Salon Owner Calls For Improved Communication

The owner of a Jersey hair salon says it's 'so disheartening' to finding out government decisions about her industry from social media.

It was revealed on Tuesday 26 January that non-essential shops and indoor recreation wouldn't be able to reopen the following day as planned, because of a Covid cluster in the retail supply chain.

The reopening has been delayed by at least a week.

It means that close contact services such as hair salon, that were due to reopen on 3 February, can't now reopen until at least 10 February.

Anita Brown from Bonita Hair and Beauty says the news came as a huge shock.

"I'm on a social media forum and I actually thought it was a joke. I actually went 'is this a joke?' Obviously it came back saying no, it's actually for real.

"I was so disappointed that time and time again, we have to find out what is happening through Facebook or just a client messaging me, saying have you heard you're not opening?"

Bonita Hair and Beauty closed down just before Christmas amid the spike in coronavirus cases.

But the hope of reopening within days was dashed after the government was made aware of the cluster of cases - which the Health Minister said was down to the 'poor behaviour' of a small group of workers.

Anita has called for improved communication about when she can reopen. More news on this supply chain cluster is due tomorrow (29 January).

She says even when they reopened last summer, they had no guidance and instead took the recommendations from the UK National Hairdressers Association.

"There was no guidance of what we're to do when we open. It was a wing and a prayer, but fortunately we had the health and safety chap come round and he was really pleased with our efforts.

"But I said we have literally done this ourselves, we were not told what to do.

"So a lot of it is really bad communication, especially with a close contact industry like us."