Long hair work days expected in Birkenhead at level two

Christmas will come early this year for staff at a Birkenhead hair salon as they prepare for longer hours under Covid-19 level two requirements.

Brooke Guptill is expecting a busy 50-hour work week at Toogees Hair Design which opened today after the government eased restrictions fight against the pandemic.

“Also a lot more cleaning and sanitising than normal which is going to be time consuming,” Ms Guptill said.

It’s going to be like a Christmas for us,” says the apprentice, who had her final hairdressing exam put on hold during lockdown.

Toogees owner Tanya Nochevan says the biggest change for the salon will be social distancing.

“What we’ve done in that case is use every second chair. Just using half of what we’re allowed, making sure that distance is there,” whose business has been operating for four decades,” Ms Nochevan said

“You can’t have kids and other people waiting in the salon obviously just like the supermarket.

“We can’t have magazines and other food and beverages because that's another point of contact that we’re lowering down.”

All changes in salon procedure are detailed in a Facebook post addressed to clients, such as providing contact tracing, limiting contact, price increases.

Ms Nochevan says the changes in salon procedure will be permanent while they wait to receive more information from the Government.

“The New Zealand hairdressing association is working with the Ministry of Health to actually give us a clearer view of what level two looks like, because nobody is actually that sure at the moment.”

Hser Paw Thin, who has been at Toogees for 15 years, says her clients are eager to get their hair done and won’t be fazed by the changes, but for some elderly clients it will be difficult.

“At the end of the day, if our clients want us to wear masks or not,” Ms Thin said.

“Especially because we’ve got elderly clients, some of them can’t hear properly so they try to read your lips so it’s going to be quite difficult. It’s our client’s choice and we are trying to make it a safe environment.”