Hair and beauty salons say they are not yet ready to reopen - and the government’s announcement that they could caught them by surprise.

While some have reopened, many have come together to announce a joint date in June when they will have social distancing and other measures in place to take their first customers.

Announcing a raft of changes of lockdown restrictions, Chief Minister Howard Quayle said lifestyle businesses such as beauticians, hair salons and barbers can reopen from June 1.

Mr Quayle said the move had ’happened sooner than we perhaps thought it would’ and had only been possible due to the island’s suppression of the virus and the low number of daily cases.

He said of the lifestyle sector: ’We will require practitioners to carry out a risk assessment, to have PPE, and to ensure social distancing on their premises. We will also require them to maintain, for 28 days, a record of all their customers, for tracing purposes should the need arise.’

But the decision seems to have caught some salons by surprise.

Sun and Beauty in Ramsey posted: ’Isle of Man hair and beauty professionals have been given the green light to reopen - for a number of salons, this has been met with enthusiasm and excitement, and they are going to go ahead and open.

’But for many more salons, the feeling is that going from no contact, to full, very close contact with large numbers of clients each week, it is a bit too soon, whilst we are still being told to follow the government’s social distancing guidelines.’

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These salons have come together to make a joint decision to reopen either on Monday, June 15, or Monday, June 22.

Sun and Beauty have chosen to make it June 22 to be realistic about being able to procure the necessary PPE and put other measures in place. They said: ’There are many variables that need to be ironed out, many new products and PPE to be sourced, purchased and delivered, as well as many physical changes that need to be made.

’The other, very real concern for salon owners, is that if they are the only one to delay opening, they will lose their clients to other salons.

’This is why, as an industry, we have come together, and made a joint decision on a date, that we are all happy with.’

The government has issued some draft guidelines for the lifestyle industry.

But Salon 3 in Douglas has announced it is opening on June 8.

It posted: ’The government announced on Thursday that hair and beauty salons can open with effect from Monday, June 1. This was both very exciting but also unexpected news.

’It is first and foremost our priority to ensure that the salon can open as an environment which is as safe as possible and also in line with the guidelines the government have set.

’Of course, this goes hand in hand with ensuring the safety of both our staff and our clients.

’We will not open until we are 100% sure the salon is in line with these guidelines.’

Libraries have also benefited, with branches able to reopen from last Wednesday.

But the Henry Bloom Noble Library in Douglas and the George Herdman library in Port Erin both said that they were not ready to reopen then.

Both posted on Facebook: ’The team are working hard behind the scenes to prepare for a safe opening in the not-too-distant future so please bear with us.’

Henry Bloom Noble Library has today (Friday) announced it will reopen on Monday (June 1).