NHBF has today published an open letter sent today to the Rt. Hon Alok Sharma MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, stressing the urgent need for the Government to publish formal guidance regarding close proximity services, which includes hair and beauty salons and barbershops.

The letter can be read in full below:

Dear Alok

I am writing to stress the urgent need for the Government to publish formal guidance regarding close proximity services.

As you will know from our previous meetings and ongoing discussions with your department, the National Hair & Beauty Federation has been proactive in communicating the Government’s latest advice and information to our members and the wider industry.

We have also been a significant contributor to the draft guidelines on ‘Working Safely Guidance – Close Contact Services including Hair and Beauty’. As well as attending a round table meeting with you on 22 May, we have provided continued technical advice to BEIS officials. We put forward a representative selection of salons, barbershops, beauty salons and freelancers to comment on the first draft of the guidelines which were published late on Friday 5 June. With a deadline of 5pm on Monday 8 June, many people from across the industry willingly gave up time to meet the government’s timetable and support these important developments understanding the urgent need to publish guidance. Despite a real sense of progress, we have heard nothing since.

There is growing frustration at the continued delay in publishing these guidelines, preventing hair salons, beauty salons and barbershops from being able to fully prepare their businesses, staff and clients for reopening.

We have written to you previously about urgent need for guidance on PPE in particular. Salons and barbershops have been unable to trade for months, so if they are to make a financial investment in PPE, they need to be confident that they are buying the right materials and they need sufficient time to source supplies.

We understand the latest advice is that these services will not re-open until 4 July at the earliest but businesses need adequate time – ideally two weeks – to redesign their premises, train staff, ensure they have suitable PPE, communicate with clients regarding operational changes, implement adequate hygiene standards, and come to terms with the changes necessary to ensure the safety of themselves and their clients.

We therefore urge you to publish the guidance without any further delay. We are available to provide any support necessary in order to ensure this outcome.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Hall
Chief Executive

National Hair & Beauty Federation

Partnering with the NHS and South West Mental Health Clinical Network, BarberTalk are offering a new virtual training session to barbers and hairdressers for free.

The bespoke online training course, called BarberTalk Online, is designed to assist hair professionals before they return to work, giving them the skills to help their clients when in need.

This in-depth session builds on the four pillars of training to equip you with the skills to help your clients to better mental wellbeing.

BarberTalk Online training will:

• Give you the tools to RECOGNISE mental health issues in your clients
• Equip you to be able to ASK direct questions about the emotional wellbeing of your clients
• Refine your LISTENING skills to be present at a critical moment for your client
• Provide you with the resources to HELP your client find support

This is a four hour course where you will learn directly from Tom Chapman and his team of ambassadors, dive into the topics of mental health, share how it impacts you and your job, and learn how you can support your clients.

The course is FREE for a limited time only, with classes running from the 22nd June to the 2nd July.

To sign up to a class, click here.

Schedulicity continues to support the hair and beauty industries with its #SchedulicityCares grants after updating the way the program works in order to support as many people as possible during this global pandemic.

After launching on April 1, the team have been giving away a $500 grant every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with any Schedulicity business can apply.

This week’s winners included JuKenya and Kela from RSOG Salon, who blessed her client, who is an essential worker and is on the front lines. The next recipient was About Face Skin Care, who gave back by making meals for families with children that live in local motels. The third and final recipient was Ashley of Holy Hands Massage. Even though she was closed, she was sharing self-massage tips to help you sooth your body as well as stretch.

Keen to continue to share advice and information with their customers, Schedulicity will be holding another Town Hall on Thursday June 18 at 9pm EST/6pm PST, with Lee Resnick leading a panel made up of some of the biggest names in barbering including Marcus Harvey, Mari de Monte, Alan Lipman, Brittany Fitapelli and more. Sign up to join the town hall here.

To find out more about #SchedulicityCares or to apply for the grant yourself, click here.

After a long meeting with the State of Connecticut, CT Barber Expo founder Jay Majors has made the decision to push the date of the 2020 show to October 10-12.

