An Auchinleck salon is gearing up for return and is pleading with other salons to save the jobs of apprentice stylists in the area.

Urban Hair and Beauty, who also operate a training academy for apprentices and other salons have vowed to give struggling businesses a helping hand by offering their apprentices training online until they’re able to get back to business as usual.

They have also made capacity for some apprentices to train in-store on Sundays.

Business manager at Urban, Lyndsey Lamont, said: “We need salon owners to reach out and speak to us and we can offer advice to allow them to consider other options during furlough to help protect the future of these young people.

“We can remove this additional pressure at no cost to allow salons to focus on getting back to generating revenue to protect the future of their business.”

They work in conjunction with Medusa Training Academy based in Edinburgh, one of the foremost hair and barbering training providers in Scotland, with Urban covering the Ayrshire area.

During the lockdown they’ve been facilitating online courses for their apprentices, so that they can continue to learn whilst salons are shut.

The big issue though is what happens when they can reopen, with lots of salons working in smaller spaces because of physical distancing restrictions, fewer stylists are likely to be allowed in salons and less customers likely to fit.

These pressures mean that many salons will be considering where they can make cuts and perhaps apprentices will be the first out the door.

Urban want salons to consider retaining their apprentices on furlough for as long as the scheme goes on, enrolling them on their training programme in the meantime.

Ross Miller, an influential hairdresser and director of Medusa Training Academy stated: “We guarantee to support salons during this time and return apprentices back to their salon with more skills and being further advanced in their qualification ready to offer more value within their salon”.

Urban staff will be returning to the salon on Barony Road this Friday for a training session to familiarise all staff with new protocols before opening to customers on Wednesday, July 15.

Clients will be asked to wear masks, except when unable to do so because of health reasons.

The salon has over 1,400 bookings already, described by Lyndsey as a “mammoth task”, all of which they expect to fulfil within the first three and a half weeks of opening.

They will be open from 9am-9pm Mon-Fri and 8am-8pm on Saturdays.