Sleaford area people can’t wait to get a haircut on Monday as covid lockdown eases

After Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the final go-ahead last week, local business bosses have been busying away taking bookings, cleaning, tidying and making finishing touches to refurbishments to make sure they are prepared for the return of customers.

We did a Twitter poll of which aspect of the easing in lockdown restrictions Sleaford area people were most looking forward to and discovered that getting a haircut come top of the list with 40 per cent of the vote.

A close second with 35 per cent was visiting your favourite pubs and restaurants.

Third was getting back to going shopping for non-essential items (20 per cent) and amazingly only five per cent of people longed to get baack to the gym.

Sophie Hare, who runs Hare and Beauty salons in Ruskington and Heckington was very excited to get back in business.

She said she has been busy checking all stock and buying new stock, booking people in and making sure all staff uniforms fit.

“I’m excited about reopening,” she said. “It’s so mind numbing being off work and to have conversations with people again will be great.”

Sophie said: “So many clients have said how excited they are to come and have their treatments again and how they have been waiting for us to call.

“We are very busy when we return which is great because being shut for so long has a financial impact - so although we love the job and our clients, this is our income and what we need.”

Over the last year she has lost thousands of pounds in revenue and had to let some staff go.

“It also gives us a feeling of purpose again and getting back into a routine will be great.”

She added: “We aren’t looking forward to any lockdown DIY disasters, but hopefully nothing that can’t be fixed!”

Becky Arumugam owner of Little Hair Beautique salon on Handley Street in town said: “I’m so excited to reopen.2

In preparation they have been making sure everywhere is clean and covid-complaint, restocking shelves and they have rearranged the reception area to cater for social distancing.

She said: “We are fully booked until the end of June - our ladies and gentlemen have been amazing and understanding through this whole lockdown process and they are super excited to get their lockdown locks trimmed.

“I want to thank the local council for being amazing throughout this whole process - they have been really supportive.”

Richard Burke owns Burke and Hair barbershop in Money’s Yard in Sleaford and runs it with Gemma Wood and Matt Wetherill.

He said: “We are really stoked up and excited about re-opening.

“I have been spending lots of the lockdown time in redecorating the barber shop.

“I opened my books about three weeks ago offering potential bookings should we be allowed to re-open on April 12 and we are fully booked for the first two weeks and the third week is about half full,” said Richard.

“While in the shop many of our customers come by and say how they are looking forward to getting their hair cut.”

He has been making sure he has all the covid safe precautions: “We have a fresh stock of PPE and we operate on a booking system that we carried over from the last lockdown which means we don’t have people waiting, so you turn up get your haircut and leave with little to no interaction with anyone other than your barber. So we are working very hard on Keeping our customers and staff members as safe as possible.”

Another of the town’s barbers says it has been a rollercoaster of emotions building up to this point of reopening.

Bernie White runs Jimmy Baker’s Barber Shop, off Southgate, along with fellow barber Grace Shepherd.

He admits: “I’m optimistic that hopefully we have survived what I am hoping to be the last lockdown. I’m very nervous about going back as it’s been so long now since I have worked and cut hair so hopefully it won’t take long to get back in the swing of things!”

He said they are very busy: “We are fully booked up for the rest of this month - that’s without the late night appointments which is fantastic, but because everyone who is in desperate need of a cut will be coming in at the same time we might have quiet spells once all the regulars have been done, but hopefully we will get a consistent pattern of business flow again in the following months and things get back to normal.”

Bernie is particularly glad to be able to socialise again and see everyone, but regretted that with the government guidelines in place, it may not be the same atmosphere in the shop. “We can’t have people coming and waiting and sitting around like we did before because we have to protect ourselves and others and do so consistently - no room for error, without fail which is why we are taking bookings instead of walk-ins now, so it will all be very clinical.

“Me and Grace look like we are performing major surgery in all our PPE let alone cutting hair!”

Bernie was also loking forward to tackling some of the home haircuts and styles again. He said: “I remember last time there was some cuts I would look at and be thinking I couldn’t recreate that if I tried! The gents always blame their partners as well, I’ve noticed!”

Due to the vaccine roll out not being in place until this year, they noticed prior to lockdown older customers had stopped coming in, to protect themselves from the virus, so they are hopeful to see some return.

Bernie said: “Sleaford is a lovely little town so I’m hoping we all pull together in the community and rally round and support each other, especially amongst the small businesses we that all took a massive hit.

“There have been a lot of dark days - I’m not just talking financially, but mentally too. For me personally it’s not all been about loss, I’ve in some aspects of my life gained a new outlook on life and a little personal growth and realisation of the things that really do matter that I took for granted, I’m sure like so many others, so there has been some positives in all this.”

Despite comments about the number of barbers and hairdressers in the town, he was confident there is plenty of business for everyone. “I hope we all stand together and build each other up when we return.”