The FINANCIAL — Nino Sisauri, loyal customer of beauty salon Natali, sits in a salon chair chatting with the stylist who is colouring her hair with dye and folding sections of it into foil pockets.
“I generally spend about GEL 300 to GEL 500 in beauty salons every month. Getting your hair fixed, nails done and visiting the solarium periodically is quite a time-consuming process, but most enjoyable for women. Even though we are in the midst of serious global and local economical problems I’ll never shorten my expenses on visiting beauty salons,” Nino Sisauri declares.
“In accordance with tough economical conditions, our salon is offering its clients discounts of about 25-30%. Especially for Valentine’s Day’s celebrations, when we reduced prices to 50%. At the moment our customers are able to have their hair cut for GEL 8, which is quite an acceptable price,” Natalia Toloraia, Director of the beauty salon Natali, says.
According to Rusudan Mermanishvili, Director of the beauty salon Aura Plus, people actually need about GEL 150 per month to look after their hair properly.
“We are offering some special discounts to our customers as we understand the tough economical conditions they are in,” Mermanishvili says.
“A hair cut/blow dry costs GEL 30. Manicure service prices start from GEL 12,” Rusudan Mermanishvili declares.
“During the recession woman generally pay GEL 100 per month looking after their hair, and men – about GEL 50. A hair cut costs GEL 12, Manicure GEL 8 and Pedicure GEL 25. With the temporary discounts we are trying to attract customers and during this recession help them to have fewer expenses,” Zizi Tatishvili, Director of beauty salon Zizi, says.
Rusudan Mermanishvili declares that they have about 10 customers a day.
Zizi’s director says that they serve 20 clients per day.
The recession has also affected the beauty salon business in Georgia and salons questioned by The FINANCIAL say that their incomes have decreased.
“Our company’s annual turnover was GEL 70,000 in 2007 and this number has reduced significantly as a result of the financial instability,” Zizi Tatishvili declares.
“Because of the local and global financial problems income of our beauty salon has decreased by 30%,” Natalia Toloraia says.
“USD 15,000 worth of investments has been put in to our beauty salon. In accordance with the year 2007, the income of our company has decreased by 20%,” Mermanishvili declares.
“We are suffering from the loss of 50% in the income of our beauty salon compared to the year 2007. August’s events in Georgia and global financial problems have decreased the number of customers,” Zizi Tatishvili says.
Svetlana, 26, an Australian citizen living in Tbilisi, says that she spends Australian Dollars 30-40 on looking after her hair every month.
“I don’t like doing something special with my hair. Mostly I just colour and cut it once or twice a month. Due to economical problems I have preferred to shorten my expenses for beauty salons and so don’t visit them so often,” Svetlana says.
Apart from Svetlana, Georgians are still continuing to visit beauty salons even during this recession period.
“I don’t think that women should stop visiting beauty salons due to the crisis. In my view visiting beauty salons helps women look good and be more self-confident. It’s one of the most effective antidepressants,” Nino Sisauri says.
Natalia Toloraia says that they are going to continue having discounts on different services. “In terms of discounts, our salon gives the chance to those women who have less financial strength, to visit our beauty centre more often.”
According to the Delaveronline news magazine, as the economy worsens and consumers cut back spending in other aspects of their lives, interest in personal indulgences like salon visits has remained surprisingly strong.
“Those in the beauty industry say people want to take care of their personal appearance because of, rather than despite, the faltering economy and uncertain job market and aren’t willing to abandon those feel-good personal indulgences entirely,” Delaveronline reports.
Written By Tako Khelaia
