BEAUTY businesses will be able to reopen from Wednesday, after “personal care” industries were told they could operate in any lockdown tier.

After a difficult few months, beauty firms across the borough will be able to open their doors – regardless of Bolton being placed into Tier 3.

Dionne Leece, who runs The Dressing Up Box, based in Luxadore Studios, is looking forward to next week with cautious optimism.

She said: “It’s a huge relief but it’s been such a turbulent rollercoaster to be on.

“I could have given up so many times over the last few months, and to put your blood, sweat, and tears into something and then to go through all this is very deflating.

“I don’t know if I would feel slightly differently if I didn’t have kids, but I’ve found the restrictions very unfair.

“I worked hard to be covid-secure and couldn’t open my business and have one client in with full PPE on and yet other places like supermarkets were heaving.

“It’s been very worrying, I’ve only worked eight weeks of this tax year and that’s been tough on our finances, but I still have to find a way to put food on the table.”

Mrs Leece feels quite fortunate, as her husband was able to pick up overtime at work to help them get through the difficult period without her income.

However, the extra hours meant that he wasn’t able to spend as much time with their children, presenting another difficulty for them to deal with.

Mrs Leece has been on three training courses to ensure that she is “covid-secure”, with an inspection of the studio showing that everything was in place for her business to reopen safely.

She specialises in cosmetic facial procedures and medical tattooing, such as clinical areola replacement for breast cancer survivors.

Only one client is seen at a time at The Dressing Up Box – and most of the existing practices at the business meet new coronavirus guidelines due to the medical nature of her procedures.

She added: "It’d be interesting to know exactly how many cases came from the beauty industry.

“The evidence doesn’t portray us being an industry where the spread is happening.

"Fortunately, our MP asked Matt Hancock whether he thought there would be any more national lockdowns and he said no, just the tiered approach.

"If that's the case, we shouldn't be closed again so fingers crossed we can stay open now."