Barbers and clients celebrate reopening
HOLTVILLE — Many bushy-headed Imperial Valley residents rejoiced as the state allowed barbershops, as well as hair salons throughout the state to reopen Monday for indoor services.
This comes after more than five months when giving haircut could result in a visits from the local police.
While no arrests were ever made, officers, notably in Heber and Calexico, did contact these barbers and remind them of the county ordinances that were in effect at the time.
Raul Ortiz Jr., owner of 90’s Barber Studio in Imperial, recalled that, during this time, some barbers were charging about $40 per haircut.
Ortiz said he felt these barbers were, in fact, taking advantage of people.
“And that’s not cool, because you build bad karma that way,” he said.
Ortiz noticed that people wanted a haircut “even more” while barbershops were closed.
“It’s kind of like when someone tells you, you can’t do something then you want to do it more,” he said.
The days of Valley residents looking for a haircut “under the radar” within the county, or traveling to Yuma or Mexicali for one, are now over.
Barbers and shop owners, however, are still feeling the effect of the nearly five-month closure.
Ortiz said he had to sell one of his cars in order to make up for the twomonths in delinquent rent he accumulated during the statewide closure.
“I asked my landlord, if I could catch a break
with the whole rent thing, and she did,” the owner said. “She helped me out a little bit, and that’s what really blessed me in order for me to even stay open.”
Ortiz received more assistance in maintaining his shop, which is located on South K Street, from the city of Imperial.
90’s Barber Studio was one of four barbershops (16 businesses in total) in Imperial that received a $5,000 coronavirus relief business assistance grant from the city on Wednesday.
Ortiz, an Imperial Valley native, first opened 90’s Barber Studio in December 2018.
“It was going good,” he recalled. “Everything was solid until this happened.”
Ortiz’s shop is made up of two barber chairs — one of which he mans — and a hair stylist and nail technician.
While the stylist and technician are still in business, the other barber quit out of precaution for COVID-19.
Ortiz now has a barber-in-training working the shop’s other chair.
“We’re slowly just trying to rebuild,” Ortiz said.
For the shop’s reopening day on Monday, Ortiz said he had a full scheduled booked — and more clients inquiring if they could get penciled in.
Outside of the shop’s door hang a few signs that remind clients to wear a face mask.
“It’s kind of annoying, but we gotta do it,” Ortiz said. “We gotta stay safe.”
As an additional precaution, Ortiz has limited the number of clients he’s seeing each day to around seven — down from his usual 15 to 20 per day.
Ortiz explained that he’d like to take in new clients little by little in order to limit the number of people who come into the shop throughout the day.
While this reduced number of clients may be felt come bill time, Ortiz said he still feels “blessed” to be able to come back to work.
“That’s my main goal: I just want to be happy, I don’t care about the money,” he said. “It’s my passion. I like it. It’s fun. It doesn’t feel like a job to me.”
Big Fellaz Barbershop in Brawley felt that reopening was worthy of a celebration.
The shop, located on South Plaza Street, had a soft opening event Friday evening.
Barbers Luis Herrera, German Portillo and Sergio Martinez took walk-in clients, while DJ JSteezy Diaz played music outside and the Flash Dog hot dog cart gave a free hot dog to every person who got a haircut.
Puro Impala Car Club Valle Imperial was also parked outside to provide extra atmosphere, and an “after drinks” event was held across the street at Inferno once 9 p.m. rolled around.
While shops are now allowed to reopen, not all shops in the Valley have.
The Crossing Barber Shop on Imperial Avenue in Calexico, and Heber Barbershop on East Main Street in Heber have yet to open the gates over their doors.
Some shops also took the nearly five-month closure time to create new safety measures for their day-to-day operations.
Emmanuel Barbershop in Calexico now has a three-step system for each client who walks through its doors.
Each client must undergo a forehead thermometer temperature check, apply hand sanitizer (which is provided) and get sprayed from the waist up with disinfecting spray from a spray bottle.
The seats where clients sit while awaiting haircuts have also been spaced 6 feet apart.
Clients and barbers at the shop, which is located at the corner of Seventh Street and South Imperial Avenue, are required to wear a face mask at all times.
“Basically everyone wears a mask,” barber Luis Manuel Gonzalez said.
Each barber at the shop also uses disposable barber capes, which are thrown away after each haircut.
Emmanuel Barbershop is accepting walk-in clients, and has its restroom open to clients.
That’s not the case at Cuts and Fades Barbershop in Holtville.
The shop, located on West Fifth Street, is operating on an appointment-only basis as of now, and has its restroom currently closed to the public.
This is one of a few precautionary measures that owner Diana Garcia implemented since the shop opened Monday.
“Just to reassure our clients and our community that it’s safe to come in here,” Garcia said.
Garcia said that once some of the shop’s longtime clients came in, it was evident that they hadn’t had a haircut since February or March.
“After I cut their hair, just the smile on their face, it’s better than being paid,” Garcia said. “Because they’re so happy. When you look at yourself in the mirror, and, if you don’t feel good — if you don’t like the way you look, then you’re not going to feel good.”