As of today, 15^th of March, hair and barbering services can resume practicing throughout Wales. Hairdressers and barbershops have been allowed to reopen strictly on an appointment basis, and only for ‘services that relate to cutting or treating hair on the head.’ Other barbering services such as shaving, waxing, threading etc, are still restricted as they fall under the ‘high risk zone.’ Other beauty services are projected to not reopen until the 12^th of April.

Mobile services can also resume from Monday 15 March, but only if there is not a ‘reasonable practical alternative to a home appointment,’ such as if the client is unable to physically leave their home, or if leaving their home might have significant detrimental effect on the wellbeing of the client.

Hairdressers/barbers also must wear a Type II mask and face visor for the entire time they are in a client’s home, and salons and barbershops must comply with Coronavirus Regulations set, such as maintaining physical distancing when possible, and using PPE properly and consistently.

For more information see the Welsh Government Guidelines for Hairdressing  and Barbering

The First Minister for Wales, Mark Drakeford, has today announced that hair and barbering businesses, including mobile, will reopen from Monday 15 March. The decision means that beauty businesses (that is close contact services, which includes nail salons and eyebrow bars) must remain closed until 12^th April, in line with England’s re-opening of non-essential businesses. The current measures are reviewed in three weeks’ time.

While pleased that those in hair and barbering can begin trading again from Monday, the NHBF is deeply disappointed with the Welsh Government’s decision to stagger the reopening of the sector without providing any scientific evidence to support the move.

The NHBF has stressed the damage that such a move will do to public confidence in the beauty sector and is continuing to make the case for the whole personal care sector to be reopened as soon as possible.

• What Welsh hair and barber businesses need to know:
• Services that relate to cutting or treating hair on the head can be provided. 
• Trimming or shaving facial hair (for example beards, moustaches or eyebrows) is not permitted. 
• ALL other close contact services will remain closed in Wales until further notice. 
• Staff should wear a Type II mask and a clear visor that covers the forehead, extends below the chin and wraps around the face.  
• The mask and visor are in addition to the PPE you normally wear when carrying out treatments, for example gloves or aprons.  The government guidelines also state that the most effective methods of preventing transmission of the virus are still social distancing and regular handwashing.  
• All hair and barbering businesses in Wales, whether premises based or mobile, must operate on a strict appointment-only basis. The guidance for Wales states that you should ask clients for each client’s contact details on the day of their appointment to help with the government’s ‘Test, Trace, Protect’ service. 

Financial Support

• The business rates holiday has been extended for the rest of the financial year.
• Personal care businesses that pay business rates and have to remain closed will be able to claim for a third grant of between £4-5,000.
• Those who have previously received a grant from the Business Restrictions Fund will receive the payment in March.
• Any business which has not previously claimed can register with their local authority from Monday 15 March until 5.00pm on 31 March.

The NHBF is pushing for further financial support for businesses which remain closed, those who either will face a significant shortfall or for whom it is not financially viable to reopen if they cannot offer full services.

Richard Lambert, NHBF Chief Executive said “The fact that hair salons and barbershops, as well as mobile stylists, can get back to work is good news, but 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 re-opening.  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 ten per cent 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.”

The NHBF is pushing for further financial support for businesses which either will face a significant shortfall or for whom it is not financially viable to reopen if they cannot offer full services.

Hair and barbering businesses must follow the Welsh Government’s updated guidance which is available at https://gov.wales/covid-19-alert-levels and as previously, are legally required to carry out a COVID-19 risk assessment.

More information on the latest announcement can be found via the NHBF Coronavirus Hub at www.nhbf.co.uk/coronavirus.

The Hair and Barber Council have just announced the following regarding their collaboration with Salon Owners United:

The Hair & Barber Council (HBC) together with Salon Owners United (SOU) are forming a collaboration to further strengthen and amplify the voice of Hair Professionals and Barber Professionals throughout the United Kingdom.

As the ONLY Statutory Authority for the sector, campaigning amongst other things for mandatory registration of the industry, the Hair & Barber Council continues it’s work with industry and the Government representing it’s 10,500 registered members, Associate and Corporate members, and together with Salon Owners United 5,500 members, will work closely together to ensure the voice of our sector is heard.

Keith Conniford, Registrar and CEO of the Hair & Barber Council said: “We are delighted to be working closely with Collette Osborne and the members of Salon Owners United who share the same passion and mission to ensure our sector attains the professional status it both needs and deserves. We greatly admire Collette’s huge commitment and energy she has for our industry, together with the knowledge and experience she brings, together with her members, to this collaboration.

“Based upon mutual aims and trust, with no agenda other than the betterment of our great industry, our joint aim is this collaboration will grow and become more formal in the months to come. Our industry has been hugely impacted by Coronavirus, and never before has the industry needed a more united voice for Hair Professionals and Barber Professionals!”

