Beauty salons feel ready to open: “illegally” won’t go away

Beauty services could open soon

According to the Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė, the latest information on shops and beauty services will be examined and experts will be consulted. He explained that the decisions will be made jointly by the government and the “vision” of the Ministry of Economy and Innovation will decide this week, and the services are expected to be available soon.

“Once there is a common position, we can make informed decisions about beauty services and stores. (…) Today, we only agreed on directions. This week what can I say, we will discuss and decide, and when the decisions come into force, it will be clarified later “, – A. Armonaitė did not mention specific dates.

The Ministry of Economy and Innovation had previously submitted to the government a proposal to open ski resorts on February 1 and resume the provision of beauty services on February 8 and open stores.

Beauty professionals are happy with these offers. Jolanta Mačiulienė, president of the Association of Hairdressers and Beauty Specialists, hopes that beauty salons and hairdressers can open next week, if the government does not change its mind.

“For this we work in a biased way, sending requests and suggestions that we wanted to work on and guaranteeing that we could receive clients safely. Apparently, the Government trusted our repeated letters and requests. Congratulations if the authorities just don’t change their minds.

I’m not trying to be very happy because I like it when I officially write in black on white that hairdressers and beauty professionals can work, say, from February 8, and sign for ministers or the prime minister so that there is no A big disappointment. later. Last week we were already hopeful, ”says J. Mačiulienė.

“We have duties, we prepare joint letters, we show in a beautiful way that we want to work, we are not happy with the benefits that the government promises to pay, because everything comes out very primitively. It is difficult to understand when for 260 euros a healthy person with a family has to survive ”, he adds.

Hairdressers are willing to accept clients.

The interlocutor assures that hairdressers and beauty salons are ready to receive clients as after the first quarantine: “At that time, people were making schedules, pushing chairs in salons, making partitions, reducing the number of chairs. It is no longer like during the first quarantine that we do not know anything. We all know how we should work now: how to accept clients, how to maintain distances, how to disinfect. Now the client almost has to ask if he’s feeling okay. When you register for the service over the phone, you are always asked if you had any contacts or if you were sick. “

So far, there are no concrete solutions and suggestions on how to provide beauty services after resuming activities. It was previously announced that beauty salons could serve one client at a time. A 10 square meters. m at the client’s request, and between clients it would be mandatory to take 15-minute breaks.

According to J. Mačiulienė, due to these restrictions, not all beauty specialists will be able to start work, but still this one. According to the interviewee, the beauty professionals who worked after the first quarantine are satisfied with these restrictions, since the employees have adapted and learned to work from a different angle.

“I understand that maybe not all services will be released and not all people will be able to start working, but at least it will be the beginning of everything. We talk to beauty professionals all this time, asking how many cases in their environment are known to be ill in a salon, hair salon, spa, or somewhere. Throughout this informal interview, there may have been several cases, but it is not clear whether there was a fireplace in the cabin, perhaps that person had already visited with COVID-19, “he says.

I’m not sure if it will extend business hours

When asked if hairdressers and salons plan to extend working hours to serve as many people as possible just before they closed last year, the association’s president says she doesn’t know the answer.

“People who signed up until the new year did not manage their working hours. Those hairdressers cannot be condemned for this as the clients, if they could, would sit on top of each other and on their knees just to serve them. After the announcement of the closure, everyone was very upset and people, realizing that the hairdresser would not be working for two months, took a risk.

Now I don’t know what it will be like, I can’t guarantee it to everyone. I myself am a hairdresser. Knowing that I would not dare to do it from Monday, I wisely wrote to people, because there are still those fears of a pandemic and I am not 25 years old. Not wanting to make fun of myself and destiny, I follow the rules ”, he assures.

A spokeswoman for hairdressers and beauty professionals agrees that customers will be concerned about the possible opening and the number of registrations will increase, but hairdressers will surely take care of it.

The shadow is a European ulcer

Speaking about the reduction of quarantine restrictions for beauty service providers, Vice Minister of Economy and Innovation Vincas Jurgutis has said that during the quarantine some beauty professionals have moved into the shadows and provide services illegally, for so there is an even greater risk of contagion.

When asked if a large shadow appeared in the beauty sector during the quarantine, J. Mačiulienė assures that the shadow has been flourishing in Lithuania for many years and is certainly not a consequence of the quarantine restrictions: “The shadow in Lithuania he definitely did not go through quarantine, he has been living for many years. Certainly there are some people who have learned this trade who, when they rest quietly, they do it quite successfully without paying anyone. Now that the restrictions are high, they are reaping the benefits. “

According to her, the shadow in the beauty sector is not entirely new in Lithuania: “This is a European ulcer. Italians and Germans do the same, but it is difficult to catch them. They live at the expense of the state and taxpayers.

There are conscious people who do not work and accept small benefits, and there are people who have gone through the “impossible” and are doing what they were used to. This is not news to them. Clearly, the benefits are quite small, it is not money to survive. I told the members of my community not to take risks, because if they caught me, the fine would be very high. It will cost more to pay the fine than to win. “

According to her, everything depends on the conscience of the clients, but J. Mačiulienė assures that she has not heard such drastic requests to take home or to the kitchen. “The hairdressers who have regular clients have managed very well. Who is engaged in online trading: prepared paintings, prepares ready-made cocktails, the customer comes to the place and collects the packages. This is how they survived, “he says.

The interlocutor says that he does not think that the shadow will shrink even after opening the hairdressers: Our clients are very demanding, maybe some people back down anyway. Both those who accept and those who go sin. Looking at the people of our Seimas, all kinds of questions arise and who solves them. “