The owner of a much-loved Clydebank beauty salon which was forced to close at the start of the Covid pandemic admits her life has meaning again after she opened back up.

Elaine Watson has revived Helena Beauty Salon - a popular family-run spot her mum started in Clyde Shopping Centre in 2005 - after it closed its doors for what she thought would be the last time in March 2020 as the coronavirus lockdown hit.

Now Elaine has managed to bring the small business back to its original home, and for the last four weeks has been slowly building her book of customers back up.

And, speaking to the Post, she admits it has been a hard couple of years for her personally, one that took its toll on her mental health.

She said: “It actually hit me about a month or so later. It was like your identity had completely gone.

"I felt like I had no focus. It was like somebody had wiped me out as a person because I’ve been in that industry since my mum opened her first shop when I was 16.

“That was, and always has been, my life and my career.

“I never really got that missing piece back until I came back to this. Now I feel whole again and I feel I am where I should be.”

Elaine says that at the height of the pandemic, indoor markets such as hers didn’t get any government help due to not paying any council tax, and that if she had attempted to stay open during the lockdowns, she would have been liable for her full rent costs – close to £700 per week.

It was a cost that couldn’t be met without any customers coming in, meaning that with a heavy heart, Elaine took the decision to close the shop and make her and her four staff redundant.

“That totally flattened us,” she added.

“We thought that was us finished.”

Elaine admits she went through a few ‘dead-end’ jobs after she closed the shop and really struggled financially.

So, it was no surprise she jumped at the chance to re-establish the salon after she heard the shopping centre was offering discounted rates and, having kept the stock from when she closed, she knew now was the right time to resurrect the old shop.

Elaine added: “Everything felt as it should be. It’s been great to get such positivity from people, but we just want more people to know that we are actually back.”

Elaine and business partner Laura O’Neill have set up at unit 48 in the Clyde Shopping Centre, across from Iceland.