Beauty salons and barbershops, businesses that "come more alive" at Christmas

The sway of the people, with their shopping bags going from one business to another and the roadblocks are reactivated in a special way with a few hours left before Christmas Eve. After leaving work, some people stock up to fill their tables, shopping lists in hand. Others have already solved that task and are dedicated to waiting for one of the longest times, but the most necessary and satisfying if they want to give the best impression at the family reunion: the turn to be treated in a beauty salon.

Mary knows. She has arrived at Guandul at 4:00 in the afternoon to do a "complete": fix her hair, paint her nails and feet and also her eyebrows. Hesitantly, she wonders if it will be worth having her washed and blow dried on Christmas Eve “because her hair doesn't last at all”.

-Anyone leaves it for tomorrow, so they are better

-But do it now and you'll get out of it– says Yahaira, the manager of the women's salon.

-Okay. But you have to put good products on me so that they last me a long time!

María is one of the innumerable clients that this salon has received since it opened its doors at 8:00 in the morning, one of the busiest for these festivities in San Francisco de Macorís because it is also a barbershop, cafeteria and nail bar. The smoke from dryers and blowers, mixed with the intense smell of coffee that the four women in charge of the business ask to brew urgently indicates that, although they close at 8:00 at night, they will last much longer.

-Are you going to wait? Look, I have her, her and then the two of them who are drying themselves and who are going to get their nails done too.

-Yeah, no problem.

Although the spontaneity of the conversations and the intimate bonds that the stylists forge with their clients make the salons burst with excitement with each visit, hours before Christmas Eve there is not much time for chatting, so the wait is long. feel even longer. And it is that beauty takes time and everyone is in a hurry… Except for the Dominicans who return to their homes every December.

-I have to do my nails, man. Check it out. They are destroyed and ugly,” comments in fluent English a man whose height, sporty style, rum in hand and a bundle of pesos and dollars in the other hand clearly show where he comes from. He is accompanied by four others who have already finished getting a "complete" at the barbershop: a shave with the style that the client prefers and a shave that cost RD$500 each.

“(That) depends a lot on the style that the client gets. A peel is RD$300. Shave and bangs, like that… RD$200, it all depends,” explains Gaby, a young man who has worked for half of the six years that Guandul has been operating.

Looking towards the door and leaning back in the chair, Gaby is waiting for the next client, but not because of a lack of demand, but because she has just dispatched one. For these times, he says, he has known how to cut 25 people... but not because he works alone. In fact, he is the only one of the six barbers sitting now who passes razors and brushes over the necks of his clients.

-The 24th is the biggest day of the entire year, that's where people come– he says, laughing.

-Until what time do you think they will work tomorrow?

-We don't have an hour tomorrow.

Smerly agrees with this, the young woman who has had to give the manicures and pedicures to the five men who speak English, laugh out loud and have already consumed RD$1,500 in 10 beers.

-And you, do you want a drink? –comments a blond young man to some women under the hair dryers.

-No, thanks.

-Ah, but you don't drink anything, he says as he takes a sip from his Fon glass.

When the girls finish their work, the men say goodbye, eager to get back.

-Take care. See you tomorrow

-But tomorrow is the 24th

-Ah, well, we'll come the next day

-But it's Saturday the 25th, we don't work

-And what day is today? She thought it was Tuesday… Well, see you when they reopen.

“This week has been tight, tight. I got here at 8:05, I started at 8:30 and I haven't stopped. They gave me a 20-minute break, I ate and went back to work in one go,” says Smerly, who has spent the day doing everything. “I do manicures, pedicures, washing, rollers… wavy, if they have to be done. Put tabs, which I do too”.

Although she knows that the hustle and bustle she lives in these times “is not easy”, she admits that things are going very well for her. “For men, a complete manicure and pedicure is charged from RD$900 to RD$1,200, depending on what is done. "(Today) I arranged five men."

To fix women's hands the price varies, but it is lower. A simple painting is RD$100, acrylic nails can cost from RD$300 to more than RD$700. And in her case, who also works styling hair, she can earn up to RD$3,000 on a single client with long hair who undergoes a keratin process.

This is without counting the tip, with which “she does very well” and which can lead her to earn, in total, between RD$5,000 and RD$6,000 in a single day. On the least crowded days, you earn about RD$1,000 to RD$3,000 on average.

“(For Christmas Eve) we won't have a (closing) time, but I hope I don't leave here after 7:00 pm,” he says with a smile.

Together with Yahaira and her two other colleagues –Marlyn and Yina–, the women in this salon have fixed more than 15 people in just three hours. Although night is falling and Smerly is leaving after attending to all those who were on appointment, the evening will be longer for those who remain and have to receive those who have arrived after 7:00 p.m.

-And will it be that I'm the last one to finish everything?– exclaims María, who already has her hair and eyebrows done, but her nails are still missing. No matter how early I arrive... I'm always the last one to leave.