No salon, no sanctuary: beauty under ‘lockdown’ in Australia in 2020

Abstract

Across the world lockdowns during the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis saw the forced closure of many hands-on services such as beauty salons, hairdressers, and barber shops. In Australia although hair services were allowed to stay open during the first National lockdown, subsequent state lockdowns mandated these grooming services shut to the public for extended periods. There has been much public debate about the necessity–or perceived lack thereof–of grooming services, especially given that hairdressers were permitted to stay open during the first lockdown when many other businesses shut. 2020 saw claims in Western media that the closure of these spaces was ‘liberatory’, particularly for women. This article interrogates this assumption, drawing on data from 383 Australian survey respondents collected between July and September 2020 to look at the impact of salon inaccessibility during the period. While some survey respondents relished the freedom of not having to ‘keep up appearances’, many also reported on the negative impacts of salon closures in terms of connection, self-esteem and identity. This article considers how the site of the salon is considered a transformative ‘sanctuary’ for some and untangles the deeper impact of the closure of these sites on individuals during a crisis.