A spokesman said: “We had already been working our way through the waiting list for the last ten days and booking clients in with the hope of being able to open, but to be able to confirm the appointments now is fantastic.”
Nigel Darwin, chief executive of the Toni & Guy chain said: “We have seen lots of activity for a number of weeks now to book that first appointment, including an influx after the Prime Minister’s announcement.”
A spokesman for Blue Tit London said: "Demand for the reopening of our collection of 10 salons across London has been incredible. Our waiting list opened on May 8 and saw over 4,500 clients sign up. In the last week we’ve seen over 2,600 additional requests for bookings. We have now booked 3,000 appointments across our salons in the next month.”
