A HAIR salon and wig supplier is "holding its head above water", despite feeling the pinch amid the cost of living crisis.

Award winning hairdresser Rebecca Morgan-Brennan, who runs Morgan's Hair, Beauty and Wigs, has spoken about the struggles her salons in Prestatyn and Chester are facing.

Brexit and the pandemic have already cause havoc for Morgan's; the cost of shipping items from overseas has risen sharply and the salon is experiencing difficulties sourcing certain products.

Now, in response to the energy crisis, Rebecca is closing her salon doors every other Saturday.

"Obviously the struggle of the increase in energy costs is massive," Rebecca said. 

"We have got the salon in Prestatyn, which is a really big salon, and what we have now done is close every other Saturday. That is more so because we want to give our staff a better work / life balance but we do open four late nights now. Monday to Thursday we open until 8pm and this is also because we want to try and give clients more opportunities. If they are clients, working clients, they don't have to spend every working Saturday in the salon and also my staff can be with their families every other weekend.

"We are starting to introduce this to our salon in Chester so we will be closed every other Saturday at our salon in Chester and opening late nights there."

The events of the past 18 months have resulted in huge problems in the manufacturing and supply of wigs, especially those made of human hair.

Rebecca, who has opened a training academy at her Chester salon and starts her studies to become a Trichologist (hair loss specialist) this September, said: "A lot of the wigs we buy come from one of our suppliers in Germany and with Brexit, obviously the cost of shipping and the cost of tax has increased our wig prices by at least 25 per cent. 

"We are also struggling wtih getting the wigs as well as a lot of them come over from Asian companies, especially human hair. We have real difficulty getting human hair, like a big big problem. We literally had some delivered the other day and we ordered them in January.

"A lot of these countries are still struggling with Covid. They are also not getting the workers back who make the wigs because a lot of the people have to go back to the small villages where they came from. They are also struggling to get hair as well because a lot of the people have gone back to the small villages and they haven't returned to places where the manufacturers or factories in China where they are making a lot of the wigs."

Rebecca has voiced concern that in North Wales, the amount of money people are given towards a wig voucher in the NHS hasn't increased in seven years.

Rebecca said: "That is a bit of a problem because the prices of wigs have really quadrupled, again, going back to human hair, that has gone up by at least 100 per cent.

"A wig that would have normally cost £700 is costing £1,500 and that is hell of a lot of money and it is really bad because it means people have to change the way they look and they don't want to. They are conscious enough in themselves about how they look when they haven't got any hair so this is a difficulty that we are also having."

Morgan's launched their own brand of hair care products after not being able to get hold of the items from their usual supplier [an Italian brand].

"Again, it is the whole Brexit thing," Rebecca explained.

"We have had our own brand of hair care products made which is even better for us. They are Vegan and we are hoping to make them a bit more sustainable for the future so we can reduce the amount of packaging so we can get refillables or even hair shampoo / conditioner as a bar.

"All our products, or the majority of our products, are made in the UK."

Morgan's has only increased its prices once in the last four years.

"We try to keep our prices as reasonable as possible," Rebecca said.

"We have employed members of staff so I want to make sure they are rewarded financially for their expertise and time and effort that they have put into becoming the stylist that they are."

Rebecca and Morgan's have won a string of awards. This year, at the British Hair and Beauty awards 2022, Morgan's scooped Silver in the category Entrepreneur of the Year.

Rebecca has also been named a finalist for 'Female of the Year 2022' in the Cheshire Business Awards. The winners will be revealed in November. 

Rebecca added: "Morgan's has gone from strength to strength over the last nine years. Next year is our 10th year and our team is growing. We've got really good staff, the standard is very high, so we do have a lot of return and repeat clients. We are always putting our staff on courses, learning new skills.

"We have to make sure what we are charging will cover our cost of everything. Colours, prices of foil, etc.

"The prices of everything has gone up but we are holding our head above water and doing ok."