British Beauty Council Advisory Board Member, Charlotte Mensah is a multi-award-winning hairstylist, owner and artistic director of the Hair Lounge Salon, and founder of the Charlotte Mensah Manketti oil products.
Charlotte is also one of the industry’s authoritative voices on afro, mixed and curly hair textures.
Ahead of the reopening of hairdressers on July 4th, we spoke to Charlotte regarding her return to work salon plans.Â
Will there be fewer chairs? Our salon is naturally designed to be quite spacious and give all of our customers enough space whilst they’re in the chair. As an additional precaution, we will likely limit the amount of customers in chairs to 4, as opposed to the usual 6. There is no waiting area.
Will there be screens up? I don’t think we’ll need screens; the extra space should create enough space and act as a barrier.
Will magazines be ditched? Unfortunately, I think magazines will have to temporarily be ditched as a means of managing the spread of any infection. The alternative would be to sanitise magazines after every use – but that seems excessive.
Will they work longer hours to fit in more appointments? Our intention is to work longer hours to shore up our demand. We recently set up a priority list and we have a large amount of people we need to follow up with so yes, we’ll probably work 7 days a week for a while. We will spread the appointments slots, offer fewer appointments for some time working 50% less reducing the number of braids and hair extensions appointments.
How are appointments going to be taken in the post-lockdown rush? We are building out interest for appointments and recently sent out a post on Instagram about a priority list, to which we’ve been swamped with DMs and Inboxes. To add, I’ve had a number of messages from my customers about what to do with their hair. Demand is at an all-time high. No walk ins no cutting dry hair. New customers to fill a health questionnaire prior to their appointment.
Will there be a reception and cash desk? We tend to be quite cashless as it is. So there will definitely be more of an emphasis on that. For the most part none of our clients pay cash.
Will they still sell shampoos and conditioners? Definitely, if this period has told us anything, there needs to be an emphasis on people learning how to take care of their hair in the absence of hairdressers. Our Manketti Haircare range is perfect for achieving that. Prepack them ready to go.
Will men be able to get beards trimmed (especially if they are wearing masks)? We don’t offer beard cuts in our salon.
Will juniors still be able to help? Yes, juniors will be working on shifts, they pay an integral part in assisting our stylists and also will help us in the smooth transition, allowing time to clean thoroughly in between the next slots.
Are prices going to go up? Yes, we will have adjusted our prices in order to ensure we make provisions for the PPE all the staff are going to wear and equally, the cleaning products we’ll need to use
