[UPDATED]: salons and mobile beauty businesses in Wales to reopen April 12

UPDATE: The Welsh Government has confirmed today (April 1) that beauty businesses can definitely reopen their doors on April 12 and that this includes salons and mobile therapists.

First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed the news in a live Welsh Government update and you can read his full statement here. Drakeford also stated that financial support for businesses will not be interrupted and will continue throughout April.

The Welsh Government had last updated its guidance for the sector on March 12, but the NHBF has stated on its Instagram page that the guidelines will be updated again soon to include more details about how businesses should be operating. 

The NHBF is also seeking clarification on: if there will be any restrictions on the types of services and treatments that can be offered, and if mobile will only be allowed (as applies now) if someone "cannot physically leave their home or leaving their home will have a detrimental effect on their wellbeing".

Why did haidressers and barbers reopen in Wales before beauty businesses?

Hair and barbering services reopened in Wales on March 15, just under a month before beauty is scheduled to. 

When asked why hair salons were being allowed to reopen but beauty was not, Mark Drakeford told Wales Online, "We are...trying to follow the pattern as we did last year because that pattern was successful. This is exactly what we did last year, we opened hairdressers and barbers first and then had a couple of weeks to make sure that that was going well and we were not seeing the virus back in circulation. Then other close contact services will able to resume from the 12th of April providing these first steps go well."

Commenting on this decision at the time, Richard Lambert, chief executive of the NHBF, said “We are baffled by the decision to phase the reopening of our whole sector.  There seems to be no clear explanation or evidence for delaying the beauty sector reopening. It’s like allowing bookshops to re-open but keeping the non-fiction section closed.”

“These businesses are literally on the brink.  We know that financial support from the Welsh Government, whilst welcome, is just not meeting the fixed costs businesses have going out each month. We have lost 10% of the industry already, with more to follow unless we can get doors open and money coming in. If the Welsh Government is adamant that this is not yet possible, then they must ensure that financial support gets through to these businesses in dire need before more go under.”

Are salons in the rest of the UK open?

• Beauty salons in Scotland could reopen April 26
• Salons and spas in England to reopen April 12 earliest under Government roadmap

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