Hairdressers plead with government to let them reopen before July

The Irish Hairdressers Federation is calling for the opening of salons to be brought forward to avoid a surge in black-market services.

Salons will not reopen until Phase 4 of the government's roadmap plan, meaning they will remain closed until July 20, because they are not deemed essential services.

But the group wants salons to be moved into Phase 3 of the plan, on June 29, due to fears of a black market economy.

The organisation says some hairdressers may be tempted to do call-outs to people's homes now that travel restrictions had been extended to 5km, possibly increasing the risk of spreading Covid-19 around the community.

"We have to scale back on the visits to the salon, we can't have a full salon again until there's is a vaccine brought out," said Dylan Bradshaw, owner of Dylan Bradshaw Salon in Dublin.

"What we can do is keep social distancing," adding that they could take 15-minute break in between appointments to clean the station.

Mr Bradshaw added that with disposable gowns and only letting in people with appointments, hairdressers have demonstrated they are treating the situation "very seriously".