By Raven Ash

During the Covid-19 crisis, most people have nowhere to go but home. But for many people, staying up to par on personal grooming remains at the top of their priorities even when their daily routine consists of getting out of bed only to move to the couch.

In a social media survey, I asked people ‘What is the first thing you are going to do after the shelter-in-place order is lifted?” All females who replied to the survey said their first stop out of their house will be to catch up on some personal grooming. The top answer was getting a manicure, but other answers varied from pedicures, tanning, eyebrow waxing and hair cut or color.

While many people are excited to have these services available again, even more people are attempting to do their own services at home.

 Youtube videos titled “How to do acrylic nails at home”  and “How to remove acrylic nails at home” have received hundreds of comments indicating that they were watching the video to learn to do their own nails during the shelter-in-place orders. The same can be said for How To video that show viewers how to color their hair at home.

The internet has been bombarded with memes of people who have attempted to cut their own bangs strictly out of boredom.

In a CNN article by Alicia Wallace, Nielsen data revealed that Walmart shoppers have moved on from toilet paper and onto hair clippers and hair color. “Sales of hair clippers increased 166% and hair coloring products rose 23%, from the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen,” Wallace wrote.

Self-tanning products have also been flying of the shelves. To find my favorite self-tanning product, I had to search multiple websites. However, the Isle of Paradise tanning drops were sold out on every website that sells them.  This can be attributed to the closures of tanning salons and beaches.

Grooming routines appear to be something that people refuse to let Covid-19 destroy.

With so many people finding do-it-yourself alternatives for their personal grooming routines, it will be interesting to see if business’s lose clientele once they are able to reopen.