After three months with no work, hairdressers are looking forward to getting back on the tools - and the first task for most will be to fix all those horrendous home haircuts and dodgy dye jobs.
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Salon owner Amy Critcher said following the announcement October 11 would be the day she could reopen she has been swamped with bookings, mainly from clients seeking desperate attention.
"I'm already fully booked out for the first two weeks working 12 hour days for 14 days straight," the Albion Park, NSW stylist said.
"The next three weeks after that are almost fully booked."
Many of her clients need their colours touched up or "blended" after matching the wrong colour from supermarket shelves or pasting a block colour over foils.
Bad fringes haven't been too common this time around Mrs Critcher said, as people learnt from their mistakes, but it hasn't stopped them testing their skills on their offspring.
"I haven't seen bad adults cuts this year but kids' [cuts] are bad, real bad," she said.
I haven't seen bad adults cuts this year but kids' [cuts] are bad, real bad.
- Amy Critcher, hair stylist
"It's a mixture of kids doing DIY and their parents. Most of the ones I've seen are like my nephew who had a 'long fringe in my eyes and wanted to fix it', but I met a few of my sons friends in the park and a lot of them had mum jobs done - shocking.
"Some just got a clean buzz cut but even that was patchy because parents don't know that clippers need to be oiled before using."
Embracing grey has has also become a trend, said Mrs Critcher, with some clients opting to ditch their colours altogether though are still happy for a salon perfected style.
Kirsty Brown, who lives on the NSW south coast, said she had learned two valuable lessons during the latest lockdown.
"I was not meant to be a teacher and I was not meant to be a hairdresser," Mrs Brown said.
Sadly it was her husband who suffered the most under her handiwork.
It looked like a simple trim but with hair as "wavy as the ocean on a windy day" she soon realised the task was not so simple, and Mr Brown was quite pleased he wouldn't be seeing anyone for a while.
"It's not straight or even," Mrs Brown said. "Luckily for my son I just gave him a buzz cut. It's just hair, it grows back."
Fellow NSW south coast resident, nine-year-old Justice Green had grand ambitions to turn his hair the colour of the rainbow, but his mother Alison managed to convince him to try one colour at first - his choice was blue.
"We had to bleach it blonde first and it turned orange, then we put blue over the top," Mrs Green said.
"I hate it but he loves it. What better time to do it when no-one can see."
Justice wants to keep his colour beyond lockdown but his mother said he will at least be getting a haircut once the salons reopen.
Kim Baker, 59, of Oak Flats on the NSW south coast said she had been embracing her greys but three months of stay-at-home orders is far too long to keep her usual pixie cut maintained.
Instead of taking to sewing scissors or a kitchen knife, Ms Baker has been creatively dealing with her "long" hair with fun hair-ties and Farrah Fawcett fringe flicks to keep it out of her eyes.
"We forget sometimes to appreciate things that were once so routine," she said. "I feel for the salons as they've been out of work for over 13 weeks."