Addressing concerns of the salon industry, Godrej Professional announces suraksha salon program 

Mumbai: Godrej Professional, a professional brand with products in hair colour, care, styling and keratin from Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL), announced Suraksha Salon Program, to support the Indian salon industry as it moves into the new normal. As an industry-first initiative by any professional beauty brand, Suraksha Salon Program by Godrej Professional will have three pillars – free distribution and subsidized sanitizer and disposable kits cost for salons, education on safety and hygiene for salon infrastructure and services, and back-to-business support. All of these initiatives are available free of cost to any salon that requires support and is not restricted to those that use Godrej Professional
 
COVID-19 has already heavily impacted the salon industry leading to a complete halt of operations. Salon professionals works in close proximity with their clients. Thus, the salons would need to completely transform and establish a safe in-salon ecosystem for both employees and customers. Suraksha Salon Program by Godrej Professional will provide all the necessary guidance, resources and updates to salon owners to ensure safety and well-being of their staff and customers.
 
Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Sunil Kataria CEO – India and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) said, “Godrej Professional is committed to empower and uplift the Indian salon industry. At a time when the salon industry is being impacted by the ongoing lockdown, our focus is on empowering them to be business-ready with necessary protocols in place as soon as the operations are allowed. With the Suraksha Salon Program, we are ensuring that salons experience a smooth transition into the next phase of their business with a greater emphasis on hygiene, which is going to be the new normal, and make this migration easier for them.”
 
Under the Suraksha Salon program, Godrej Professional is donating 15,000 litres of sanitizers and 10,000 re-usable masks for the well-being of the stylists. In addition, Godrej Professional will also continue to support salons with sanitizer & disposable kits for salon safety in a non-profit manner. Disposables will be the new norm in the salon industry post lockdown. Linen, towel, capes, gloves, among are the most used wearables in salons. However, the pricing and availability of disposables can be an issue. To deal with his challenge, Godrej Professional has partnered with vendors making such disposable items to provide salons easy accessibility at a highly subsidized price. The Suraksha Salon program will continue to provide all salons with sanitizers and these disposable kits at subsidized cost until the outbreak of the virus is contained. This support is open to the entire fraternity and an industry initiative expected to support more than 10000 salons.
 
Godrej Professional has curated ‘Suraksha Guidelines’, a comprehensive module on safety and hygiene, co-created with an expert with more than 25 years of experience in healthcare and hospitality sanitization. The guidelines cover all aspects of salon sanitization, employee safety, client safety, and hair services, to skin and make-up services. The whitepaper is available in English, Hindi and 7 regional languages such Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali so that salon owners & stylists from any part of India can easily understand the guidelines.
 
To address concerns about re-starting salon operations and avail sanitisation products on priority, a Suraksha Salon helpline is also setup under the program. Back-to-work contact and digital kits will be provided to the salons to share with customers once the business resumes.
 
Godrej Professional has bought together subject matter experts on salon operations, sanitisation and hygiene to hand-hold salons as they resume operations. Experts like Natasha Naegamvala (Director, Nalini of Nalini and Yasmin Salon); Dr. Swati Maheshwari (Internal Medicine Specialist); Hiraman Rathod (Sanitization & Fumigation Expert); Asha Hariharan (Industry Veteran & Education Ambassador, Godrej Professional); Rayed Merchant (Director Market (Global) & Head Brand Procurement, IKONIC); and Heena Dalvi, National Technical Head, Godrej Professional imparted education online to salon professionals on necessary protocols to ensure risk-free environment for staff and customers. These were a series of 8 interactive sessions where viewers could ask the experts their doubts and seek immediate clarifications.
 
To ensure that stylists thoroughly understand and imbibe the Suraksha Salon guidelines, Godrej Professional is offering certified training courses online. These are being offered free of cost and are open to anyone from the salon community. Salon owners and stylists are encouraged to call the toll free Suraksha Salon Helpline to register themselves for the course.
 
Sharing her thoughts on the initiative, Spoorthy Shetty, CEO, BBLUNT, India’s leading unisex salon chain with a pan India presence, said, “It is a matter of great pride to see Godrej Professional, the hair colour and care company stand in support of the Indian salon industry during this time of crisis through the Suraksha Salon Program. Godrej Professional is giving free safety kits to salons and are providing sanitizers at a subsidized price irrespective of whether salons use Godrej professional range of products or not. Additionally, the brand is conducting several live sessions to support and mentor salon professionals on the safety and hygiene norms to ensure that the salons come up to speed with the elevated safety and hygiene protocols that is going to be the norm going forward.”