The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Barbers, hair salons and spas have vowed “to cope” with their latest COVID-19 lockdown as one industry representative revealed: “No one is saying they are going to close down.”

Dellarese Taylor, the Bahamian Cosmetologists and Barbers Association’s president, told Tribune Business: “Some people have just been calling me and wondering if we are on a lockdown or not, because some people were under the impression that we would still be open on the days you could move about and go to the store, but no. I had to tell them better.

“Everybody is trying to cope and no one is saying that they are going to close down for good, so that is good. The COVID-19 training is just about completed, and it is online if anyone else needed to do it, but for the most part everyone has completed the training.”

Ms Taylor added: “Spas come under us, too, because it is a part of the beauty industry field. Everything is intimate with what we do because everything in our profession is with close contact with our customers.”

Philip Auguste, owner/operator of 4 Aces Barber Shop, said: “There is nothing happening right now. We are just closed. We are back to square one. We will be home for two weeks and just wait and see how this thing plays out.”

He added that he is not getting any unemployment assistance from the National Insurance Board (NIB), but will look into it considering what has happened.