Sammyjo Pearson and her Longlox team of hair specialists are back \u2013 but can the salon survive the Covid pandemic?<\/p>\r\n
As the UK is drawn in and out of varying degrees of lockdown, it can be easy to overlook how these changes are impacting small businesses across the country.
Angels Of The North \u2013 a fly-on-thewall series about the Longlox hair salon in Gateshead \u2013 puts a human face (an immaculately made-up one at that) to the plight and uncertainty facing such businesses.<\/p>\r\n
Longlox owner Sammyjo Pearson has let cameras in to follow their struggles and successes after filming of the second series got cut short due to the first lockdown.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe opened again on 4 July when we were told we were allowed,\u201d says the 32 year old. \u201cThere was a lot to get used to \u2013 the PPE measures, seeing the girls for the first time in three and a half months, the camera crew, and we had been inundated with messages from clients wanting to get in, which was impossible. So many people had tried to do their own roots with box dye and cut their own hair \u2013 there were so many disasters.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
While business has been good since the salon opened again \u2013 Sammyjo furloughed sta” and was able to avoid making redundancies \u2013 the future looks uncertain.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Boris is thinking about hairdressers and people who wear hair extensions when making his decisions. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair that a lot of businesses don\u2019t have to go by the same rules as we do,\u201d she says.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to wear visors and masks, but you can go to the gym and don\u2019t have to wear a mask. It\u2019s hard to come to terms with. But we got through it \u2013 and obviously my PPE is pink to make it extra girly.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cMy biggest concern would be to go into lockdown again like Northern Ireland. Salons there have closed again [at time of press]. Hopefully we don\u2019t follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
But even in full lockdown, she has been able to prove her entrepreneurial prowess. Sammyjo \u2013 who started doing hair extensions in people\u2019s homes aged just 15 and opened her first salon at the age of 17 \u2013 found a clever way to keep the cash flowing.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cDuring lockdown I turned my mum and dad\u2019s dining room into a stock room so I was selling hair extensions and all the products from the salon from home,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI was working non-stop!\u201d<\/p>\r\n
There\u2019s also been some positive news in Sammyjo\u2019s personal life, as Gary \u2013 who was a potential love interest at the end of the last run of episodes \u2013 is still on the scene.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going really really well. He features a bit in the upcoming series,\u201d reveals Sammyjo.<\/p>\r\n
But are they o#cially boyfriend and girlfriend?<\/p>\r\n
With a big grin, she says: \u201cYou\u2019ll have to tune in and see\u2026<\/p>\r\n
– The Sun<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-the-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twentysix03.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}