As some Victorians make their mad midnight dash to Kmart, others are still wondering why they can’t open up their services to the public.

Beauticians across the state are unable to perform services that require masks to be off.

Director of Beautyologist Sia Psicharis explained that these restrictions mean that a large proportion of health and beauty treatments are wiped off salon menus.

“Many small beauty businesses in Victoria, do almost [sic] 95 percent facials. I do about 80 percent, it’s my top service,” she said.

Staff members across the beauty industry are perplexed that services like facials are not able to go ahead, as hospitality requires patrons not to wear masks in order to enjoy their food and beverages.

“We don’t understand it, you can go take your mask off and eat something at a restaurant now and go to the gym without a mask, but they won’t let us do treatment, but doctors can do exactly the same treatments as what we’re doing with no problem,” Ms Psicharis said.

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Prior to hospitality and retail opening their doors, hairdressers had the ability to get a head start on their clients.

The ongoing debate since the restrictions came into full force halfway through the year had always been whether hairdressing was any different to other beauty services in terms of keeping a distance.

“We’re very happy for our colleagues in the hair industry to be open, I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone,” Ms Psicharis said.

“The thing is with hair, you’re sitting in a big room with lots of different people. Yes they’re wearing a mask but they take the mask off to take a drink or to eat, you’ve got hairdryers blowing particles all over the air. With beauty it’s one on one in a room with PPE. We don’t understand it and we don’t think it’s fair.”

As a board member of the Hair and Beauty Association, Ms Psicharis is well aware of all the health and safety precautions needed to create a COVID safe workspace.

Despite presenting many options such as face shields, COVID safe plans and other personal protective equipment, parliament has still said no.

“Perhaps they don’t realise the severity of skin conditions. Perhaps it’s not front of mind for them, or it’s more of an education thing. They perceive beauty as being nails and pedicures and therefore not a priority… I don’t think it’s done in a malicious way or anything like that, it could be an education thing. I invited many ministers to come through my clinic, come for a walk with me and show them around but that hasn’t occurred,” Ms Psicharis said.

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Beyond physical safety measures, Ms Psicharis also has her staff’s mental health front of mind.

“This has been extremely hard on staff. They’ve had financial difficulties, JobKeeper has been cut down and still we haven’t been able to open fully. I’ve had staff who have had to move out of their rental and move back home. Although we are extremely grateful for JobKeeper, this experience has brought on many forms of anxiety that we need to pay attention to,” she said.

“I say this because it’s the post trauma that I think we will need to manage, and the government has put in some strategies for that which we are grateful for and we will work with every staff member individually to ensure they’re healthy.”

For now, Ms Psicharis and her team are happy that they are able to open their doors to their clientele for retail and limited beauty services.

Unfortunately they, along with many others in the beauty sector, still await a go-ahead date to swing back into full force.