Haircut appointments might start to be short in supply soon, following the closure of a handful of hair salons across Dunedin.
Several have closed in the city centre in the past month alone, and more were closing down in the suburbs.
Moha Hairdressing co-owner Kylie Hayes said a lot of small businesses, not just hair salons, were struggling at the moment with rising costs, inflation and a shortage of staff.
"Nationwide, there’s definitely a feel, not just specific to hair dressing.
"All those things are starting to affect a lot of people and the owners are getting burnt out.
"I know that there’s been people who have done exceptionally well in business awards, and then they’ve got their business up for sale and you’re like, ‘wow, what’s going on there’."
Hair Smith & The Ghost Barber owner Andrew Smith also believed many in the industry were burning out, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
"There was such a massive demand with Covid and I think there’s a lot of tiredness and jadedness in salons.
"There’s been a few close in my area over the past six months," he said.
He also believed the closures were partly caused by a lack of staff.
He said fewer people were training to get into the industry, and he blamed the collapse of the apprenticeship system.
Formerly, school pupils could walk out of school and into an 8000 hour apprenticeship where they would get on-the-job training.
But these days, students were geared towards a tertiary degree in the industry, and because of the academic component to the degree, many dropped out of the courses, he said.
"If you do an 8000 hour apprenticeship, you tend to stick at it.
"It’s a lot different now.
"There’s not as much time and skin in the game these days."
While Mrs Hayes agreed there was a shortage of hair dressing staff.
She said the bigger issue was it was costing business owners more to keep staff.
"The happy ones stay. It’s an incredible industry to be a part of. It’s about having a love of it, like any industry.
"But there are some salons in town that pay training wages which are below minimum wage, so that could be an issue, especially with rising costs.
"We should be adjusting our prices to meet inflation but it’s very difficult to do.
"If I was in Auckland, my prices would be double what they are here, but Dunedin customers are reluctant to pay national prices.
"At the end of the day, you’ve got to read your market.
You want to have bums on chairs."
She believed it would make more "profitable sense" for some owners to amalgamate and share business costs.
"Everyone wants to be their own boss and do their own thing and have their own space.
"The reality of it all is the costs involved outweigh the ability to earn an income."
