Hyderabad: Salons hike prices to stay afloat

Hyderabad: The Coronavirus pandemic has affected almost all the businesses and hit livelihoods of thousands of people. Even after the relaxations, the businesses have not seen any revival. Salon business is no exception. In order to meet their ends, barbers across the city have increased their charges.

Shankar, owner of Srinivasa Men's Salon, Safilguda, said, "The lockdown has hit barbers hard. Most of us live a hand-to-mouth existence and rely on daily income. We couldn't earn a single buck during this period. On top of this, each one of us has to pay rent and meet other expenses for our shops. Increasing the charges is the only option left to us to make good our losses."

Earlier, it was charged around Rs 50 to Rs70 for a simple haircut. But, now the rates have gone up to Rs 150-200. Similarly, rates for other services that include massage and shaving have also increased by Rs 50 to Rs100.

Naresh, owner of Manikanta Hair Salon in Vinayak Nagar, said, "Making arrangements for social distancing has cost each barber dearly. We are already in a bad state as there has been no income for months. Customers will have to understand our plight. Expenses of sanitisers and other sanitary equipment have become an additional burned for us to bare."

Aditya S, a resident of AS Rao Nagar, felt, "The barbers have increased the rates way too much. It is a blow to those employees getting only half salaries now. We need to look presentable all the time but we are unable to manage things with salaries getting lowered and the prices of various services and things going up. Spending even a little needs to be thought twice now."