Of all the businesses in Andover, the most hotly anticipated for today’s (April 12) reopening were those for personal care, whether that’s grooming, nail care, or, as for many of us, trimming our lockdown hair.

There have been queues outside many of the town’s barbers and salons from early this morning, with many opening before normal hours in order to get ahead of the rush of customers coming in throughout the day, and will be working extra hours over the coming days and weeks to meet demand.

Gennaro, from his eponymous Italian Hairdressers on Junction Road, is one of them. They will be working on Sundays and Mondays, normally their days off, to “get through the backlog”.

“Lockdown has been hard,” he said, “but mainly because we had to do home schooling! We only have go cover some bills as a family business like water and electricity, which we've used less of while closed.

"We got a mortgage holiday too, so overall we coped with lockdown. It's a bigger problem for people in the town centre with massive rent to pay.”

They said that their position meant they had "been lucky, in a way. We didn't suffer as much".

On reopening, he said: "It's nice. It's like being reborn. We're very busy now, and have been taking bookings for the last two weeks.

"We're looking forward to getting back to normal," he said. "We're getting to the light at the end of the tunnel".

Another business which will be doing extra hours in the coming weeks is Beauty and Brows, which provides a variety of treatments. The business has implemented a booking system as demand means they can’t keep up with walk-ins.

“Lockdown has been balanced,” said Amanpreet Kaur, the owner. “We got support from the government which helped, not much but it’s better than nothing.”

She said that reopening mean that “life is back on track”.

“It’s good, and we’re busy again,” she said. “It will take a bit longer to be normal again but clients are coming.”

Looking to the future, she says that she’s hoping for a boom in staycations to help make up for lost custom.

“Summer is normally the busy time for us because lots of people go for holidays,” she said, “but now they can’t so there might be an impact on the business, but another hope is that people taking local holidays will pick up that difference.”

The demand is certainly present in Andover from customers of beauty salons and hairdressers. Nigel, who was waiting to have his hair cut at one of the town’s venues, said it was “fantastic” to get back to a barber’s.

“I can’t remember the last time I went to have my hair cut,” he said. “It was before Christmas, but it was ages ago."

He said he was planning to head around town to see what was open following his appointment.

While the demand may have allowed personal care businesses to return to business as normal, many have taken the opportunity to innovate, such as Cinderella’s Hair Boutique.

Cindy, from the salon, said: "We now do branded hair extensions and use them for a hair technician academy," she said. "It made sense as I had loads of time on my hands".

She said it was “fabulous to reopen,” adding: “I think it's just been a nightmare for everyone in lockdown”.

If you’re planning on heading out to get a treatment, make sure to check in advance whether you can walk in or not, as there’s plenty of demand to get through first.