Karachi’s top salons opt to remain closed

While most salons across the country have opened their doors for business with the necessary SOPs in place, two of Karachi’s leading salons, Natasha’s Salon and Bina Khan, have decided to remain closed despite permission from the Government and the Supreme Court to resume business.

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Natasha Khalid of Natasha’s Salon and Bina Khan announced on social media that they will not be opening their salons due the continuous increase in corona cases.

“We have since yesterday received a barrage of calls asking if we’re open for services for Eid, mostly because the Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered ‘resumption of normalcy’,” wrote Khalid.

“First things first. Nothing is normal or back to normal! We have just been allowed to open shop & remove all corona-related limitations in the midst of a peak.”

“This is being done due to enormous economical/social pressures, which have nothing to do with the fact that numbers of COVID-19 affectees are increasing on an hourly basis; that people both young and old, sick and healthy, are dying from it,” she remarked, adding, “We already have put extraordinary pressures on our health systems and are ever-increasingly encumbering hospitals and health workers with exponential risks.”

Urging everyone to stay home, Natasha wrote, “Blow-dry your hair at home this time and if you can’t, tie that loose braid. Have hair on your arms and legs. Or just shave. Get a facial with the help of a plethora of ‘at home facials’ available online and watch one of the dozens of tutorials to get ready this Eid.”

Announcing her decision, she wrote: “I will not risk my staff, myself, or anyone walking through my doors getting unwell. I am trying to generate cash from online classes to pay my staff and keep my business alive, but I will not risk opening my doors because I know I can’t guarantee 100% that someone will not get ill.”

Similarly, Bina Khan said that her salon will remain closed “because we care”.

In a note, Khan wrote that she spoke to a couple of doctor before making her decision and they all explained to her that “providing normal salon services undeniably comes with some risk”.

“I do not think that anything that goes on in a salon is an essential service so we have decided to keep our doors closed,” she stated, adding that her salon will open as soon as it’s medically advisable.

Like Natasha, Bina said that online classes are allowing her to generate income so she is able to pay her staff.

However, Bina said that she will make exceptions for her brides, but with strict precautionary measures in place.

“I will open for my brides when they come because I understand that their weddings have been scaled back so hugely that looking like a bride and feeling special is a service that has started to feel more essential than it normally is. I am willing to risk my health for these poor corona brides, whose dream days have been so severely tarnished. But I will go alone and will only ask one staff member to help, taking every precaution known to man while we do so,” wrote the makeup artist.

Meanwhile, other salons across the country have opened with the necessary precautions, including PPEs, sanitizers and masks, in place.