Hannah Kirby is self employed, and runs Beauty by Hannah, which is predominantly based at Amore hair & beauty salon in Ledbury. She told us how yesterdays government announcement has been a savage kick in the teeth for her industry.
Hannah commented “Friday afternoon was another set back from the beauty industry, with not even 24 notice I’ve now had to cancel weeks of work which will have a massive financial impact. Treatments on the face make up over 70 % of my appointments and I can’t see why they can’t resume whilst in full PPE with high standards of cleanliness and hygiene that meet the government guidelines. I had to spend most of my Friday and Saturday cancelling appointments which was absolutely demoralising.”
To soften the financial blow Hannah has had to find work elsewhere “I did manage to get a part time job at a supermarket during lockdown to help me get through, but I really feel for others in my industry that haven’t been able to do that. I think we will see a lot of salons closing down now as we can’t cover the bills with little income.”
With the government’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty saying on Friday the country was “near the limit” of opening up society, a lot of businesses will face severe anxiety in the coming weeks.
