May: A good month for Brandy’s
Closed on May 5, the fifth anniversary of opening her salon, Brandy Ryals was elated to reopen Brandy’s Boutique & Salon Wednesday, May 6, after being closed for seven weeks due to covid-19 pandemic quarantine.
“It was a crazy day. We worked long hours,” she said. On May 6, salons were allowed to reopen with stringent guidelines including not accepting walk-in clients.
Ryals and the other stylists in the salon, Ann Pritchard and Melani Howell, as well as the nail tech, Tara Baker, saw 134 clients from Wednesday to Saturday.
“We kept up with how many people had to reschedule,” she said. She had to reschedule 93 people. “That was actually lower than it would have been as the
week we closed would have been spring break and I started calling people. I probably got two weeks of people in within two days.”
Ryals, who falls into the high-risk category because of an autoimmune disease, wears a mask constantly.
“It’s hot and I run out of breath because people want to talk,” she said, showing off a plastic strap made for her by a client to use to hold the face mask straps to protect her ears from the tension of the straps.
The State Board of Cosmetology sent information about a course by the state Department of Health for additional information about the regulations for reopening. “It was good to get refreshed and to know what we were expected to do to keep everybody safe.”
There can be up to 10 people in the building, but they must maintain a distance of six feet apart, she said.
Financially, it’s been a challenge and Ryals said the unemployment for self-employed persons was not in place during most of the time they were closed.
“We were told to apply. We were denied and denied,” she said, adding the pandemic unemployment insurance system came into place the week the salon reopened. “Two of my girls have had no income. Ann and I had to take out payroll loans to just stay afloat.”
She said she used the time the salon was closed to clean and purchase gloves, disposal aprons, cleaning supplies. And, although expenses were decreased with some of the utilities, there were still expenses as April was the only month they were completely closed.
“It’ll take two weeks of coming in on my days off,” she said. “Everybody that missed an appointment is back on schedule. I immediately filled my schedule up to end of June. All of my people always book their next appointment; we try to book several out.”
“One thing that I think is amazing, is that even though the girls and I couldn’t see each other, how close in contact we stayed. We checked on each other,” she said. “I already knew we were like a little family. But that just confirmed it. We were all so worried about each other.
“And our clients were very understanding. I think everybody was really good; we didn’t have to fix very many things. Maybe a few trimmed their bangs. Many people said they would wait on us. They knew we were going to need them when we opened our doors again.”
“I called Alyssa as soon as I heard that the SBA was going to start turning the banks over,” she said, referring to her loan officer, Alyssa Manuel at Equity Bank.
“Our bank here (Equity Bank) was so good,” Ryals said. “There were a lot of banks looking out for their businesses that make a lot more money than our small businesses do.
“Here in town, they were looking out for the smaller business. I’m so thankful they were who I trusted to help me in this.”
Official government regulations, which will be strictly enforced, include:
1. Face covering must be worn
2. No walk in services allowed, appointments only
3. Clients must answer pre screening questions (these will be posted at the door) prior to entering the salon.
4. Clients are not allowed to bring other family members or friends along with them to appointments. Unless your child has an appointment, you can not bring them along to your appointment.
5. Check in with your stylist upon arrival, but if your designated station is still in use, clients will be asked to wait in their vehicles until station is sanitized and ready for you.
6. Services shall not be performed on clients who show any sign of illness such as fever, cough, or runny nose.