Hair and beauty salons reschedule appointments for reopening on Friday

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino announced on Wednesday beauty and personal care businesses would likely reopen in regional Victoria from Friday.

Le Belle Beauty owner Kristy Drill said she was fully booked when the lockdown announcement was made last week and it had been difficult to reschedule appointments.

"We are booked weeks in advance. Being only one person, I can't fit everyone back in again," she said.

"I had a baby 12 months ago in the middle of lockdown.... I am going to have to find another day and find a babysitter to work extra hours and late nights to get everyone in.

"Being able to get back in the salon on Friday is a big relief."

Masks will need to continue to be worn inside when the lockdown is lifted.

Le Chic Skin and Beauty owner Amanda Aleem said mask restrictions had a big impact on her business as clients could not book lip waxes, facials or chin waxes.

"I do know from past lockdowns when we have been restricted to clients not removing their masks it greatly impacted business almost to the point where it wasn't viable to be open," she said.

Ms Aleem said she would like restrictions to allow for clients at beauty salons to be able to remove their masks.

"I have never been able to comprehend that you can sit in a cafe and restaurant with other people and other households and can remove your mask to eat and drink," she said.

"It makes no sense when we are one-on-one with a client with a mask on ourselves and they are not able to remove their mask. It might only take a couple of minutes to do a lip wax."

Hair Society Ballarat owner Georgia Skordof said she was playing catch up to reschedule appointments due to the last minute notice for this lockdown.

"We worked through one night and got extra staff on board, but had to cancel a lot of appointments and lost thousands of dollars in turnover from those couple of days," she said.

Businesses will be required to check the ID of all customers to ensure Melbourne residents are not breaking their lockdown restrictions.

Ms Skordof said this was not new to staff as checks were required last year when Melbourne was in stage four lockdown.

"Last time we had quite a few people trying to come up from Melbourne and have their hair done," she said.

"We will be aware of that."

Alfredton Hair and Beauty shared a post on Facebook on Wednesday asking customers to be kind when asked to check in with a QR code and have their licence checked at the salon.

"The team are nervous and they are scared," the post said.

"The last time we had to check licences we were met with hostility and anger.

"The last few weeks of checking QR code's we have had countless people hurl abuse at us or just walk out of a three hour appointment because they don't agree with signing in.

"Majority of us are trying to juggle our new normal, So please stop taking it out on us. We are doing the best we can.

"Please take a second to consider what the person at the shops has gone through before getting angry and frustrated at them about having to sign in electronically.

"Let's all just stick together and be kind to one and other."

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