A WEST FIFE hair salon owner suffered a backlash when he asked customers to do lateral flow tests before coming in.

Due to increasing COVID numbers, John Bailie, owner of Lime Salon, sent an email to all customers asking them to do a test before their appointment.

But he was surprised by the reaction sparked in some.

He told the Press: “Some had just said, 'I'm not prepared to do that', cancel my appointment I’ll come back next year, which I think is silly but I respect their point.

“One in particular said that she thought it was disgusting that I was asking people to do that, who did I think I was?

“She actually kept her appointment because she couldn’t get another one before Christmas somewhere else, but she made it clear that she wasn’t coming back next year.

“Another one said that they thought my business was going to go down.

“Another client sent a really dismissive message saying, 'I'll just go back to cutting my own hair, thanks'.

“Another one had said, 'If you think I'm going to do a lateral flow just to get a haircut you must be mistaken'.”

John, who owns salons in Inverkeithing, Dunfermline, and Falkirk, said he only wanted to protect his staff and clients by introducing additional measures, and explained: “It’s pretty apparent that the likelihood of COVID coming into the salon is much more than what it was before.

“Last year was bad enough – we had quite a few staff members who didn’t get to enjoy Christmas because they had to isolate, whether they had COVID or not.

“Last Christmas Eve there were four staff members pinged in one salon from one client.

“They had to literally walk out and we then had to cancel clients.

“Obviously, it’s really not great for a business if people have to walk out or people can’t come to work.

“We just thought it was a safe and quite expected thing that people wouldn’t mind doing before they come in.”

John took to social media, posting a video to vent his frustration with some people who he says do not value workers as they should.

“There aren’t many other people that you stand so closely to for so long,” he said, “they just don’t put a value on the staff’s Christmas, their health, the health of their families, that’s what really annoyed me.”

It has not all been negative, though, and John said he had received even more supportive comments: “We have had a million positive messages which has been lovely, people have been messaging me on Facebook who I don’t even know.”

John’s plea was validated when one client called to say she needed to cancel her appointment as her test had come back positive.

He said: “She would potentially have wiped out the stylist because they would be in close contact, probably a junior and if she had her nails done as well then there’s the nail technician.

“So, there’s 30 clients over the next week that are getting cancelled because of one person. Can you imagine if she hadn’t done the test, that’s the situation we would have been looking at.”

After having COVID measures in place for almost two years, he admitted he didn't expect such a backlash.

“We’ve had grumblings before but nothing like this. When you work with the public you get people on the whole spectrum.

“So, one person complains that there aren’t enough windows open, even though it’s one degree outside, then you’ll have the client sitting next to her saying the salon is too cold, that she doesn’t want this horrible screen next to her, we have to have a balancing act.

“There’s this growing divide of people now. Ninety per cent of people are understanding but you have this other 10 per cent who are taking their frustrations out on people like me who are just trying to keep everybody safe.

“We’ve all just got to do our bit, that’s what I keep saying to the staff, do your lateral flows in the morning, do your bit. If everybody does their bit we’ll get through it.”