How salons are dealing with load shedding

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Salons are being severely affected by the electricity crisis and having to cope with constant power cuts several times a day.

Says Ayesha Rajah of Urban Bliss in Emmarentia: “Luckily, we already had a massive generator on the property, but we had to become a bit wiser in explaining to clients why we sometimes have to juggle them. My main problem is that the Eskom load shedding schedule is never consistent. However, we haven’t turned anyone away yet.”

Rajah is short-running the generator during load-shedding and only uses it for the facial steamer and mag lamp. For massage treatments, the hot caddy is on for 15 minutes before only. Other than that, candles are used during treatments. A serious problem is having to boil a kettle for pedicures as that really drains the generator.

“In terms of business, we are literally just breaking even, what with the normal electricity bill (which has just gone up) and the generator costs. If you are not doing volume in treatments, you are lost. We can’t increase our prices anymore because of the poor economy. Consequently, we have been running lots of specials just to break even and are now even offering food.”

Rajah is currently investing in two 5KWh batteries and an inverter for the steamers and kettle. Once the salon returns to profit, she will have solar panels.

Significant investment

Gina Gall of The Professional Skin Care Lab in Parkhurst recently installed 12 solar panels, two batteries and an inverter. She explains: “Obviously this was a huge investment but our generator was problematic. Apart from being noisy and smelly, my poor staff were being driven mad by having to run outside all the time to switch the generator on and off, and were always concerned about running out of diesel.

“Furthermore, we could only use certain machines with the generator, and some of this equipment was getting damaged because of the different power output. This severely affected my business as I had to cancel some clients and shuffle others around.”

Load shedding has impacted Dolce Vita Beauty Centre in Randpark Ridge in terms of how many bookings it can take at any given time, especially when the Eskom load shedding schedule changes without warning.

Says owner Kym Stafford: “We had a generator installed as it was the most feasible option in terms of investment costs. Because we run a lot of machines, I need quite a lot of power. I am considering a hybrid grid of solar (plus inverter) for certain things and the generator for others.

“We are a small to medium size business and spending about R1,500 a week on diesel for the generator. This is a cost that is not always factored in as much as it should be as our clients’ budgets have tightened, so we do take a hit.

“The switchovers from load shedding to non-load shedding are supposedly automatic but it does take a couple of minutes to kick in, making you late for your treatments.”

Power-free equipment

Hines & Harley in Parkhurst was designed to function without power. Says founder Jared Hines: “All of our equipment either does not need power or has chargeable batteries. So thankfully load shedding has not affected us as severely as other businesses. We did make the decision to install a generator just to give our clients a more comfortable experience.”