The hair necessities

Leesiders are queuing up in their thousands to be amongst the first to set foot in the pubs on Monday, but not before a crucial trip to the hairdressers.

With businesses such as bars, barbers, restaurants, hotels, hairdressers and many more finally allowed to open their doors in a few days, the public is chomping at the bit to get its first taste of normality since March.

Andrew Cronin, co-founder of Carbon Hair Salon on the South Mall, told the Cork Independent that he is already completely booked up until the end of July.

Mr Cronin said: “My poor mother hasn't had her hair done since February! Even though it's going to be a very different way of doing hair, and of getting your hair done, we still want to make it feel like a safe and relaxed environment. The last thing we want to do is make it look like they're going into surgery.”

According to Mr Cronin, the speed at which he can process customers will be greatly reduced due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the fact that people have been unable to have professional hair care done for so long.

“Then we have to deal with home colouring which we’ll have to correct, or if they haven’t touched it at all, we have 18 weeks’ worth of regrowth that we have to tackle, which is a whole different ball game,” said Mr Cronin.

Paul O’Neil, Manager of Bazzers Barbers on Washington Street, said that he expects huge amounts of customers and that barbers should have been allowed to open sooner.

“We’re very happy to be open. We’re looking forward to it. We’re going to be extremely busy. We’re asking people to be patient with us,” said Mr O’Neil.

He added: “We are ready, and I think we should have been open sooner. We are a trade where sanitation is part of our everyday work. It’s something we do every day anyway.”

With haircuts out of the way, it is expected that Corkonians will flock to the pubs and restaurants in search of food and a pint or three.

Donagh Gavin, Operations Manager at Tom Barry’s on Barrack Street, said the trickiest part of reopening will be making sure that people stick to the restrictions.

He explained: “The biggest challenge is going to be around the time limit of one hour and 45 minutes. I don’t think anyone who is opening is looking forward to policing that situation.

“It depends on how many pints people can drink in one hour and 45 minutes. Some people are referring to it as a potential drink Olympics!”