Face masks present a problem.
This is the first installment of Reopenings, a series about how businesses are operating during the pandemic.
In a few parts of the country, it is possible once again to pay someone to fix your split ends and shaggy sideburns. As part of the limited reopenings of their economies, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wyoming are or will soon be allowing hair salons and barber shops to operate as long as they follow certain social distancing measures. Already these businesses are finding that their services have been missed. Brooke McLaughlin, who co-owns the Taylor Brooks Hair Salon & Spa in Johns Creek, Georgia, said that her stylists have had to fix a lot of unmaintained hair and botched DIY jobs during their first week back in business. “It was horrendous. A lot of our men tried to cut the sides of their hair, and they couldn’t blend the tops to the sides. Bless them; they were trying really hard, so A for effort,” she said. “A lot of roots were really overgrown as far as coloring goes for my female clients.”
What is it like to get a haircut during a pandemic? For one obvious thing, it’s impossible for a business that involves hand-to-hair contact to stick to the six-feet-of-distance guidelines that are a mainstay of coronavirus lockdowns across the country. “You’re maximizing your ability to be safe in an environment that arguably can’t be made totally safe,” said Leslie Roste, the director of education for the salon disinfectant company Barbicide, who has been working with states to develop reopening guidelines for salons. “Everybody is within six feet of each other, touching strangers all day long. If you’re cutting my hair, you’re standing behind me, breathing on me…”
To read the entire article from Slate, click https://slate.com/business/2020/05/haircut-salon-safe-coronavirus.html