Ann-Marie Tovey stepped out of Angela’s Cutting Crew hairdressing salon in Caerphilly, south Wales, after more than two hours in the chair and declared that she felt like a new woman.
“It’s lovely to be back to normal,” said Tovey, 47. “I don’t like the grey showing. I think people just feel more confident when your hair is just so. I last had it done in November, before this last lockdown, and I couldn’t wait to get back here.”
Across Wales, hairdressing salons and barber shops were heaving after they were allowed to reopen on Monday.
Tovey’s colour and cut session had taken longer than usual because the phone was ringing almost constantly and the salon’s owner, Tanya Churchward, kept having to dart to the reception desk to field calls.
“We’re booked up solid for the next week and a half,” said Churchward. She is delighted to be back in action. “This lockdown has been killing me. I’ve been stuck at home with the kids stressing about money and not being able to talk to my customers. It’s been a nightmare.”
Churchward said the salon was not just about making clients’ hair look good. “It’s about their mental wellbeing as well. The customers come in and have a chat. Everyone feels better.”
Another customer, Brenda Webster, 76, said she had had two vaccinations and felt confident that the salon had enough safety measures in place to keep her safe. She said she had been keeping her hair neat and tidy. “I have to tong it and mess with it myself every day or I end up looking like Worzel Gummidge,” she said.
Up the road at the Evolve Hair Studio, the owners Lauren Rees and Charlotte Zerk were far too polite to say that any of their customers had turned up looking like a scarecrow, but they admitted they did have a bit of sorting out to do.
“It’s mainly the colours people get wrong,” said Rees. “We do get a few disasters. Quite a few customers do come in sometimes with their hair looking a bit more orange than they wanted. When you go to the supermarket for colours, you never know quite what you’re going to get.”
The fix isn’t always quick. “Sometimes people are disappointed when you explain you can’t get it back to how it was before immediately,” said Zerk. “It has to be a gradual process.”
The easing of the lockdown in Wales includes more children returning to school, the “stay at home” rule being changed to “stay local”, and outdoor sports facilities reopening. But for many the chance of a new hairdo is the real mood-booster.
Barber shops in Caerphilly town were doing excellent business. The street in front of the castle was full of men young and old with closely cropped hair smelling of talcum powder, lotion, gel or wax.
Gilbert Fuller, 75, a former miner, was sporting a smart new look courtesy of the Just Men shop. “I looked terrible when I went in,” he said. “Like the mad professor. I let my wife have a go at it during the first lockdown, but that didn’t go so well so I thought I’d hang on this time.”
Theo Aspros, the owner of Aspros Barbers on Cardiff Road, said he was booked up for the whole week. One challenge he had was having to wear a mask, visor and spectacles. “It does get a little steamy, but we’re really happy to be back and keen to make sure it’s a safe as it can be,” he said.
The barbershop takes customers’ temperatures when they arrive and keeps a record of all names and addresses.
Aspros, too, was having to fix up a few self-inflicted mishaps, from bald patches to wonky fringes. “But actually, during this lockdown I think fewer people are doing it themselves,” he said. “I think they’ve come to realise that it’s not as easy as it looks.”