The international beauty major collaborated with the National Hair and Beauty Federation and British Beauty Council on its ‘Back to Business’ guide that will be distributed via its L'Oréal Access e-learning platform to its 25,000-strong salon network ahead of confinement restrictions being lifted. The support guide includes post-lockdown advice around ensuring the safety and wellbeing of employees and customers; safer operating procedures; how to best organise bookings and payments; and advice on hand cleansing and tool disinfecting.
Supporting the ‘single largest contributor’ to British beauty
Beatrice Dautzenberg, MD of L’Oréal Professional Products Division, said the coronavirus crisis had been “a challenging period for everyone” and so it was important hair salons could get back to business safely, once lockdowns and trading restrictions were lifted.
“The past few months have provided us with even greater awareness of the importance of our hairdressers and the demand from consumers for hair salons reopening is high,” Dautzenberg said.
Last month, Kantar research identified ‘pampering’ and beauty therapy – including barber and salon visits – the most-anticipated consumer activity post-lockdown, ahead of eating out and socialising with friends.
Along with its support guide, L’Oréal would supply 100,000 hand sanitisers and more than a million protective masks to its salon network, she said. This level of support was important, she said, given hairdressing was the “single largest contributor to the British beauty economy”, valued at GDP c. £6m (€6.87m). The total UK beauty sector generated €31.7bn (£27.2bn) in 2018, according to a report produced by Oxford Economics for the British Beauty Council last year.
Post-COVID business planning for hair, beauty and barbering
Hilary Hall, chief executive of the National Hair and Beauty Federation, said government guidelines on how the hair, beauty and barbering industries could safely return to work – which the Federation had assisted on – were also being finalised. “These will be released in line with the government ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, which is expected to be announced this week,” Hall said.
Millie Kendall MBE, CEO of the British Beauty Council, said as salons prepared for what would likely be a “staged return to work”, collaboratively drawn-up guidelines offered salon owners and their teams insight on risks and precautionary measures, but also detail on “the potential benefits” of this phase, such as the promotion of more supportive and connected workplaces and teams.
