Covid-19 affects business of beauty parlours, salons this Karva Chauth

New Delhi [India], November 3 : In Hindu dharma, the purpose of life is self-realisation or the discovery of God and Hindus observe fasts on special occasions. Karva Chauth is among the many festivals celebrated in the Northern and North-Eastern parts of India. It comes nine days before Diwali, but this year everything will not be the same due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite being on a day-long fast, womenfolk pull out their best dresses, ornaments and accessories for the religious ritual and to look the best, they visit beauty parlours and salons.
But COVID-19 has affected Karva Chauth this year. Stores have closed and beauty industry leaders are trying hard to ensure that their companies survive.
But now with the unlock, stores have started to open and people have also started coming out from homes with precautions and safety measures.
Talking about how the business of salons is affected by the pandemic, Karan Verma, style director at Toni and Guy Salon said, "At the earlier stages when the unlock happened, the footfall was around 40 to 50 per cent. However, we are now observing about 80 per cent footfall, but it's not like it used to be last year during the festive season."
On being asked about the number of people turning up at the salon, he said, "People are turning up in smaller numbers at salons and adapting to the new normal. The way we were working professionally has been changed. We are doing a temperature check, sanitisation, and we have told clients to download the Aarogya Setu app. So gradually clients are getting slightly confident about coming to the salon, but the footfall is still less."
"The clients are also very much aware and take precautionary measures. We are also taking safety precautions and maintaining social distancing. Slowly and gradually the footfall is increasing as they trust us, which is another factor because of which they are turning up at the salon."
Talking about the package they have introduced around the festival of Karva Chauth, Karan said, "We have introduced an offer for the customers to get flat 25 per cent off on beauty services on the Greater Kailash outlet. We have also introduced a package for the women to get ready on the Karva Chauth night. They can get the hair and makeup done in around Rs 2,500."
"Beauty salons have also been impacted a lot due to the communicable virus. COVID-19 has brought a change in the whole world as every business has been impacted drastically," said Priya Sharma, a beauty expert.
According to BCG and McKinsey, the 500-billion-dollar global beauty industry with its annual rate of growth continuously pegged between 4% and 5% has seen a major decline.
Now, after the announcement of re-opening, salons are taking extra precautions and maintaining high-level hygiene.
"We have observed a low percentage of footfall past the unlock. However slowly and gradually people are turning up after observing the precautionary measures we are taking and to get beauty services especially around the festivals, " said Kiran Sharma, who owns a beauty salon in South Delhi.
With the festival season just around the corner, people are adapting to the new normal and are vigilant of the precautionary measures to keep themselves and people around them safe.
Karva Chauth falls on Wednesday.