Waiting is all they can do. Being in a profession where touching the client is mandatory, beauticians are the least sought-after professionals in the COVID era. With local transmission of COVID-19 catapulting day by day, fear has gripped the beauty service sector like no other.
“Only five per cent of beauty parlours in Kozhikode stay open these days. The rest have given up as they could not afford building rent and staff salary,” said Deepa Hari, district president of Kerala Beauticians’ Association.
In the post-lockdown period, beauty parlours and saloons had been permitted to take up only hair cuts and other hair-related services. But very few people approach beauty parlours for hair cuts, as they do not find the service necessary these days. “Only school and college going girls try out fancy hair cuts. With schools and colleges closed, our customer base is non-existent,” said Prameela Rajan, president of a Beauticians’ Cooperative Society. Weddings were the biggest market for those in beauty business. “Very few people hire us for bridal make up these days. We have even cut down the rates as our clients too are facing financial difficulties,” said Haseena Mansoor who has over 30 years of experience in the beauty service sector.
While bigger beauty parlour chains have managed to stay afloat for a few months, smaller ones, mostly built on huge bank loans, are struggling to survive. “If this continues for another month or two, at least half of the beauty parlours in the city will be closed down. Even now, many have been put on sale, though there are no takers,” said Deepa Hari, adding that the association was contemplating closing down all parlours for some time. “Keeping parlours open is not viable. We have appealed to the authorities to allow us to take up services other than hair cuts and that we were ready to wear PPE kits while rendering the service,” she added.
