Haircut during pandemic was a hair-raising experience
There’s a huge relief and readjustment in every profession as things begin to reopen
I just had my first COVID haircut and, like everything nowadays, it was a hair-raising experience.
As I plopped down in the chair, my longtime barber Eddy Bedeir was masked — as was I — and there were more bottles of hand sanitizer and cleaning products visible than hair products.
To avoid reusing gowns, Eddy cleverly stocked up on large transparent garbage bags and punches holes in them. He slipped one over my head, which popped out like rubbish — ready to be recycled.
“I’m trying to be cautious and careful,” says Eddy, “since many customers are still very nervous.
“I always say two things in life matter most: your health and your financial security — and COVID threatened both for many of us. It’s been very intense and scary, so getting a haircut and chatting with your barber feels like returning to normal life.
“It’s a small sign the crisis is ending for now — so I want my customers to feel comfortable.”
Bad haircuts have been a trademark of the COVID era: men with Einstein cuts and ’60s ponytails, women with Rapunzel-style hair and roots showing.
The fact Justin Trudeau just had a haircut has people happily tweeting: “This signals the end of COVID, phase 1!” When he shaves his beard, will it mean we’ve found a vaccine?
My own meagre hair supply didn’t sprout much in the last three months, but Eddy says most customers’ hair is a disaster.
“They’re coming out of imprisonment, with haircuts to match. Some look like Vikings, others like Davy Crockett. Some had spouses cut their hair and it was a massacre — they look really awful, terrible!
“But I work with what I have. If their girlfriend shaved off half a sideburn, I shave half on the other side to match.”
Eddy’s charging five bucks extra to deal with COVID cleanliness demands, but customers are leaving appreciative tips. As one said: “He had to cut twice as much hair as usual, and I pay by the ounce.”
Several customers have left $50 tips. For many, Eddy is the first person other than family they’ve talked to up close and personal since the lockdown began — so they’re feeling intimate.
In fact, Eddy was physically closer to me than anyone’s been in months except my wife — and I jokingly suggested maybe he should use six-foot pruning shears. “We lived through something really traumatic,” says Eddy. “We were confined and isolated, but we’re social animals and now we’re feeling hungry for connections and conversation.”
There’s a huge relief and readjustment in every profession, as things open at lightning speed — with fast-changing, utterly confusing distancing rules: pools (two metres), schools (one metre from other kids, two from teachers), movie theatres (1.5 metres), indoor gatherings (10 people from three families, or is it three people from 10 families?).
My family dentist still isn’t ready for actual clients. He spent all week practising in his new costume: a heavy medical gown, goggles, visor and mask that make him feel like he works in nuclear decontamination.
Meanwhile, over at Marché Central’s MEC, my favourite outdoor equipment store, it’s also a retraining session for us customers.
I needed to return something I bought PRE-COVID, but the lineup outside proved 55 minutes long, in the blazing sun. When I finally got in I decided I’d get some new shorts, too, as I’ve lost weight biking and worrying since COVID started.
But staff explained that changing rooms are closed, while clothing try-ons aren’t permitted for sanitary reasons. There aren’t even any mirrors around to tempt you to peek at yourself holding up an item.
There are no returns of clothing, either — so my size medium was a lottery purchase. But I’d been at the store so long, I risked the bet.
Back home, they just fit, but I better not gain an ounce I’ve lost.
Meanwhile, back at Eddy Coiffure, my barber’s turned philosophical.
“Before COVID I’d been thinking about retiring,” says Eddy. “I’ve been cutting hair 50 years — all my life, really — first in Lebanon, then Europe and here.
“I thought it was time to do something else — read more books, write poetry, who knows? So this was a forced practice session to see how that might work out — and let me say it in one word: boring, boring, boring.
“I watched too much Netflix and smoked till my son said I was turning yellow. My biggest challenge was staying away from the fridge — but I still gained some pounds.”
Eddy says he’s so excited to be back at work, he doesn’t crave retirement now. “It’s like a rebirth, like when I first started cutting hair and used to go out on the street and wave in customers.
“I think it’s the same for many people. Things we took for granted we’ve learned to appreciate again.
“We just want things to go back to the way they were.”