Lockdown shades of grey

By Rhonda Dredge

The first day back for Docklands hairdressers after being closed for three months was an emotional affair with long queues and some customers coming out of hibernation with unruly grey hair.

Instead of getting their locks swiftly trimmed and dyed many customers were beginning to question their ideals of beauty and style.

“A lot of people are going grey,” hairdresser Dita Elmazi of Papillon Hairdressing at Yarra’s Edge, said.

But she said that many of her female customers were now “accepting they’re grey and are just going to grow the colour out.”

Papillon, like Docklands’ three other hairdressing salons, was booked out by the time they opened their doors for business on Monday, October 19.

Some phoned but others clinched appointments when they saw Dita doing her exercise out the front.

“I’m a local. I live in Tower 5,” she said. “They saw me walking outside. The hairdressing is fully booked until next Saturday.”

One customer waiting eagerly on the doorstep was 86-year-old Diana who was on just her second outing from her apartment since the latest lockdown began.

“I have short hair. Now it’s long,” she said. “It’s grown three inches.”

Diana tried tackling her own nails but they split so she got her daughter to finish the job.

James, an Uber driver, used to live nearby and drove all the way to the riverside establishment on the chance they could slot him in.

“There were queues in South Yarra and South Melbourne,” he said.

The three-month closure has made it difficult for some hairdressing salons to deal with the rush.

Suz Salons in Collins St said they had lost all their staff and customers were answering the phones for them.

Maria from TA Salon in Bourke St said there was a queue outside all day Monday.

“I didn’t finish working until eight o’clock last night,” she said.

Dita said that men had been worse affected by the hairdressing shut-down than women.

“If women don’t cut their hair they can tie it up. With men long hair looks out of shape.”

She said the girls in the salon were all wear- ing masks and that there were only four people in at a time.