Yes Covid safety is challenging. I felt that I couldnāt take the reputation risk of having staff/me spread Covid. Unfortunately my salon is narrow and there are pinch points in the common areas. I practised with my daughter (weāre in a support bubble) and we realised how difficult it would be to keep ourselves and our clients apart.
We also noticed how reluctant clients were to enter if they could see another client. My clients are sensible about risk (lucky for me).
Having separate rooms rather than (say) a waxing room and a nail area which are shared by therapists is Covid secure. Hot desking/room sharing isnāt allowed unless you deep clean and allow a long ventilation gap which isnāt very practical in the middle of the day.
You should have gaps between clients to clean and ventilate your rooms which helps with staggering
appointments. You should also talk to your clients and say āThereās an appointment just finishing in the other room, so please relax here for a few minutes and Iāll knock on your door when the reception is clear.ā
You might get into a routine of offering set start times. I offer appointments at set 45 minute intervals (3:00, 3:45, 4:30) and Iāve learned a routine. It then wasnāt too difficult to offer an off set time for another appointment. it sounds very complicated but it happened organically by trial and error.
My clients worked out that if they were offered say 3:55 or 4:05 that they needed to be punctual for safety reasons.
There have been bonuses. We donāt allow consumption of food or drinks on the premises as the hand to maskless mouth and then on to high touch surfaces is not Covid secure. Clients are no longer picnicing during their pedi or arriving early and eating their lunch before their appointment. Not making a tea tray for our pedicure ladies has saved us loads of time, because now our clients are not distracted and make their colour choice very quickly! We also place belongings inside a basket which means they canāt be foraging in their bags constantly, and itās cut down on endless texting - I didnāt realise how awkward it was to navigate around client clutter. Clients also seem to have much better control of their bladders. I notice that clients donāt ask next visit - maybe hearing me clean the loo makes them more conscious of Covid security.
I've found all these changes have improved the client experience. Clients are more focussed and present during their visit and the whole rebooking and retail purchases is so much smoother. Clients are decisive and organised when itās time to pay and leave.
As long as you stay 2m apart if youāre in the same, ventilated space you should be ok. I use zoom for staff catch up and we exchange notes during a shift and emails after. We also have socially distanced meetings (during shift handover) wearing PPE which we barely notice anymore. Ironically I think itās made us more effective communicators. Staff cohesion and morale has stayed strong.
, hoping to get some help on what to do if a staff member were to test positive for covid? 
One of our chair renters have tested positive, as we are closed anyway because of tier 4 restrictions it doesnāt effect us at the moment but if it happens when we reopen Iām not sure if weād have to close the whole salon if no one else had any symptoms. Thank you for any advice on this , gov web says to socially distance so Iām assuming that would mean we have to close 
I Thought it was bad last year when one of my long regular clients turned up for foils Christmas week looking like death saying she dragged herself out of bed as she knew she wouldnāt get another appointment before Christmas... but that was flu not covid! Considering must people in our industry go out of their way to please clients, youād think theyād be a little considerate 
