There have been numerous things many of us have discovered amid the coronavirus pandemic. The simple pleasures of a jigsaw puzzle, the joy of baking, creative ways to workout while staying home.
And some of us have also realised just how much we miss our beautician.
Whether your grown-out brows are looking a little wild or your skin looking a little lacklustre without that facial, there have been a number of services we've had to forgo due to restrictions rolled out to contain the spread of Covid-19.
While salons and barbershops began welcoming clients for hair and nail services again in late April, there have been certain treatments off the menu, including threading, waxing and facials.
However, with restrictions easing on office and mall capacity in Dubai, with the former already allowed to operate at full capacity, salons, too, have been able to widen their offerings.
What is now available at salons in Dubai?
As well as hair cuts, colour and nail services, a Dubai Municipality circular shared with The National, dated May 26, reveals that salons can offer waxing, tanning and threading treatments while running at a 50 per cent capacity.
Pastels, which has branches in Mercato Mall and Jumeirah, Kozma & Kozma salon in Umm Suqeim, and Tips & Toes, which has branches throughout the city, are among the salons that have reinstated these treatments.
What safety precautions are in place?
Salon staff must wear face shields while carrying out treatments, according to the directive, as well as face masks and overalls.
Customers and treatment stations must be placed at least two metres apart, with clients also required to wear face masks throughout their visit.
"Mask can be adjusted for very short time periods during certain procedures (e.g. trimming hair behind ears, beard shave) if absolutely necessary," the circular adds.
Scroll through the gallery below to see what a visit to a hair salon in Dubai now looks like:
Chairs, tools and work surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned between clients, and waiting areas must be removed. Instead, appointments have to be made for visits (no walk-ins allowed), and customers should have their temperature checked on arrival.
"We have trained staff on how to professionally sanitise the salon fixtures and fittings as well, as all their equipment, using only high-grade sanitisers as approved by Dubai Municipality," says Ruksher Malik, founder of Pastels salons.
"We have also instigated a flow within the salon – the main door is where clients come to enter, while the side door is the exit door. Once inside the salon, there is clear signage about the two-metre social distancing.
We have trained staff on how to professionally sanitise the salon fixtures and fittings as well, as all their equipment
"In the salons, we have removed alternate chairs from the hair stations and put out of use stickers on alternate backwash stations so that social distancing is easily maintained and there are stickers about this distancing procedure all over the salon."
Salons also need to encourage clients to use cash-free payment methods, such as cards or online transactions.
What's still not allowed?
Tanning and threading may be back on the menu, but spas, sauna, hammams and massage are still not allowed. Home services are also excluded, according to the circular.
Also, don't expect any newspapers or magazines on offer during a salon visit, so make sure you take a book or some form of entertainment with you if you need a little distraction.
Who can make appointments?
While adults over the age of 60 and children between the age of 3 and 12 are still not permitted to visit malls or supermarkets, they can make salon appointments.
However, only one child can accompany an adult to a salon, and that adult has to be below the age of 60.
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
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Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Match statistics
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Harlequins
Tries: Penalty 2, Stevenson, Teasdale, Semple
Cons: Stevenson 2
Pens: Stevenson
Bahrain
Tries: Wallace 2, Heath, Evans, Behan
Cons: Radley 2
Pen: Radley
Man of the match: Craig Nutt (Harlequins)
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
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- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
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Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
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Al Dhafra Street
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How to keep control of your emotions
If your investment decisions are being dictated by emotions such as fear, greed, hope, frustration and boredom, it is time for a rethink, Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, says.
Greed
Greedy investors trade beyond their means, open more positions than usual or hold on to positions too long to chase an even greater gain. “All too often, they incur a heavy loss and may even wipe out the profit already made.
Tip: Ignore the short-term hype, noise and froth and invest for the long-term plan, based on sound fundamentals.
Fear
The risk of making a loss can cloud decision-making. “This can cause you to close out a position too early, or miss out on a profit by being too afraid to open a trade,” he says.
Tip: Start with a plan, and stick to it. For added security, consider placing stops to reduce any losses and limits to lock in profits.
Hope
While all traders need hope to start trading, excessive optimism can backfire. Too many traders hold on to a losing trade because they believe that it will reverse its trend and become profitable.
Tip: Set realistic goals. Be happy with what you have earned, rather than frustrated by what you could have earned.
Frustration
Traders can get annoyed when the markets have behaved in unexpected ways and generates losses or fails to deliver anticipated gains.
Tip: Accept in advance that asset price movements are completely unpredictable and you will suffer losses at some point. These can be managed, say, by attaching stops and limits to your trades.
Boredom
Too many investors buy and sell because they want something to do. They are trading as entertainment, rather than in the hope of making money. As well as making bad decisions, the extra dealing charges eat into returns.
Tip: Open an online demo account and get your thrills without risking real money.
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Sector: Transport
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