The floorplan is behind updated for vendors to allow social distancing, there will be sanitation stations spread throughout the facility and have made the decision to use two rooms rather than one in order to space out the entire event, as well as minimizing the amount of competitors on the stage – giving those that compete an even better opportunity to possibly win a trophy or a Rolex.

On Saturday, October 10th, the annual Barber Grammy Awards will take place at the Ballroom of the Connecticut Convention Center, then across Sunday 11th and Monday 12th, there will be range of education seminars as well as the Barber Battle & Expo.

For more information, visit www.ctbarberexpo.com

BarberEVO is thrilled to report that Adam Sloan will be Chairing the Hairdressing Industry Advisory Board as well as the Barbering from June 2020.

Adam has been in the Hair Industry for 42 years now, specialising in Hairdressing and Barbering, and based on the passion he has shown during his recent appearances on #EVOLive, we know his love for the industry remains constant.

As well as founding the Men’s Hairdressing Federation, Adam works closely with City and Guilds on many lovels and states that “education is the past, present and future of our industry.” Adam added that he is “deeply honored to be asked to Chair City and Guilds Hairdressing Industry Advisory Board as well as the City & Guilds Barbering Industry Advisory Board.”

We have no doubt that he will do great things in his new role and wish him the very best of luck and a massive congratulations.

The NHBF has teamped up with organisations representing the hospitality, leisure and retail industry to put pressure on the Government to raise the threshold for support for businesses facing hardship due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

The #raisethebar campaign is pushing for the £25,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant to be made available to all businesses with a business rates value of up to £150,000. This would help many salons and barbershops in cities with higher business rates to deal with cash flow challenges, such as rents, that wage subsidies do not address. Currently, the £25,000 grant is only open to salons and barbershops with a rateable value of up to £51,000.

Ian Egerton, President of the National Hair & Beauty Federation and owner of The Stress Exchange in London and said, “By ignoring businesses such as mine with business rates just over the £51,000 threshold, the Government is storing up trouble to come. Not only am I not entitled to any financial grants, I also have no income at all, yet quarterly rents are still expected to be paid at the end of this month. This is not sustainable. A VAT delay does not help as ultimately the money still has to be paid back. I do not expect the government to fund failing businesses, however with no means of income and outgoings still expected, they urgently need a common sense approach to fairness.”

Hilary Hall, Chief Executive of NHBF added, “The government support has been focussed on small and micro businesses which has benefited many of our Members. But this campaign work is essential for our larger Members who have received little or no government support and rightly feel that they’ve fallen through the cracks. We hope that working together with other organisations as part of the #raisethebar campaign will increase our voice and help get these businesses the support they need to ensure their longer term survival.”

When CEO and founder Jerry Nettuno and his team first heard about COVID-19 and as Safer at Home initiatives began to expand from one state to another, Schedulicity made the decision to waive all of their fees until July 1.

As time progressed and some barbershops and salons began to reopen, it became clear that the deadline was perhaps too soon for many of their clients. With that in mind, as of June 1, they have extended their waived fees for all businesses, including current, new and returning, until August 1. Any business can use the Schedulicity platform for free until August 1.

To find out more, or to sign up for Schedulicity, click here: https://bit.ly/2MrrTQ4

To help embed best practices and assist building the confidence of learners and their clients on how to return work safely, VTCT is releasing six new Infection Prevention qualifications for the hair, barbering, beauty, nail and sports industries, which will become a pre-requisite on all VTCT and ITEC qualifications from the 1st of August 2020.

The first qualification, which will be available for registration from Wednesday 10th June, will be Infection Prevention for Hairdressing and Barbering Services.

The VTCT have used information and materials from the World Health Organisation, national authorities in the UK and around the world, as well as learning from the experiences of those in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, who have been able to safely re-open barbershops and salons.

The qualification will allow learners to develop knowledge on the causes, transmissions and effects of COVID-19, the importance of social responsibility and the methods used to control transmission, such as correct hand hygiene and the use of PPE. They will also gain an understanding of the safe working practices required to protect themselves and their clients.

VTCT’s Chief Executive, Alan Woods OBE, said: “We take our responsiblity to the sector very seriously and are looking to help engender our centres, learners and their clients with the confidence that as things open up, their safety will remain paramount.”

