Hairdressers in lockdown: Immoral offers on the phone

“Undeclared work already existed before Corona and of course now more than ever,” says hairdresser Marcel Schneider. He has been running a hairdressing business in Nuremberg Altenfurt for 22 years. Normally he and his team would be able to serve a dozen customers at the same time, but since December 16, there has been no hair left here. Despite the lockdown, Marcel Schneider is regularly in the salon to check that everything is running, watering flowers, picking up the mail – celebrating a bit of everyday life, although there is none.

Immoral offers to hairdressers

 The  need of many people for a liberating haircut is very great, according to the hairdresser, for some it was months ago that they last visited the hairdresser. So it doesn’t really surprise him that calls keep coming in, from customers, but also from strangers, with the request to make an exception.

 The y even want to pay twice the price for a hair-cutting home visit. No chance, he won’t get involved in that. That would not only be illegal, but also highly immoral and unfair to colleagues who stick to the rules, says Marcel Schneider.

Illicit work difficult to punish

Quickly cutting a customer’s hair in exchange for a fee, of course that is tempting and especially now in lockwdown every penny is needed, but the unauthorized, commercial haircut is anything but a minor offense.

 The re are fines of up to 25,000 euros.

 The  number of unreported cases is high because it is very difficult to catch “black workers” in the act, says Elke Schönwald from the Central Franconian police headquarters. If there was a concrete suspicion, one would of course investigate, but the police could not simply go into apartments without a special reason. Such offenses have not yet been reported in Central Franconia.

Celebrity bonus for footballers and Co.?

Hairdresser Marcel Schneider criticizes that the same rules do not apply everywhere. Professional haircutting is officially forbidden, at the same time you see footballers, politicians or other celebrities freshly cut and colored in public. How can that be possible without breaking the rules? From these personalities in particular, he expects more role models.

 The  first customers are now calling again and appointments can be made for February. If there is no further extension of the lockdown, the barber shops are allowed to reopen from February 15. Marcel Schneider wants to remain optimistic, enters customer after customer in the organizer, in any case, February 15th, if everything works out, would be well booked. That is more than necessary, because Marcel Schneider does not want to lose any of his five employees.