Salons even have a campaign with Claudia Leitte in dispute with home service

Restrictions on services in beauty salons ended at least six months ago, but the sector is still suffering the effects of the interruption in services.

Now, after the most critical moment of the pandemic and with the health crisis about to complete two years, the salons want to attract back the clientele that got used to being attended at home.

According to a survey by Sebrae with the ABSB (Brazilian Association of Beauty Salons), more than half of the establishments in Brazil say they have professionals working at home autonomously, unrelated to the salon.

José Augusto Nascimento, president of the association, says that offering this type of service performed at home was a temporary solution. “We always advise against it, but we understand, because it was a matter of survival. Now we are in another phase and the recommended service is supervised and in the salon”, he says.

For hairdresser Natacha D’Alessandro, offering cuts and other procedures at clients’ homes and at home itself began as a temporary solution that, given the extension of the pandemic, ended up becoming definitive.

In 2020, when the salons started to reopen from August, she says she noticed that many customers were still afraid to frequent the space. Until the end of that year, she still divided her time between working at the salon, with reduced hours, and at clients’ homes.

“At the beginning of 2021, when the salon closed again, I started to offer, for those who lived far away, to come to my house, who would not have to pay for transport there. I started to attend here and, in the end, it became the best option .”

The professional says that the decision paid off financially. “I spent for food and driving and [atender em casa] It gave me the possibility to serve fewer people as well. In the salon, I needed to serve 20 to 30 people a day to compensate. At home, I earn the same serving five to seven people,” she says.

In the Sebrae survey with the association, 60% of businesspeople in the salon sector said they had reduced their teams compared to 2019. Revenue also dropped – 20% reported that cash inflow was 30% lower in December 2021 compared to the pre-pandemic. For 18%, it was 40% lower.

This migration to home care is also the result of the working model of professionals in salons, and for which entrepreneurs fought to make it legal. In October of last year, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) validated the “partner salon” law, as the rule became known.

In practice, the legislation allowed the hiring of hairdressers, barbers, beauticians, manicures, pedicures, epilators and makeup artists as legal entities. Therefore, these professionals do not have exclusivity with the establishments.

“Whoever is registered in the salon is the reception and support staff. For these, the salons had government assistance to pay their salaries. of the salons association.

In the opinion of businesswoman Rosângela Barchetta, a partner in the Studio W salon network, home care tends to lose strength due to the appeal of the experience of being in the salon.

She compares the professional beauty market with that of restaurants. “Delivery, as good as the restaurant is, will never be the same as the experience of being at the place, which was all designed for that experience”, she says.

Barchetta is not opposed to the service at home, but defends that it be done with the intermediation of the salon. This, according to her, guarantees the safety of the professional and the client.

“We have a protocol for this. The professional leaves the salon with towels and sterile equipment and all the care they would have here. In salons, we are neurotic with control. We charge vaccination and clean everything with hospital product. At home, there is no such guarantee. “

For the businesswoman, despite the professionals being self-employed, the service at the salon or through it also gives the consumer more guarantees in case there is a problem.

“We’ve been doing a lot of color correction in the salon. It’s no use, at home you don’t have the same infrastructure as the salon, even with the portable washbasin. If there’s a mistake with a chemistry, who will you complain to?”

Nascimento, from the association of entrepreneurs, says that in addition to the drop in the number of appointments and the migration of professionals and customers, the salons also lost with the sale of products for home care, such as shampoos and treatment masks.

He calculates that, in the pre-pandemic period, 20% to 30% of revenue came from these sales. In this case, competition comes from ecommerce, which gained traction in Brazil from 2020.

Since last year, as restrictions have been lifted, the salon association has been recommending that establishments run promotions and packages that increase customer loyalty, causing them to return to the establishment more often.

Last week, the association launched a campaign to try to stimulate this return with singer Claudia Leitte singing in videos for the internet.

Sponsored by L’Oréal, which also owns the Redken and Kérastase brands, the campaign was launched under the slogan “I’m going back to the salon” and is distributing 40,000 free hair hydrations. The list of participating salons is on the website www.tovoltandoprosalao.com.br.