How to protect yourself and your clients when salons reopen

The current Coronavirus outbreak has had a huge impact on the world as we know it and when UK salons are eventually able to reopen there will be new procedures and safety guidelines that need to be adhered to. These standards will keep yourself, your colleagues and clients protected from COVID-19. Here, Disicide have their top tips for the hygiene standards for day-to-day salon life.

Hand Washing

This should be done on arrival, before and after each client and each break. which means a lot of hand washing. This is where Disicide® Skin Disinfectant Spray is beneficial as it contains no alcohol and therefore does not dry out or harm the skin. - If you’re using gloves then these must be changed the same amount as you wash your hands. - Make sure there is plenty of hand sanitiser available throughout the salon for staff and clients – you can never have too much!

Tool Disinfection

Usually tools are washed maximum once a day, however new guidelines for salons are expected to include disinfecting tools after each client. Disicide® Concentrate is ideal for this as the Concentrate only takes 30 minutes to remove 99.9% of germs (including Coronavirus, on test EN 14476), so a significant number of extra tools don’t need to be bought to keep up to these guidelines when disinfecting with Disicide® Concentrate. - Disicide® Jars are available in three different sizes to suit all hair and beauty salon tools and purpose. - Remember that tools that can’t be put into the concentrate solution still need to be cleaned – use the Disicide® Disinfection Wipes to clean hairdryers, brushes, curling tongs, straighteners etc, it only takes 2 minutes to be effective and then can be wiped dry with a disposable paper towel afterwards, or left to air dry. Remove hair from brushes after every use and disinfect. - Other hairdressing items to think about are gowns and towels - there now needs to be a new gown and towel for every client.

Surface Hygiene

Keeping surfaces disinfected needs to become a new normal and should be done as often as hand washing... Before and after each client, in staff communal areas (create a rule that each staff member must disinfect any area they have spent time in whether it’s in the kitchen, where colour is mixed, at their work station etc). - Disicide® Disinfection Wipes can be used on surfaces and take only 2 minutes to be effective against virus and bacteria so are perfect for cleaning the work station after each client; Disicide® ready-to-use Spray can be used on surfaces and takes only 15 minutes to be effective against virus and bacteria, so it may be useful to spray this on surfaces when leaving the salon each evening as it can be left to air dry and be disinfected ready for the morning. - One of the most used areas will be the entrance door so regular cleaning must be done, or is there a way you can put hand sanitiser outside the entrance, and near the door when people leave? - Think about other surfaces such as magazines, these need to be thrown away. You may want to consider buying disposable tea/coffee/water cups if you don’t have a dishwasher that can wash at 60 degrees.

Commitment to the environment

Whether the salon has a particular interest in their environmental impact, have clients who do, or both, all Disicide® products have received the Green Saloon award and the Vegan Certification. This means that the products contain no substances that are problematic to humans or the environment, and all products are free of animal ingredients and are never tested on animals. Protecting yourself and your clients does not have to have a detrimental effect on your commitment to do your bit for the planet when you choose the Disicide® range. - Disicide® also offer a range of All1Clean items which are also vegan and environmentally friendly, and are for cleaning mirrors, chairs, wood, metal etc. It’s important for the salon to always look sparkling clean so that your clients feel safe – if they see a dusty or dirty area, with hygiene being at the forefront of their minds at the moment, it may deter them from visiting your salon again.

Social distancing

Social distancing still needs to be adhered to as you can carry the virus without even knowing. This is incredibly hard when it comes to being a hairdresser so sticking to all of these hygiene standards above will reduce likelihood of the virus spreading. - Think about how best to rearrange your salon so that you are sticking to social distancing between clients - Stagger shifts, which may mean longer opening hours but it will allow you to get in the maximum number of clients while keeping everyone safe. - Take client’s temperatures when they do come into the salon for the added comfort of both your staff and your clients - Consider making it policy to give your client a courtesy call the day before/morning before their appointment to make sure they will still be attending (this will make sure you can fill all the spaces available for that day as you may already have a lower number of appointments available due to social distancing). In this call you could also ask the questions that are advised such as do you have a cough, shortness of breath, sore throat etc and has anyone in your household been unwell in the last 14 days?

Top tip!

Running out of Disicide® ready-to-use Spray or Disinfection Wipes? You can dilute the Disicide® Concentrate to the usual ratio, put in a spray bottle and use this to disinfect surfaces. Make sure you label this so it isn’t used on a client’s hair – or re-use a Disicide® ready-to-use spray bottle. This is a sponsored post by Disicide® distributed by Hair Tools Ltd