HELP US SAVE YOUR SALONS AND 100,000’s OF JOBS & High Streets 

Your hairdresser, barber and beauty professional NEED YOU
Please… don’t let your salon disappear.

This is not just another campaign.
This is a real plea from an industry running out of time.

Please take a minute to read and watch this heartbreaking short video..

 

 

 

 

Our industry has never recovered from COVID.

We were told to close our doors overnight. Income stopped instantly, but the responsibility didn’t. We were told to protect jobs — and we did. Salon owners took on Government-backed loans to keep their teams employed, to protect apprentices, to hold everything together for their communities.

Those loans are still there. Many won’t be paid off until 2030 and beyond.

We carried that burden because we believed we were doing the right thing.

 
But since then, instead of support, the pressure has only grown.

Costs have been pushed higher and higher, with no real understanding of what that would mean for a sector where over half of all costs are wages. The very thing we were trying to protect jobs  has been made unaffordable.

And slowly, quietly, it has broken something. Today, only 3 in 10 people in our industry are still employed, as over 225,000 have ever been forced to rent chairs or gone into the hidden economy. We even have 16-18 year olds leaving full time education being told their only option is to be self employed with no experience or the skills needed to trade safely. 

Hundreds of thousands have been pushed out not by choice, but because salons simply cannot afford to keep them. They’ve been forced into insecure work, into a system where they have no safety net, no sick pay, no maternity pay, no security.

We have warned Government this would happen.

We showed the evidence, since 2020 
We raised the alarm, so many times 

But we were ignored.

 
And now we are beginning to understand something even harder to accept.

The very model that is destroying jobs in our industry, bogus self-employment  has been allowed to grow elsewhere. Recent investigations, including a BBC exposé, have revealed that Government contractors themselves are operating these same practices across major public projects like HS2, the NHS and the Home Office. This is costing the UK economy £8.5billion. year so no wonder Government are happy to let us little hairdressers, barbers, beauty and apprentices lose their jobs..   Link to BBC Expose - this is shocking!

So while salons have been left to collapse…
the system driving that collapse has been allowed to continue.

Behind all of this are real people.

People you know. People you trust. 

Andy is a dad to two young boys.

During COVID, he shut his salon and took on debt just to survive. As the pressure kept building, he reached a point where he truly believed his family would be better off without him.

He was minutes away from taking his own life.

Another salon owner called him just in time.

Andy is still here.
But nothing has changed that brought him to that moment.

 
Sarah is fighting cancer.

At the same time, she is trying to keep her salon open and her team employed. She doesn’t have the option to stop, to recover, to rest — because if she does, everything falls with her.

 
Helen took a second job stacking shelves overnight just to afford to keep her 17-year-old apprentice.

She worked until her body gave in.

She was rushed to hospital with suspected heart failure caused by stress and exhaustion — and told to stop or it would kill her.

She had no choice but to close her salon.

 
Carla had a stroke.

She returned to work within days — because if she didn’t, wages wouldn’t be paid and jobs would be lost. 
These are not rare stories.

They are happening every day, across the UK. Quietly. Behind closed doors.

 
We are not asking for sympathy.

We are asking for a chance to survive.

 
Right now, just over 69,000 employed jobs remain in our sector.

Those jobs are disappearing fast.

Apprenticeships are collapsing.

And without change, there will be no pathway left for young people to enter this industry.

 
This is not just about hair or beauty.

It’s about your mother, sister, daughter, father, brother, son's jobs

It’s about our communities, without salons high streets will be ghost towns 

It’s about the future of our high streets, we cannot go into detail of just how many rogue traders are operating...

 
And this is where we need your help.

Because if you are reading this, you can make a difference.

Choosing where you book your next appointment matters. Supporting salons that employ properly matters. Understanding that prices reflect survival  not profit matters.

The true cost of £100 service is shocking 

 

 

 

 

Even sharing this message matters. - But we also need your voice.

Because this will not change unless Government acts.

 
WHAT WE ARE ASKING GOVERNMENT TO DO NOW!
We are not asking for handouts.

We are asking for fair, targeted action to save jobs and protect the public:

1. An immediate VAT cut on labour-intensive services to 10%  or better still 0% to allow businesses to survive and grow

These are the rates in other European countries who understand labour intensive service sectors, the UK is the highest by far! 

 

 

Republic of Ireland got it, cut VAT to 9% which resulting in employment increasing by 36% and removed the incentive to avoid VAT. After the 2008 financial crash, Government introduced a 0% VAT rate to support struggling sectors.
That same level of intervention is needed now.
Hair, barbering and beauty services are at risk of collapse, without action, employment will disappear along with the careers of 100,000's

2. Introduce a single worker status to stop exploitation
Young people are being forced into renting chairs at 18, without rights or protections.
Workers are being labelled “self-employed” while being treated like employees.
This must end.
A single worker status would restore fairness, protect rights, and stop the race to the bottom.

3. Regulate the industry to protect you and professionals from being forced out by rogue traders.
Unqualified individuals are operating without oversight, putting clients at risk and damaging the reputation of trained professionals.
Regulation would protect standards, safety, and the future of the industry.

 
Without these changes, we are not looking at decline.

We are looking at collapse.

 
So this is our plea.

To you.

The public we have supported for years.

 
Please stand with us.

Book with an employed salon.
Support businesses doing the right thing.
Share this message.
Talk about it.

And most importantly —

 
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION
Help us show Government that we matter.

Help us save jobs.
Help us protect apprenticeships.
Help us keep our doors open.

 
Because once these salons are gone…

They don’t come back.

 
Save Our Salons. Save Jobs. Save Apprenticeships.