Burnley beauty salon owner 'floored' by news she cannot re-open her doors warns it could spell disaster for the industry

And Lisa Smith has warned that it could spell disaster for both her, and the thousands of other beauty businesses across the UK, if they could not re-open their doors within the next four weeks.

Lisa, who runs Beautyful You based in Ormerod Street, said: "When I heard the Prime Minister say that hairdressers could re-open, but there was no mention of beauty salons, I thought I must have missed it or he had made a mistake.

"When I realised we were not being allowed to open yet I was devastated.

"It just doesn't make sense to me at all."

On Tuesday Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that from July 4th hairdressing salons will be allowed to resume operations with social distancing measures put in place to protect customers and staff.

However, nail bars and beauty salons, in addition to spas and tattoo parlours, have not yet been given the go-ahead to re-open.

Mr Johnson told the House of Commons during his address on Tuesday that businesses such as nail salons will only be able to reopen their doors once the government feels “confident” the business can operate 'in a covid-secure way.'

The prime minister added that 'difficult judgements' were made when deciding which businesses would be permitted to reopen.

Lisa, who has one member of staff, said: "Why allow hairdressers to open and not beauty salons?

"Hairdressers are working in as close proximity to clients as beauticians and we are all prepared for a new way of working with PPE in place.

"It just seems so unfair to leave us hanging like this."

Lisa, who has run the business since 2012, was so confident she would be allowed to re-open on July 4th she had already started filling up her appointment book. She has also spent weeks deep cleaning and painting the salon and has bought the full range of PPE equipment including masks, visors, gloves, paper aprons, hand sanitisers and cotton towels have been replaced with disposable paper towels.

Lisa, who lives with her husband Jeff and has two daughters, said the £10,000 government grant for small businesses had been a huge help towards her costs but was now running out as she still had to pay the £433 a month rent on her property, plus all the bills, with no income.

"It is certainly going to be touch and go if we can't re-open soon, especially as when we do re-open we will have to reduce the number of clients so that will have a drastic effect on income," Lisa said.

Lisa has been devastated at having to get in touch with her customers to cancel the appointments she had made so confidently before this week's announcement.

But she said the loyalty and support shown by her clients had been 'fantastic' adding: "My clients have given me so much support and backing, they have been absolutely wonderful."

Lisa is now urging people to sign a national petition calling for beauty salons to be re-opened. It already has 14,196 signatures and can be found by clicking HERE