For Murat Karamanoglu, opening a traditional Turkish barbershop on Green Lanes was a huge relief after months of uncertainty.
Four weeks later, that feeling swiftly faded: Chaplin Barber has been forced to close after the nation headed into its second lockdown.
For new businesses such as Chaplin Barber, the lockdown is particularly challenging. Karamanoglu, the barber’s owner, said: “It will be difficult. New businesses need time, at least six months, to set up everything. We had a good start but now I think it will affect us massively. And we have to start again after lockdown.”
Under the latest coronavirus restrictions, hair and beauty businesses in England are required to close until 2 December.
Karamanoglu opened the premises in October after a tumultuous year. He sold his previous barbershop in Brighton in January, just two months before the first national lockdown began in March. His plans to open a new shop were delayed by the pandemic, and the severity of coronavirus restrictions in the UK made him consider moving abroad. Karamanoglu eventually settled on the Newington Green site, an area he knows. But the business’s opening has not gone as planned.
The National Hair and Beauty Federation (NHBF) has urged the government to provide more financial support to businesses, including extensions to business rate relief and eviction protections.
Karamanoglu agrees that more could be done to support organisations like his own: “The government has to help new business a little bit more.”
Yet he remains optimistic: “I believe this pandemic will finish one day, but not quickly… We are all in the same boat.”
