The official Government Gazette has been published allowing hair salons, personal care and tattooing to open right now, as long as they stick to these guidelines!
South Africa (19 June 2020) – Personal care services – including hair salons, facial treatments, body massaging and tattooing – may legally open again after the government gazette was officially published late on Friday afternoon!
The Gazette, published on Friday 19 June, outlines the fact that hairdressers, tattoo parlours, nail salons and other beauty facilities will be able to open and goes into detail to ensure that these establishments follow the right safety protocols when welcoming clients back.
“The objectives of these protocols are to assist employers in establishing an environment that mitigates the spread of COVID-19, which if properly implemented and complied with, would assist with the sustainable of health and safety of the employees and customers in the personal care services industry.”
The categories of services that are deemed safe to resume operations are the following-
- Hairdressing
- Barbering;
- Nail and toe treatment;
- Facial treatment and make-up;
- Body massage; and
- Tattooing and body piercing.
Small business development minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni stated that employees and owners above the age of 60 or with co-morbidities must be discouraged from working.
“Any owner/worker and customer who has flu-like symptoms must not be allowed to work or to enter the salon.”
All the “allowable services” must follow the same stringent hygiene protocols (as summarized by Business Insider South Africa):
- Hand washing, personal hygiene and sanitising.
- Social distancing is required “wherever possible”, with a requirement, above normal face masks, for “more protective masks for close facial contact”.
- Aprons must be washed with soap and water after each customer, and gloves “required for treatments” must be changed after each customer too.
- Salons must “encourage” pre-booking, but it is not mandatory. Likewise, employees older than 60 or with co-morbidities “must be discouraged from working”, but are not banned from doing so.
- Guests are not allowed in salons, only those to receive treatments, and there may be no “beverage or food amenities”.
- Where work stations cannot be at least 1.5 metres apart, they must have partitions between them.
- Although massage and piercings are allowed, there is to be “no unnecessary touching and no scalp, neck, shoulders and arms massages at the basin”.
- There must also be “set time limits for each treatment to minimise unnecessary interactions with customers”.
- Tattoo parlours are required to use nitrile, not latex, gloves.
- The rules cover both formal and informal salons.
The protocols come into effect from the publication of the gazette – effectively meaning that personal care business can open with immediate effect. For more information, get the full Gazette by clicking here:
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