For more information, click here: https://bit.ly/2MoKyvV

America’s Beauty Show by Cosmetologists Chicago has announced the winners of the 2020 ABS Global Image Awards! The awards recognize hairdressing talent on an international level and celebrates the passion and artistry of professional and emerging stylists in a photo competition.

There are seven professional categories along with two student categories, with this year’s competition including participants from across the globe.
“The Global Image Awards is truly a fresh, attainable award that brings together hairdressers from around the world,” says  Karen Gordon, president of Cosmetologists Chicago.

“Thank you to all who entered and a big congratulations to this year’s winners for submitting remarkable collections.” The winners of each category will receive recognition at next year’s ABS, receive a trophy from Cosmetologists Chicago and have their images featured on americasbeautyshow.com.

Take a look at the winners of each category below…
AVANT GARDE:  Eli Mancha, Bang! Salon, Chicago, IL
AVANT GARDE SCHOOL TEAM:  Stephanie Gorman & Carl Belfiore, Brown Aveda Institute, Euclid, OH
COLORAMERICA® COLORIST OF THE YEAR:  Chrystofer Benson​, Chrystofer Benson Salon, South Weber, UT
HAIRCUTTING:  Chris Baran, Fountain Hills, AZ
MEN’S HAIRCUTTING:  Alazne Gonzalez, Bilbao, Spain
SALON TEAM:  The Salon by Instyle Design Team, Plano, TX, featuring Rachel Cordasco, Darcy Falls, Kellie Ferraro, Jaimee Harris Smith, Brendnetta Ashley, Miguelina Mejia & Amberle Kerskstra STUDENT CHAMPION:  Brennen Richardson, Eric Fisher Academy, Wichita, KS
TEXTURE:  Charlie Price, Underground Studios, Denver, CO
EDITORIAL:  Ammon Carver, Bolingbrook, IL  

In addition to each category winner,  Chris Baran, Fountain Hills, AZ received the  Leo Passage Gold Trophy in honor of the late Pivot Point founder and Cosmetologists Chicago member. The award is given to the competitor with the highest cumulative scores. Find out more about the awards and see the winning collections at www.americasbeautyshow.com

The NHBF has welcomed the latest announcement from the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on Friday, 30th May, providing more details on the next phase of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Throughout June and July, the government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500 as well as employer National Insurance Contributions and pension contributions for the hours the employee doesn’t work.

From July 1, employers can bring furloughed staff back on a part-time basis, provided they pay the wages for the hours the employee works. Employers will still be able to claim under the scheme for the hours not worked.

In August, although the government will continue to pay 80% of wages up to £2,500, employers will be required to pay National Insurance and pension contributions for the hours the employee does not work. In September and moving on to October, the government payment will drop to 70%, and then on to 60% for the hours employees do not work. Employers will need to make up the amount to 80% during these months and pay National Insurance and pension contributions for the hours the employee does not work.

The scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June 2020. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full three-week period before 30 June 2020. This means that the final date by which an employer can furlough an employee for the first time will be 10 June 2020.

Self-employed individuals will be able to claim a second and final grant when applications open in August 2020. The grant will be worth 70% of the individual’s average monthly trading profits and will be paid in a single instalment capped at £6,570 total.

The first grant was worth 80 per cent of the individual’s average monthly trading profits up to a maximum of £7,500. Applications for this grant closes on 13 July 2020.

Hilary Hall, NHBF chief executive commented ”The NHBF has been speaking continuously with relevant government departments to ensure financial support for all those in the industry, whether business owners, employees or self-employed to make sure it does not peter out before we have had a chance to re-open and return to full trading.

“Our sector will particularly benefit from being able to return people to work flexibly with the furlough scheme, bearing in mind salon capacity if client numbers are reduced to ensure safety and the need for childcare arrangements due to schools not fully reopening. Employers can start working out their staffing rotas and begin having these conversations ready for when the government says it is safe for hair salons, beauty salons and barbershops to re-open.”

Keep up to date with the NHBF here: www.nhbf.co.uk/coronavirus