Boris Johnson delivered breaking news at a conference today at 11am, which signals good news for barbers in England desperate to get back to offering face treatments, including shaves.
He addressed the public this morning to set out his plan to get the UK through the next stage of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the Prime Minister’s ‘conditional’ road map for the coming months, he said he hopes the UK may be able to get back to ‘near-normal’ by Christmas.
In terms of the beauty industry Boris said: ‘We will enable close contact services [beauty] to resume from 1 August.’
This means that close shaves, hot towel shaves and facials can be offered once again in barbershops in England.
This is what is stated in the ‘UK Government’s COVID-19 Recovery Strategy’ guidance:
We will “enable all close contact services to resume, including any treatments on the face such as eyebrow threading or make-up application, working closely with the sector and public health experts to ensure this can be done as safely as possible and in line with COVID-19 Secure guidelines.”
All businesses will be required to operate in a COVID19-secure way. This means undertaking risk assessments and following the guidelines set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), including wearing the appropriate PPE, social distancing, thorough cleaning, and operating by appointment-only.
Hilary Hall, chief executive of the NHBF said: “This is fantastic news for thousands of people in the beauty industry who have, up until now, been unsure about the future of their businesses. We have been working tirelessly with other industry organisations to get to this point, and to lobby for any further financial support needed. We must remind everyone working in close contact services to ensure they operate in a safe and secure way so that the industry doesn’t face any more closures.”
In his speech Boris also said that larger scale, controlled events and conferences could happen from October.