Collette Osborne of Salon Owners United said: “If the pandemic has done anything it has exposed the fault lines and weaknesses in our industry, so I believe if we are to recover stronger, we need to have one collective voice, which we can use to invoke the change much needed to provide us with a sustainable future.

“The Hair & Barber Council and Keith Conniford have been a tower of strength to Salon Owners United throughout this crisis being my one trusted source of support and guidance for our members when they needed it most for which I will be forever grateful.

“I am delighted to be working alongside Keith Conniford for whom I have the utmost respect both personally and professionally and through our collaboration I can honestly say we will work tirelessly for the hair and barbering industry just as Keith has done for many years.”

The Hair and Barber Councils strapline is ‘Shaping the Future Together’

Together we are stronger – One mission – One voice!

AT LAST, THERE IS A GLIMMER OF LIGHT ON THE HORIZON. SHAKING AWAY THOSE WINTER BLUES, WE ARE LOOKING INTO THIS SPRING WITH OPTIMISM AND ENTHUSIASM AND ARE CONTINUALLY INSPIRED BY THE TALENT AND PERSEVERANCE WITHIN THE INDUSTRY. 

Allan Stone

We would also like to mark the passing of our dear friend, and industry legend, Allan Stone of Stoney’s Barbershop in South Shields. A grand master barber, an educator, and one of the soundest lads in the industry. You will be greatly missed Stoney. 

This issue features a touching tribute to Allan Stone by Vikki Harrison-Smith, remembering Stoney, his victories, and all the joy he brought to the industry. 

Events

We are delighted to showcase Wahl Barber of the Year: Kilian Maddison, this issue. We caught up with Kilian about what winning the title meant to him, how he has been coping with lockdown this year, and what is next on the bucket list. 

We are also looking forward to some of this year’s events such as BarbersRide 2021, which will take place this in August, raising funds for Make-A-Wish foundation. These crazy barbers will be hopping on their motorbikes for a road trip of a lifetime: from Liverpool to Fort William, and back down to Leeds, visiting incredible barbershops along the way. 

We are also looking forward to this year’s Barber Connect. We spoke to Matt Brice from Barber Blades, and organiser of Barber Connect – who has had a year to think about the future for the UK’s largest barber event, after last year’s event was cancelled due to the current pandemic. We speak to him about the chances of the show going ahead this year.

Interiors

We spoke to owners of what we think are some of the UK’s most aesthetically impressive barbershops, such as Alternative Barbering Co, Kitch Hair, Tallboys, and Avanzato Grooming. In this segment, we talk inspiration, design, ergonomics, practicality, and even, ‘instagramability.’ Learn how to create a space that not only draws clients in but makes them want to stay forever—or at least come back, time and time again. 

Speaking of design and ergonomics, we also celebrate Takara Belmont’s centenary in this issue, and their one hundred years of comfort, style and evolution. 

Apprenticeships

We were lucky enough to catch up with Jody Taylor, highly acclaimed session stylist and BaByliss ambassador, to hear about how he found his way into the industry. With Jody, we talked about apprenticeships and how he went from making ups of tea at Toni & Guy, to working with some of the world’s best hairdressers, fashion designers and magazines. Jody also offers advice for those just looking to get started in the industry.  

We also chat with Robert Rix and Paddy Hunter, to hear their two-cents about apprenticeships, building skills of the trade, and their personal experience with apprenticeships. 

Enjoy the read, as always, we’ve enjoyed pulling the issue together and we hope you enjoy it too. 

You can purchase a hard copy here.

Boris Johnson’s Road Map to announced yesterday suggests salons and barbershops may be able to return after April 12^th, 2021.

In Step 2, which is projected to start on 12^th of April, hairdressers and other personal care will be allowed to reopen, as well as non-essential retail, and outdoor dining and pubs.

The second step will also allow weddings to increase in size to up to 15 people.

The government suggests that as of May 17, indoor searing can resume in pubs and restaurants, indoor entertainment such as cinemas and theatres can resume, and weddings will be able to include up to 30 people.

Johnson’s 4^th step suggests a return to complete normality as of June 21.

For Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has just announced that salons and barbershops to be allowed to reopen on April 26th.

A specific date for Wales to reopen salons and barbershops is yet to be announced.

This means, however, salons and barbershops in England and Scotland may be able to hesitantly begin their plan to reopen and get their schedules in order, so the public has time to get their lockdown hair sorted before pubs reopen.

On Monday, Phorest UK successfully held their live stream event, Uplift! After some technical issues on their first attempt on January 25^th, The Uplift! event came back bigger and stronger for its rescheduled date of Monday February 8^th. Along with motivational and uplifting presentations from guest speakers such as Chancellor of the British Fellowship of Hair and mindfulness leader, Ashley Hodges, and Royal Marine Jason Fox with an inspiring speech about resilience, Phorest professionals shared many inspiring stories as well as tips and tricks to persevere through the pandemic.

