By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Jun 1 (IANS): Post-lockdown, crores of people all over Maharashtra will brace for an ugly cut of another kind - a staggering proposal for doubling of rates at all barber shops and beauty parlours.

The Maharashtra Nabhik Mahamandal (MNM) the umbrella organization for around 15 lakh barber shops and beauty parlors, including major chains, have decided to double rates for all services.

Of these, Mumbai alone has a little over 2 lakh hair cutting salons and beauty parlours, employing an average of 4-8 workers, men and women.

"We have proposed doubling of charges for all services like simple hair-cuts, shave for men, facials or waxing for women and all other services offered," said MNM President Dattareya Anarase.

"This is because in the past three months, our business, which employs over 60 lakh people directly and another 40 lakh indirectly, has been totally shut down in the state. We hoped the Maharashtra government would permit reopening of our businesses, but there is no clarity yet from the authorities," Anarase told IANS.

Accordingly to tentative rate plans, a normal shave costing around Rs 40-50, will now cost Rs 100, while a regular hair-cut which cost around Rs 80-Rs 100, will be charged at Rs 200, he said.

Ditto will be the situation for services in beauty parlours with facials which cost around Rs 1,200 set to nearly double to Rs 2,000, cleanup at Rs 600 to be around Rs 1,250, bleaching from existing Rs 300 set to go up to Rs 750 and waxing will double from existing Rs 500 to over Rs 1,000.

Additionally, certain services like head or body massage for men and threading eyebrows or facials or face-packs for women are likely to be suspended for the present since it would entail difficulties in maintaining physical distancing.

"We have already suffered a lot in the past 10 weeks of lockdown. The post-coronavirus costs will increase in a big way. We have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking a minimum compensation package of Rs 10,000 per employee for three months that we have lost our revenues, besides other establishment costs for the owners," Anarase said.

Owner of Haircraft Ladies Beauty Parlour in Kandivali Prabha P. Nair said that henceforth, all beauty parlours will need to compulsorily provide sanitisers, masks, gloves, full personal protective equipment kits for all staffers, regularly sanitise inside and outside the parlour premises, plus all equipments ranging from combs and scissors to chairs or washing areas.

"All this will add to the operational costs in a big way, because we have to ensure that the customer is safe, the staff is fully protected and we can still be in business," Nair told IANS.

S.R. Tiwari, proprietor of Saket Hair Arts in the same suburb said the bigger problem is of manpower as most barbers and hairstylists or beauticians have fled to their home states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, etc.

"Besides the government's Covid-19 precautions and regulations, we will have to pay double to get barbers or hairstylists. There can be no compromise on safety as even schoolboys or schoolgirls have to get a regular haircut," Tiwari pointed out to IANS.

Anarase said roughly the single-use full PPE kit would cost between Rs 400-600 per staffer, plus daily around 1 litre of sanitisers worth Rs 500, antiseptics and other precautions to be taken inside-outside the barber shops, sanitizing all the chairs, equipments and installations.

"Since there is nothing forthcoming from either the Centre or the state we are left with no options but to pass on the burden to the customers," Anarase lamented at the huge survival crisis confronting the entire beauty and grooming industry.

Salons and parlours have been advised to implement full precautions like checking customer temperatures with a temperature gun or a similar no-contact thermometer with a register record, sanitizing, discouraging customers from bringing their own towels, napkins or overalls as they could pose a risk, etc, he added.

Anarase, Tiwari and Nair are hopeful that with these protocols, the salons and parlours can ensure safety of the staffers, customers and the premises in the ongoing war against the virus.