As COVID restrictions begin to ease across the UK, we spoke with Hair Committee Members Jennifer Linton of Linton & Mac, and Andrew Cannon of Ruffians, about how they’ve found the reopening of their salons in Scotland.
Linton & Mac is an award-winning hair salon based in Aberdeen, which was opened in 2015 by Jennifer Linton and Jaye MacDonald. Ruffians is an award-winning barbers and men’s grooming products store with multiple stores in London, and one in Edinburgh which is where the business was co-founded by Andrew Cannon.
How have you found reopening? Â
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Jennifer: Week one has gone so well. The team have been so excited to get back to work and there is a good energy throughout the salon. We have done a few changes to the salon layout so it’s made it feel fresh and new in the salon – clients are excited to be back in and everything has run smoothly.
Linton & Mac
Andrew: Reopening is such a positive, fun and engaging moment for each of us, the team are literally buzzing! We were obviously nervous, as if before an exam, but as soon as we started our consultations we were back in the zone and loving being where we love to be – with our Ruffian customers cutting hair and sharing stories. We could not be happier!
What are you excited about for the future of the industry?
Andrew: We’re going to have a tough few months, while life returns to ‘normal’ but I believe COVID will have helped our industry to improve. It has made out team realise how much they LOVE their career, and they are more committed than ever to learning, improving and developing themselves, which will serve to raise the bar.
Ruffians in Edinburgh
Jennifer: I am so excited for the energy to be back in the industry, competitions, shows and shoots. Getting creative again! We used lockdown to do a lot of training, so I am excited to put new techniques into practice.
Jaye and I are working with brands on education and being educators, so we look forward to those days.
Follow Ruffians on Instagram and Linton & Mac on Instagram
All of us at the British Beauty Council are excited to see our much-loved and missed industry begin to reopen it’s doors across the UK. We continue to lobby governments across the country for the personal care sector – see our joint letter to Jamie Hepburn MSP here.
