When can I get my eyebrows done? Date beauty salons will be allowed to resume eyelash, brow and other facial treatments

Your eyebrows and eyelashes may have felt a little neglected during the lockdown period if you regularly get treatments to spruce them up. With beauty salons now open for business again, does this mean you can book in for an appointment?

Here’s what you need to know.

Although some beauty treatments are still not allowed, you won’t have to wait much longer, as all beauty treatments will be able to resume from Saturday 15 August.

Beauty salons, tattoo studios, spas and barbers across England will be able to offer all close-contact services from Saturday, including treatments such as eyebrow threading and waxing, eyelash treatments and facials.

However, new guidance will urge hairdressers to wear surgical grade face masks, alongside visors.

The government’s statement said: “This will help protect the customer and staff from respiratory droplets caused by sneezing, coughing, or speaking.”

Why couldn’t I get my eyebrows and eyelashes done when salons first reopened?

Beauty salons reopened on 13 July, allowing customers to get waxes, nail treatments and tans, but any treatment on the face - considered a ‘high-risk zone’ – were deemed out of bounds, due to the risk of spreading coronavirus.

It was later announced that treatments on the face would be allowed from 1 August, but when infections began to rise again, this was pushed back, alongside the reopening of casinos, bowling alleys and other establishments that were due to resume on the same day.

When announcing that this was to be the case, Boris Johnson said, “You will remember at every point I have said our plan to reopen society and the economy is conditional, that it relies on continued progress against the virus, and we would not hesitate to put the brakes on if required.

“With those numbers creeping up our assessment is that we should now squeeze that brake pedal to keep the virus under control.”

What is the ‘high-risk zone’?

Treatments in the ‘high-risk zone’ are those carried out directly in front of the client’s face, which put people at higher risk of spreading Covid-19.

These include face waxing and threading, facials, eyelash and eyebrow treatments, and microblading.

When will I be able to get my eyebrows and eyelashes done?

If you’ve been looking forward to getting your eyebrows evenly shaped again, or adding extensions to your eyelashes, then you won’t have to wait much longer, as all beauty treatments can resume from 15 August, alongside the reopening of casinos and bowling alleys.

What safety measures are in place in salons?

The government has worked with a range of stakeholders in the beauty industry to develop the measures close contact services, including beauty salons, need to consider to become Covid-19 secure.

This includes:

– Using screens or barriers to separate clients from each other, and to separate practitioners from clients, such as in nail salons

- Operating an appointment-only booking system to minimise the number of people on the premises at any one time

- Keeping the activity time involved to a minimum

- Increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning, as well as regularly cleaning equipment or using disposable equipment where possible

- Avoiding skin to skin contact and wearing gloves where it is not crucial to the service, such as in nail bars and tanning salons

- Maintaining sufficient spacing between customer chairs

- Not allowing food or drink, other than water, to be consumed in the salon by customers

- Making sure a limited and fixed number of workers work together, if they have to be in close proximity to do their jobs