Hair salons across Hanoi were crowded by male customers on Monday as everyone wanted a fresh haircut before new restrictions for COVID-19 prevention came into force.

Authorities in the capital have suspended non-essential businesses and services, including barbershops, from 0:00 am on Tuesday after detecting additional local coronavirus infections.

Following the announcement of the suspension, which is expected to last until further notice, many men flocked to hair salons to get haircuts in order to avoid shaggy hair.

Some of them had to wait for two to three hours before their turn.

“The number of today’s customers is two to three times higher than normal days,” said Giap Van Duy, a barber at a hair salon in Thanh Xuan District.

“I’ve been working since midday without a break.

“It’s one customer after another.

“Everyone wants to get a haircut because they don’t know when they will be able to do so again.”

Nguyen Minh Tuan, the owner of a barbershop in Ha Dong District, said that some of his customers had to wait from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Monday to get a haircut.

“I try to help customers have the best service,” Tuan said. 

“I know life will be more difficult due to no income after this."

Hanoi had temporarily closed non-essential businesses on May 24 and only reopened them with strings attached on June 21.

The capital city reported 29 local coronavirus cases on Monday and one case on Tuesday morning, according to the Ministry of Health.

The new infections increased the city’s caseload to 534 on Tuesday morning.

Vietnam has been battling a new outbreak with 29,154 local infections recorded in 58 out of 63 provinces and cities since April 27.

The country has confirmed an accumulation of 32,665 infections, including 30,724 community cases, since the pathogen first hit it early last year, according to the health ministry’s data.

Recoveries have risen to 9,331 whereas the death toll has reached 125.

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