Close Encounters

New safety protocols and services in skincare and cosmetic clinics

- Kim Reyes-Palanca

It is almost impossible to provide personalized or customized care without close, one-on-one interaction. In beauty, using the sense of touch, and engaging the other senses, comprise a pampering session. But in an atmosphere of avoiding contact at all costs, and with more strict health and safety protocols continually added or adjusted, beauty professionals don’t have a lot of wiggle room.

Leave it to the beauty (and fashion) folk to be creative, resourceful, and resilient. They find the best ways to cope with Covid-19—applying best practices to provide care for patients, and protecting both patients and personnel— all while sustaining some form of business, in one way or another.

Aside from beauty companies, glam teams and beauty clinics that provide personal services through face-to-face interactions are hard hit. For these professionals who work closely with clients and give service with their hands, operating in a time of a pandemic naturally poses problems. But adapting to survive is the name of the game, and the industry is doing everything that it can to fight back and find their footing.

Narvaez Skin Care Clinic, owned and headed by cosmetic surgeon and skin expert Dr. Elwyn Narvaez, prepared for the worst when news of the virus and its stealth transmission came about. “I was already expecting the lockdown before it was even announced,” he says. “First thing that came to my mind was—until when? Then, how do we prepare for both patients’ safety and ours? How will this pandemic affect our industry? As the owner and medical director, one of my concerns was also how to deal with all the expenses if there would be no income for at least a month.”