North Derbyshire salon wins national award for way it adapted to lockdown

The team at Becky Candy Salons in Clowne has made the most of an ‘awful’ year for the hair and beauty industry by changing the way they operate.

Staff have used lockdown to introduce new green initiatives to make the salon more sustainable, create an online shop so customers can still buy their products and produce video masterclasses on social media to allow clients to style their hair at home.

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Now the salon has won a Triumph Over Adversity award from industry specialists Joico and Alan Howard – presented to a salon which has created ‘something bigger and better than before’.

Owner Becky Candy, 37, said: “We were over the moon to be announced winners on the night.

"Lockdown has hit our industry, along with many others, really hard and to be recognised for what we have achieved during this devastating time was great.”

Judges praised the salon for introducing the Green Salon Collective, which means 99 per cent of waste at the business is now recycled.

Becky said: “We also launched our online academy to teach others in all areas of hair and business.

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"We changed our team’s working patterns for when we were allowed to reopen to give them every other weekend off.

"We realised in lockdown that spending time with our loved ones is crucial and we wanted to ensure our team was able to spend as much time as possible with their families.”

Becky says she is proud her team of six staff have been able to create something positive during such a difficult time.

“Being closed has been awful, we have had our passion taken away from us,” Becky added.

"Hairdressers live for working on hair and to have something you love stripped away from you for months at a time has been really traumatic.

"We wanted to make sure that we used the time to create something really special.

"We worked hard to introduce the things that are important to us. The things we have been able to bring to the salon would always have come but probably over a longer period of time. Lockdown has given us the time to work on the business and make it even better.”

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.