Why we need to re-open the British Beauty Industry #thevalueinbeauty
The Government announcement that Beauty and Spa services would not be re-opening on July 4th was devastating for many small business owners and self-employed entrepreneurs, most of whom are female. We have, at the point of writing, been closed for over 100 days and many of us fall through the net for any of the financial help available, leaving us unable to support ourselves or our families.
Now you may well be thinking that’s terribly sad but it doesn’t effect me but the Beauty Professionals in this country contribute a huge amount to our economy and that matters to all of us. The British Beauty Industry contributes £28 billion to the economy and employs around 33k people, mainly women.
Our industry has recently been treated as a joke in parliament during prime ministers questions. This alone validates my opinion that the reason our industry has remained closed is because a bunch of middle aged and predominantly male politicians simply don’t understand what we do. They see our industry as seedy at best and at worst a bunch of ditzy women who are too dumb to do a proper job.
In fact we are highly trained professionals with already extremely high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. As a nail technician myself I can vouch for the fact that a huge part of my basic training was about how to work with a high standard of cleanliness in order to prevent the spread of pathogens and diseases. The majority of beauty professionals have been trained to extremely high standards in cleanliness and even pre coronavirus were working to higher Standards than pubs, shops and driving instructors, all of whom are permitted to reopen on the July 4th.
It’s Not All Doom and Gloom
We have some excellent advocates with in our industry who have been working hard to represent us within the governments task force for business. The British Beauty Council and Marian Newman / Millie Kendall in particular have been amazing representatives and have offered us some fantastic guidelines that are way more comprehensive than the government guidance issued on 23rd June.
As a group Beauty Professionals have been working hard in the last few weeks to provide and put in place risk assessments, best practice guides, extra PPE and even more thorough cleaning practices. All of this in readiness to provide safe services to our clients who are always our priority. We are ready to work, ready to provide our much needed services that not only contribute to our economy but also to the mental health and wellbeing of our clients.
So I’m asking for your help, regardless of if you are a client of the Beauty Industry, to help us to get back to work and to help us be heard. Please share this article, write to your MP, sign the petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/320507 or share a post supporting us on social media and make sure to tag @william_wragg @aloksharma_RDG @borisjohnson @bbcouncil @carolinehirons and use the hashtags #thevalueofbeauty #salonsaresafe
Please help us, we are ready, we are safe, we want to help re start the British economy and Beauty Matters.