Black market hairdressers: ‘She called me and said blondes were a priority’

When Kildare recruitment executive Marisa (not her real name) went on Zoom meetings for work, she hated seeing her likeness on the screen. “I’d have my hair pulled back and with my roots, all I could see was my brother looking at me,” she recalls. “But the big thing that got to me was finding grey hairs. That’s what tipped me over the edge.”

A fortnight ago, Marisa made some queries to her regular hairdresser as to when she might be seeing clients again. According to Ireland’s roadmap out of lockdown, Ireland’s hair salons had been planning to reopen on July 20th, but at time of publication the National Public Health Emergency Team has advised that this be brought forward to June 29th.

But amid the uncertainty, Marisa’s stylist had decided to return to work early.

“She contacted me and told me that if I wanted to [get my hair coloured], it was entirely up to me,” says Marisa. “She said that blondes were a priority. I asked my husband if he was okay with it, and he rolled his eyes and said, ‘well, if that’s what you want’. A couple of months ago I wouldn’t have risked it but the virus has reduced dramatically, so I felt comfortable doing it.”

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Cometh the hour, Marisa made sure that her house was “pristine”.

“She came, put the colour in, and I washed it out in the shower. Then she cut it and styled it. It felt unbelievable, it really did. It gave me such an uplift. I felt human – like myself again. Of course, I didn’t think of it, but now I’m as fresh a blonde as you can be.”

Welcome to the world of what is being referred to in the industry as “black market hairdressing”.

Freelancers and temporarily unemployed hair stylists are making private appointments in clients’ homes for cuts and colours, often covertly and against the wishes of salon owners. It’s the big unspoken “secret” in the hairdressing industry right now although, as stylist Dylan Bradshaw, who has a salon on Dublin’s South William Street notes, it’s not really that much of a secret.

“You only need to walk down the street to see people who have had their colour freshly done, or have no root regrowth,” he notes. “People have obviously said, ‘screw it’.”

Adds Bradshaw: “I’m not condemning people for it – they’re desperate. You can ask a woman who needs her colour done to hang on as much as she can, but I can understand after four months why it [the black market] has blown up massively.”

For stylists, it’s not the cash-grab that it might look like. Some admit to feeling pressure after clients have contacted them on social media. One, who did not wish to be named, noted that it’s a very different beast to her usual beat.

“You’re in someone’s house, and you end up minding the baby while they go upstairs to shower, or a cup of tea becomes an offer of a glass of wine,” she says. “The lines between client and friend get a bit blurred, which isn’t ideal. You’re there for longer, and it doesn’t make much economic sense.”

Salon wholesalers

On the other hand, some salon wholesalers and suppliers have experienced a surge in sales. Whether this is due to individuals opting to buy salon-grade products or trade professionals striking out on their own is unclear, but salon owners have noticed the uptick in business.

“There is a three-week waiting list to get certain products – normally it’s next-day, or walk-in,” says Elaine Sullivan, creative director at Aviary Lane salon on South Anne Street in Dublin. “They’re mentioning on social media that their business is through the roof.”

Sullivan has been asked by regular clients for private appointments – “I’ve had doctors from Covid hospitals asking me to do their hair” – but she is determined to do the right thing, according to Government guidelines.

“I had a conversation with staff at the start, and the stance is that we are not doing hair, but we’re in an age where people can find what they want. It’s a hard position for them [staff members] to be in.”

The problem with that is that confusion has reigned for weeks as to when hair salons could reopen. While the issue remained officially undecided salon owners were unsure of their next move, not to mention the 25,000-strong workforce.

“We are at the very bottom of the food chain at this stage,” says Bradshaw. “There have been mixed messages, and from a consumer point of view, they’re going to be unsure about supporting these businesses.”

To the delight of his regular clients, Bradshaw reopened his appointment book this week, with a start date of June 29th.

Sullivan, meanwhile, is concerned about the one-in, one-out system that had previously been discussed. “I’d rather we were allowed open at full capacity with full modifications, as opposed to with a one-in, one-out system,” she notes. “That’s barely a hobby, let alone a business. It doesn’t make sense for me to do that – I have staff to pay and once I begin trading again, I’ll have to starting paying rent on the premises again.”

Sullivan has spent the past few weeks repainting and sanding floors, so as to give her clients an even better experience in a nice, if slightly more clinical space. She is currently pricing the modifications needed for effective social distancing, and the numbers soon start to add up.

Significant spend 

"It's about €660 plus VAT for one [Perspex] screen, and if you have 15 sections, and you might need three for your basin area, that’s your [Government] grant gone,” she explains.

“They [suppliers] are going after people’s grants and scaremongering. It starts to snowball into ‘you must have this, you must have that’. It’s conflicting messages, but can we do some critical thinking here?

“I’m also worried about what we are expected to wear – hairdressers get very hot at work, and if you’re wearing a mask and shield, that’s not a comfortable scenario at all.”

Bradshaw has made slight modifications to his salon based on a 1-metre distancing system. He is “hanging on last-minute” before making a significant spend.

“Salons are spending thousands upon thousands on new fitouts and PPE gear, but people then start to worry and think, ‘I don’t know if it’s all that healthy to go into this environment’,” he says. “It’s like they’re coming into A&E, not a hair salon. There has to be protection of course, but up to a point.

“Look at the queues outside supermarkets – once you’re inside, there’s no such thing as distancing. At least in my business, I can control that.”

It had previously been mooted that some salon owners would extend their opening hours into blocks of shifts, so as to work through their backlog of appointments more quickly.

“We won’t be doing shifts – I’m not asking staff to do anything extra,” Bradshaw says. “People have been off for four months, you can’t expect them to take on 8 or 9 clients a day and move forward with that.”

Other recommendations have included dispensing with time-honoured salon perks, like tea, coffee and magazines. Instead of using a waiting area, clients may be asked to wait outside until their stylist can see them.

“That won’t be for me,” asserts Sullivan. “We’ll be offering treats, although they will be pre-wrapped. This is probably going to sound arrogant but if I have a client paying €400 for a service, she’s not going to be outside waiting in the rain. You can’t work it like that.”

On salon modifications Danielle Kennedy, incoming president of the Irish Hair Federation, says: “I think there will be a level of the hospitality side of the experience that won’t be there temporarily. But it’s still a very positive environment. It’s all about the connection between the stylist and client, and having a client leave feeling really good about the experience.

“With regard to refreshments, it doesn’t make sense to offer a client tea, as they will need to remove their mask constantly to drink it.”

Naturally, Kennedy is looking to her counterparts in other countries. Italy and Spain, both countries hit particularly hard by coronavirus, opened hair salons after seven weeks of closure. She also mentions a recent LiveScience report noting that two Missouri hairstylists with Covid-19 didn’t infect any of their 140 clients, owing to safety measures such as both parties wearing masks.

“We got some data from Germany last weekend. Their salons have been open about six weeks or so, and the cases [of Covid-19] have continued to drop in the country. No transmission cases have been linked back to salons.”

And as for those black-market hairdressers? Hairdressers, says Kennedy, found themselves “between a rock and a hard place” these past months. “They don’t want to do someone’s hair [on the black market], but they know if they don’t do it, the client will find someone who will. Stylists tend to have a relationship with the client and will find it really hard to say no.

Might the home hair-stylist visit become the new normal for time-strapped clients? “I don’t fear it will,” says Sullivan. “You can wash your own face, but you’ll still want to go for a facial.”