Ho Chi Minh City , 11pm on the 27th of Tet, Thuy Tien closed the grocery store and walked to the nail salon on Hoang Dieu Street, District 4, as scheduled.
"It's a joy to be able to make an appointment at the shop at midnight," said the 25-year-old shop owner. Thuy Tien's work is very busy during the days before Tet. Knowing that Tet is only a few days away, she cannot afford to leave her goods to treat herself. Discovering that there is a beauty shop 500 meters away from her house that promises to "open until the end of the customers", Tien made an appointment at 11pm and returned home after 1am.
Ms. My Loan, the nail salon owner, said Tien is one of dozens of customers who have booked appointments for beauty services after 11pm since December 23. Normally, the salon is only open until 8pm, and closer to Tet, there are more customers so they accept appointments until 10pm, but since December 25, the number of customers has increased dramatically, forcing the salon to open later.
"It's common to open until 2am these days," Loan said. There are even customers who have booked appointments for New Year's Eve.
Customers wait to get their hair done at 0:10 a.m. at Ms. Hong Suong's salon in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo provided by the character
The hair salon of Ms. Hong Suong, 29 years old, on Pham The Hien Street, District 8, has also been fully booked since December 23. Suong is the main hairdresser and together with two assistants, she receives 10 customers a day.
Near Tet, the salon is often open until 2-3am due to the large number of customers, many people are forced to postpone their schedule until night. Besides, there are also some people who can only come to the salon after work, cleaning the house. "Customers often choose to dye, straighten, curl, the average time is three, four hours, so leaving the salon at 3am is inevitable," Suong said.
A quick survey by VnExpress shows that many beauty salons in District 1, District 3, District 5 and District 8, with a high number of customers, have had to extend their working hours until after midnight.
Shop owners said that people's demand for beauty services during Tet 2024 decreased by 20-40% compared to last year. However, from December 20 (December 31) to New Year's Eve (January 9), the number of customers increased dramatically while staff could not keep up, causing some people who had made appointments to postpone them to later times.
This is also the situation at Tran Vinh's men's hair salon on Tung Thien Vuong Street, District 8. The salon has been in operation for 6 years, so many regular customers make appointments in advance. Near Tet, the number of customers is double that of normal days.
"We have to operate at full capacity to serve enough customers," Vinh said. "There is only one Tet season each year, so we cannot refuse customers."
Since December 20, he has arranged 12 workers and 10 seats for customers to wait. The shop also prepares food and drinks for customers because it usually takes 4-6 hours for a hairdressing session.
Customers get their hair done at Mr. Tran Vinh's salon in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, at 9:00 p.m. on January 6. Photo: Ngoc Ngan
Late on the 28th of Tet, Ngoc Chi and her mother, a vendor at Xom Cui market in District 8, went to get their hair done together. The 37-year-old woman admitted that getting her hair done at this hour was quite tiring, but their stall was open from 6am to 9pm, so she could only get to the salon around midnight. "There was a year when I fell asleep while working," Chi said.
To serve late guests, the shop owner helps order food and serves free drinks.
Every year, Chi spends about VND2 million on hair dyeing and perming. To schedule an appointment, she has to call a familiar salon 2 km from her house three days in advance. Chi's original appointment was at 7pm on the 28th of Tet, but due to the large number of customers, she was forced to postpone it to 9pm.
"I sympathize because everyone has the need to beautify themselves during Tet," Chi said.
Ngoc Ngan
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