The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Barbers and beauty salon reported “great” business over the weekend for the back to school rush.

Anton Minnis, vice-president of the Bahamian Cosmetologists and Barbers Association (BCBA), told Tribune Business that it was a “great weekend” leading into the return to school for students yesterday.

Mr Minnis also said: “We had two soft openings for the school year. The first one they went in for grade seven to ten so that took some pressure off of us this past weekend. This past weekend was pretty good and it was really comfortable for everyone.”

Mr Minnis said what made this weekend more comfortable than usual was vouchers being handed out by the Fox Foundation for students going back to school - as opposed to constituency offices and organisations calling for a barber to be on site for the weekend.

“This way they were allowed to take the vouchers back to the Fox Foundation and redeem them and that was excellent for the barbers of the community and it was good thinking on their part,” Mr Minnis said.

He said he hopes that the voucher system continues because it would allow barbers to be in their shops as opposed to having to relocate to a site to service the same customers.

Mr Minnis also said: “Everybody went back with a fresh cut. I notice that a lot of parents were actually coming in a few days prior to this past weekend. That was good because it spaced things through and they didn’t have this exorbitant crowd on a Saturday trying to get their hair cut for the new school year.”

The resurgence of COVID-19 is still lingering on the mind of barbers and stylists but they were “always prepared,” to handle the COVID-19 protocols. “We never really strayed from the COVID-19 protocols, we found it advantageous to keep it up in the stores” he said.

“He continued, “Hair salons on the other hand, because they are now appointment based due to the COVID-19 and also now the barbers have become appointment based, it has helped us a lot and it has really helped us to organize ourselves and be a little more expeditious and offer a higher level of professionalism.”

Mr Minnis warned, however, about the stragglers still coming into the barber shops that he has been and will continually be sending them back home because he does not want to play any part in their truancy. “Some boys have been coming to the barber shops and we have been sending them back. The authorities have a programme now where they are moving around the barbershops to get kids to school for 9:00am and don’t let them be in the barber shop at 9:30am or 10:00am. That is a very good initiative. The parents aren’t sending them. The child on his walk to school decides to come into the barbershop and they will sit there until it is there turn. But now we are turning them away and we are trying to get all of the other barbers to do the same because we don’t encourage delinquency or truancy,” he said.