Shut down salons, industry group urges
The Allied Beauty Association is calling for the Alberta government to suspend all professional services until the COVID-19 containment period is lifted.
Alberta and Manitoba are the only two provinces — along with the three territories — that have yet to order a mandatory shutdown of personal service businesses such as hair and beauty salons, tattoo parlours, health spas and massage-therapy services.
Alain Audet, executive director of ABA Canada, said the proximity of professionals and their clients is counterintuitive to the global attempt to slow the spread of the virus.
“In a salon environment, we see a difficulty in respecting proper physical distancing. The professional works in very close proximity with the client for a half an hour to a couple of hours. depending on the services they’re getting done,” Audet said.
“The average beauty person would see five clients a day on a very slow day. This is five new exposures to that employee … the multiplication could be horrible.”
Many Calgary hair salons were pre-emptive in shutting their doors, including Ari+blair in Kensington.
Owner Vanessa Kenge made the decision to close last Wednesday, which stirred mixed feelings among her staff of 22.
“Some were like, ‘Well, I need to make money. I really want to stay open,’” said Kenge, who has been in the hair industry locally for 15 years. “Others were like, ‘I want to stay open, too, but my dad is 75 years old and I don’t want to be putting him in a position of risking his health if someone is sick and comes into the salon to get their hair done.’”
There are 15 hair stylists in her salon, which sees anywhere from 40 to 50 clients per day.
Kenge had to weigh the risks of her business taking a serious hit with thinking of the health and safety of the community.
Ari+blair isn’t alone, as major Calgary salons such as Swizzlesticks, Red Bloom, Pepper Hair Haus and Hedkandi all shut their doors early last week.
But the fact that Alberta is still technically allowing business as usual in the industry has many owners frustrated.
“I find it super-strange,” said Jereme Bokitch, owner of Hedkandi. “We (shut down) so long ago and it was great to see that more and more of the bigger salons and some of the smaller ones were closing.
“But it just doesn’t make sense why the government wouldn’t mandate that, considering we can’t be within two metres of somebody. We’ll do 6,000 clients a month. When I heard, it was far too scary for us to take any chances on infecting anybody.”
Without a government-ordered shutdown of the industry, Audet said, some businesses are forced to remain open to continue generating income.
“Until there is a government-mandated closure, they’re afraid they’re not going to be given any type of help,” Audet said.
The Massage Therapist Association of Alberta sent out an email to its members on Tuesday saying the Alberta government had not yet released a mandated closure of massage-therapy services.
However, the association recommended that therapists “refrain from offering massage therapy at this time.”