Lackey urges Newsom to allow barbers, beauticians to resume work

Assemblyman Tom Lackey, RPalmdale, is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to allow barbers and beauticians to resume work under California’s second phase of reopening.

In a May 14 letter, Lackey said he wrote on behalf of “numerous” workers in the sector from his district who reached out concerning the state’s roadmap toward reopening.

“As we begin phase two, nonessential manufacturing and retail businesses have begun to reopen. However, barbers and beauticians must wait until phase three to resume work, which could be weeks or months away,” read the letter.

Newsom said Monday further reopening, including hair salons, could come in the next few weeks.

“A number of other sectors of our economy will open up again if we hold these trend lines in the next number of weeks, and that includes, for example, getting a haircut, which is very meaningful, and that could be done on a regional variance, but it will be able to be advanced, we believe, in the next few weeks, even statewide,” Newsom said during his daily news briefing.

When asked about hair salons reopening specifically, Newsom said, “We’ll be putting out guidelines in this space for counties that can self-attest in the next week or so, and then within a few weeks, more broadly statewide, though, those guidelines will be forthcoming.”

Lackey argued that barbers and beauticians already must adhere to stringent health and safety regulations, such as constant disinfecting, sanitizing and sterilizing of their equipment after each client, which would make accommodations to comply with further guidelines something workers are willing to make.

“For each day we prohibit this group of professionals to reopen, we are damaging the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Californians. The longer we delay reinstating this sector of the economy, the more suffering families will endure,” Lackey said.