The day started with an introduction by Ronan Perceval, CEO of Phorest, introducing the speakers, presentations, and prizes. The prizes that were offered this year included an Apple Watch, an iPad, and a one-year subscription to Headspace App for mindfulness.

Chief Technology Officer at Phorest John Doran, and Head of Product, Evelyn Balfe, then presented on How 2020 Changed Our World. John and Evelyn shared stories from several salon owners and hairdressers throughout UK and Ireland, and how they coped and adapted through Covid with the help of some of the features Phorest Booking and Management Apps have to offer. They also included videos from Phorest users from all over the world, talking about their concerns throughout Covid, and some of the ways Phorest had been able to help.

“Phorest was the first of our suppliers who contacted us and told us, that we didn’t have to stress about the invoicing. They would spread our payments, and take the pressure off us. Phorest were definitely leading the way.” – Gerri Dangerfield Keane, UK.

The next presentation was offered by Head of Product Marketing and Retention Rob Hewitt, and Aisling Scolard, Product Manager. Rob and Aisling’s presentation focusing on marketing, what that means for salons in 2021, and some helpful tips and advice on how to make marketing work for you this year. According to Rob, “Marketing starts with clear, strategic goals, if you want proper results.” In this session, Rob and Aisling discussed all the challenges of the last year, the impact on consumer habits, and what are some ways we can adapt to consumer demands. One change that is certain is the shift to digital. Rob and Aisling offered several solutions to make sure that salons are able to effectively reach their clients online, through Phorest features like: Email Marketing Editor, SMS Marketing Editor, and Client Reconnect.

Next, the Feature Reveal was presented by Richard Cullen, Senior Product Designer, and Verna Wall product researcher, with the topic: Resilience, Motivation, and the Team Effort. Through the data system that Phorest has access to, they were able to compile a list of trends and patterns that successful salons all have in common. There are many misconceptions about what drives success, such as being located on the high street, being expensive, and having a massive team. But Phorest analytics found that these are not always indicative of success. Instead, what they found every successful salon to have was an educated and focused team. The rest of their presentation shared tips on how to motivate staff, how to help them be self-reliant, and to monitor personal and shop goals through the My Performance tool in the Phorest Go app. This tools monitors staff performance, and increases awareness, and helps to avoid awkward one-to-one meetings. This is a free tool and will be available from next week on.

The next presentation was given by guest speaker Ashleigh Hodges, who began her presentation with a group meditation to promote mindfulness. Ashleigh Hodges offered some advice on wellbeing, and how to juggle busy lives. Ashleigh’s presentation encouraged listeners to allow themselves and their staff time to look inward, take care of themselves, and recharge, before they to spring into action to help everyone else, as they are used to doing. During Covid, Ashleigh explained, “we have all had time to think about what is important to us, and clients have had time to realise how important we are to them.” Ashleigh’s advice to listeners is: learn to say no, set boundaries, and treat your wellbeing as just as important as your clients.

The next session was presented by Niamh Greaney, Head of Adoption & Client Education, who educated attendees on how to evaluate and improve your own online health, to ensure businesses are reaching their clients to the best of their abilities. Phorest have created an online calculator to assess your online health, in terms of online marketing, social media, online reputation, and your salon website. This tool is available on Phorest’s platform and online. Niamh encourages owners to check their score, create a strategy, and revisit the calculator, until they are happy with their online health.

Finally, the last presenter of the day, Jason Fox spoke to the audience about resilience and mental health, and his experience in Afghanistan as a Special Forces Officer. Fox shared an inspiring story of how he dealt with a hostage rescue mission in Afghanistan. Fox shared with the attendees his personal ethos of:  courage, determination, unselfishness, and cheerfulness in the face of adversity, and it is these four qualities that have helped him get through traumatic experiences, and will help others face day-to-day struggles throughout their lives, such as getting through this pandemic.

Overall, the day with at Phorest’s Uplift shared inspiring stories of perseverance, adaptability, and determination from salon owners, public speakers, as well as Phorest professionals. Phorest also shared many tips and tools that their software platforms offer to help salons throughout the pandemic, and into the tech-based future.

To learn more, go to https://bit.ly/2MQ8ts5

British Master Barbers, the alliance created to help qualified and highly skilled barbers across the UK showcase their talent, has selected and announced their finalists for the 2020 Barber of the Year award. There were 118 entrants, whittled down to a final 10 – and the judges will have a very difficult decision to make!

The finalists are: Allan Stone, Baldy, Corneliu Crihan, David Logue, Grant Hackett, Lee Dixon, Mercedes Paginton, Paul Mac, Sarrelle McCann and Shaun Buckingham.

