Salons getting ready to resume service
Promises to be a different experience with measures to keep clients and staff safe
WATERLOO REGION — Cindy Calhoun’s phone has been ringing non-stop since the province announced hair salons in Waterloo Region could soon reopen. Hundreds of clients who haven’t had a cut for months — or who perhaps gave themselves a trim — are reaching out through Instagram, Facebook, email, text and by phone to get on the wait-list at Calhoun’s uptown Waterloo salon, Cowboys and Angels.
Earlier this week the province announced hair salons and barber shops, along with a number of other businesses in the region, could open their doors Friday as some pandemic restrictions are lifted.
The province has offered some direction on how to operate safely. At salons measures have to be taken to ensure physical distancing. Where physical distancing can’t be maintained, patrons and workers must wear face coverings and other appropriate personal protective equipment.
Businesses should also oper- ate by appointment and keep patron contact information for possible contact tracing.
There are some restrictions: these businesses are not allowed to offer services that tend to a customer’s face such as facials and makeup applications.
After being closed for months, Calhoun is delighted to be opening.
“We are insanely happy,” said Calhoun, who has owned the salon for more than two decades.
She plans to open her doors to clients with appointments as early as Friday morning at 9 a.m.
“We’re just ready,” she said. Cambridge salon UBU Hair and Body won’t open until Monday as staff prepare the space, put protocols in place to disinfect equipment, organize appointments, and sort out employee work schedules.
“We have our Plexiglas barriers, we have to set them up, and we have to get containers to sanitize and keep our disinfected tools in — so there’s lots to still prepare,” said salon coowner Brima Silveira.
When the salon does open, it won’t look the same as it did before COVID-19. A host of measures are being put in place to keep clients and staff members safe.
“We have to keep social distancing measures in place, so we’re using every other station which means we have to have stylists split shifts and share stations,” said Silveira.
Clients will answer screening questions online before their appointments and have to wash their hands and wear a mask when they come into the salon.
Hair stations as well as equipment, including combs and clippers, will all have to be disinfected between appointments and stylists will wear masks and face shields, said Silveira.
The waiting room will no longer exist. Clients will check in at the front desk and then, if need be, wait in their car until the stylist is ready to take them.
“We have to assume everybody that’s coming in has COVID-19,” she said. “If we assume that, then we’re always taking the utmost precautions.”