NEW DELHI -- India's beauty salons, already battered by the country's devastating second COVID wave, are now dealing with a related setback: customers who are increasingly finding alternatives to venturing out in a pandemic.
Independent owners are finding it hard to come up with rent and pay salaries as fewer clients walk through their doors. "There's hardly any business now," said Malti Chauhan, 45, who runs a one-room salon in New Delhi. Before the pandemic, Chauhan was used to earning over 50,000 rupees a month ($678); she now makes do with less than 50% of that.
