Salons slowly return to business
With Solano County granting permission for more types of businesses to reopen, several hair and nail salons in Vacaville have begun resuming indoor operations.
Business appears to be slower than it has been in the past, but salons have been able to continue serving their customers while making the necessary modifications to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s wonderful,” Jen Corral, owner of So Lavish Salon & Spa on Main Street, said. “It’s great mostly because my employees get to get back to work. I don’t have renters, I have all employees. It’s good to be able to make sure people have a job.”
Back in March, after the coronavirus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, Solano County had issued a stay-athome order which prohibited a variety of businesses from operating, including hair and nail salons, barbershops and spas.
In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued guidelines for barbershops and hair salons to reopen while giving counties the discretion to do so. Soon after, Solano County’s Public Health Department gave permis
sion for such establishments to reopen with modifications, although nail salons were not included.
However, salons were ordered by the state to close again in July following a spike in cases statewide over the summer.
Now, barbershops and hair and nail salons can open again with modifications following Solano moving to the state’s “red tier” for reopening, which allows businesses to operate with fewer restrictions.
Phong Nguyen, owner of House of Hue Nails & Spa on Davis Street, was glad to be open again. His business reopened Wednesday after being consistently closed since March which presented financial challenges.
“It’s very difficult because I had to pay rent while we were forced to close,” he said. “All the (Paycheck Protection Program) loans and all that funds ran out.”
Nguyen said he had slowly been letting his customers know that House of Hue was reopening, and they have slowly started to come back. However, he said a lot of customers and technicians were feeling cautious and not coming back right away.
“They want to wait it out,” he said.
For his part, Nguyen has put screen visors on all the chairs and tables, checked the temperature and asked survey questions of every person that has come in, had customers wash their hands before sitting down with a technician, ensured the availability of personal protective equipment and limited the number of occupants to no more than five customers and five technicians at a time.
Over at So Lavish, Corral said hand sanitizer is available throughout the salon, all stylists wear face coverings, clients are requested to do the same, surfaces are sanitized and disinfected between each client, and clients are taken one at a time and seated at every other station.
“Our stations are about 6 feet apart (normally), but everyone is actually probably at least 12 feet apart,” she said.
Corral also said her salon is large enough to accommodate up to four people spaced apart in the lobby at a time.
“We are practicing CDC guidelines and state Board (of Barbering and Cosmetology) guidelines,” she said.
The biggest struggle for Corral has been paying the overhead rent costs while closed.
“My landlord, for two months when we were closed, she gave me half off rent, but my overhead is pretty high,” she said. “That was challenging for me paying my bills while we were closed.”
Corral said once she reopened, they received a steady stream of clients who had not had their hair cut while barbershops and salons were closed. Now that appears to have slowed down. So Lavish also is not getting spa service, but Corral said most of their revenue comes from people getting their hair colored rather than just cut.
“As long as we have business coming in and revenue coming in, I believe I can stay open,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen from here.”
Back in July, Newsom waived a state law and allowed salons to provide their services outside, something the Vacaville City Council approved locally at its July 28 meeting. Some salons in Vacaville took advantage of it but not all. Nguyen said the issue was his shop’s close proximity to Mary’s Pizza Shack which was also serving its customers outside.
“If the wind kicks up and blows my powder into someone’s food, that’s a huge liability,” he said. “My insurance will not cover any damages that happened outside, only inside.”
Corral felt the same way. Her salon is next to La Borgata Italian Deli, which the city allowed for customers to take part in outdoor dining in a portion of the parking lot in front of So Lavish as well as the alley behind it. She said temperatures were also in the triple digits when the council approved the program, which prevented So Lavish from being able to do business outside.
Moreover, Corral felt cutting hair outside was “not sanitary.”
“Even if the wind blew, dirt’s flying up,” she said. “I don’t know how that is more sanitary than actually being inside where you can practice sanitation and disinfection.”
Cathy Deering, manager of Fantastic Sams on Peabody Road, said she felt it was unfair that salons were being categorized with bars and other businesses that closed indoor operations since salons and barbershops are already held to high standards of sanitization.
“We’re more sterile than a hospital,” she said. “We don’t understand why we’re categorized with bars and restaurants.”
Nonetheless, Fantastic Sams is open four days a week and adhering to CDC and state guidelines including requiring masks before entering, keeping 6 feet apart and sanitizing after each client.
“We are actually one of the few salons that are able to keep the doors locked because we have a panic door lock on our side so we can get out,” Deering said. “It’s not a key lock.”
Deering is glad to be back in business.
“(We’re) really happy to be open serving our clients,” she said.