We wish every finalist the very bets of luck for this prestigious competition!

In what was an fiercely competitive competition, for both Wahl British Barber and Wahl British Barbershop of the Year, the two winners were announced live on Instagram at 4pm on Thursday 26th November.

Owner of Amigos Barbers, Kilian Maddison took home the Wahl British Barber of the Year 2020 crown, holding off the challenge from such industry icons like Luka Chitty, Kyle Rowland, Dale Hince, Guray Kesman and Shaun Buckingham.

The Wahl British Barbershop of the Year 2020 award was also fiercely contested, with brilliant entries from Ruffians (2x former winners), Avanzato Grooming Lounge, Biberian Gray, Cutters Yard and RW Wolf. But the legendary Andy’s Barbers Bicester took home the gold!

In what was a first for the competition, the winners were announced LIVE on Instagram (allowing for the present restrictions of course) – and both Kilian and Andy were able to join host Simon Shaw and discuss their incredible victories.

Congratulations to the winners from all at BarberEVO!

Just two weeks after launching the first business in the Art.Quarter complex, Art.Barbers have had to close its doors until December 2nd following the government’s latest lockdown measures.

After putting years of work into creating not only an iconic venue for Birmingham but the whole of the UK, Jordan Patel opens up raw and uncut in his latest video update, sharing his true worries and fears about the impact Lockdown 2.0 is going to have on his brand.

This video captures the true, intense, and raw feelings of Patel as he transparently discusses his next steps to the Art.Quarter build and how his faith and positivity is his coping mechanism during these unpredictable and testing times.

Art.Quarter is set to become a UK tourist destination as well as a true icon for Birmingham. Promising a safe place for all communities and encouraging creatives, Jordan is building this unique venue to create unity and equality in a city that he feels, still very much suffers from segmentation with backgrounds and religions.

The latest vlog can be viewed below.

Set to launch Spring 2021, the Art.Quarter will be first of it’s kind.

Please visit: https://www.artquarteruk.co.uk for more details.

Do you wake up in the morning with the pile of messages on various social media and manually cope with your appointments armed with a pencil and notebook? Or you already using one of the digital booking and salon management providers, yet want to come out of the provider’s shadow and grow your brand instead of the aggregator provider’s one? Barberly has stepped up their game to help barbershops grow their client audience through convenient digital tools.

“We are a Swiss software company with a focus on bringing digital value to barbers all over the world. It seemed like a half-baked concept that just might have legs, I thought one day. Now Babrberly onboards 600+ barbershops, 70K bookings for a total value of USD15 Mio. My team and I personally appreciate each barber/ barbershop owner for entrusting Barberly to give a wing to their flight to success.” – Andrew Gubal, Barberly founder and CEO.

• Reach out to every potential client: User-friendly intuitive tools like a personalized mobile application on App Store and Google Play, that simplifies bookings for your clients, promotes positive brand image and even makes you a trendsetter for the peers – stand out from the crowd with the bright mobile app design and own logo, present your team in creative photos, upload lookbooks of best works, visualise and describe your services with photos, and many more ways to customise your mobile application. To reach and engage new clients for your business through a QR poster so that passers-by can book-in in a few clicks.
  
• Cement clients’ loyalty: Show that you care and save time for your clients. Go digital and easily reachable – Mobile app, website, fast booking page on social media, booking Self check-in kiosks, QR posters. Manage the client database with the client LogIn functionality, add notes, client’s favourite services, send confirmations/notifications, newsletters. Launch the loyalty program, further manage bonuses. Enable secured payments. Sell client favourite products online. Propose a waiting list or house/hotel calls (e.g. wedding grooming).
  
• Simple and efficient management of your daily business routine. Barberly web portal is the main management tool for setting your barbershop up and running and making changes needed – add and modify services, barbers, working schedules, start your mobile app or redesign it, set the cancellation policies to get a refund for no-show, activate payments and many more. Also, book your clients on the go with the Barberly business mobile app – a handy way for owners and barbers to manage the appointments.

Being there to support you with prompt customer service, building reliable software, praising customer feedback and building on the criticism are the three pillars that Barberly Team leans on.

“Great appointment app. Was really worried about going to appointments! This appointment app makes it so easy to set up and use. The customer service was great and very patient with me! Well done! Just go for it!!” – Dave S., salon owner

“1947 loves Barberly! I absolutely think this is the best platform on the market. The team and the application itself is amazing! I’ve received nothing but great feedback from our mobile app! This platform is extremely user friendly and the team is super responsive, which makes the overall experience exceptional!” – Terrance M., salon owner

Visit Barberly’s website for more product details, and find out how to become a partner. Follow @BarberlyCom on Instagram and stay tuned for more great features to follow.