Pandemic has put personal care pros out of work
Like many young creative people with a practical bent, Rebecca Saint Pierre held down a day job — at an Aventura Mall cosmetics shop — while she pursued a related vocation: an increasingly in-demand sideline as a makeup artist.
But her prospects came crashing down when the coronavirus pandemic forced the mall to close and Saint Pierre, 30, was laid off by Inglot Cosmetics. Then, what promised to be a busy season of makeup bookings for weddings and proms shut down abruptly.
Still, she dipped into her own pocket to refund her clients’ deposits, figuring it was the right thing to do.
“It wasn’t their fault this was happening,” Saint Pierre said, but added: “That affected me very bad. Everything had to stop. It’s not like you can sell products or apply makeup in this situation.”
As the prolonged economic lockdown guts small businesses and entrepreneurs of all kinds, perhaps few have been as financially afflicted — or missed as much by their customers — as those who provide the most personal of services: the people who cut and style hair, shape nails, knead sore muscles or wax ... whatever needs waxing.
Unlike some other workers and small entrepreneurs whose services have been deemed nonessential,
The coronavirus pandemic has put thousands of barbers, stylists, nail techs and other personal care professionals in Miami out of work even as customers desperate for a haircut or grooming after weeks in quarantine plead for their services.
those who provide personal care and grooming can’t work remotely, sell their goods online or shift to takeout to keep at least some income coming in.
With no one going anywhere much amid the broader social shutdown, and with people getting sick or worried about infection, one might think that the services of barbers, stylists, nail techs and others whose jobs entail making people look good would not be acutely missed.
It’s not a big employment sector, at least according to official statistics. Despite the proliferation of hair-styling shops and nail salons, most are small. Just over 9,000 people worked in personal care and grooming across South Florida in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nor is it a lucrative field: Pay ranged from $25,700 for manicurists to $36,430 for skincare specialists, making workers in the field especially vulnerable to the economic blows of the pandemic.
But it’s one service sector that, perhaps more than any other, inspires the sort of personal connections that led Saint Pierre to refund clients’ deposits when she wasn’t obligated to.
The time spent in necessary physical proximity makes it impossible for workers in the field to do their thing amid a pandemic. But it’s also that closeness — and the accompanying kibbitzing that takes place every day at any salon, spa or barber shop — that inspires unusually friendly relationships and feelings of loyalty and even devotion between customers and workers, people in the grooming business say.
For Saint Pierre, making clients look their best is also a way of making them feel good, something they appreciate.
“I like to help a woman feel more beautiful,” she said. “You bring the beauty from the inside out.”
As gray roots begin showing and hair grows long and shaggy, customers who miss their salon or barber shop more than they ever thought are phoning to see when their doors might reopen, check on shopowners’ welfare or, often, to beg to be seen discreetly at home for a cut and blow-dry or a manicure, people in the business say.
Danny Roblejo, co-owner with his cousin of Primos, two upscale barbershops in Kendall and Pinecrest, had the shop phones bounce to his personal cell after he was forced to close, thinking it was important to keep the personal touch going as much as possible. He said he’s been surprised by how many regulars call to check on him or ask about a favorite barber. Some have even offered to pay for cuts or big tips in advance to help out, though Roblejo said he’s told them, gratefully, to hold off until the shops reopen.
“I’m handling every phone call coming in. It’s a surprise to them that I’m answering the phone,” Roblejo said. “Then we have a conversation. It’s nice to have that. It was helping me cope. It was helping me to tell customers, ‘Hey, hang in there. I’ll be back. But our hands are tied so far.’ ”
It’s unclear how long Roblejo and his peers across Miami-Dade will have to keep their doors shut.
Amid pressure from some conservatives and partisan political positioning, governors in some states, including Florida, have begun making plans to permit businesses to gradually reopen. The moves have drawn significant backlash from Democrats, health experts and state residents worried that will only further the spread of the new coronavirus.
Most controversially, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday lifted shutdown orders for hair salons and barbershops, among other nonessential businesses, despite a barrage of criticism that included a rebuke from President Donald Trump, who said it was too soon to do so.
But while Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has said he will “soon” allow beaches, golf courses and parks to reopen, he has not said when he might consider allowing nonessential businesses to do so. Local elected officials have authority to order restrictions even in the absence of state orders.
Roblejo, like others, said he’s “eager” to reopen, but he doesn’t want to do so until health experts say it’s safe. Nor will he send his barbers on house calls, even though Primos, which employs 15 people, is suffering along with them.
“We have had to close down before with hurricanes. The difference was, there was nothing healthwise. It was safe to do a house call or two,” Roblejo said. “Now, even telling an employee to go to someone’s house, I would be and feel liable if someone were to get sick. It’s not worth their safety and health.”
Roblejo is lucky: He is among the rare small business in Miami to receive a paycheck protection loan from the federal government when the lion’s share of loans went to construction companies and other corporate enterprises.
What he received is enough, he said, to pay most of his employees and cover some of his expenses for about seven weeks. Some vendors are deferring payments owed, he said.
But he doesn’t know how long he can hold out. He’s praying he can reopen by mid-May, assuming the rate of infections is going down by then. He expects lots of pent-up demand when he does, though he’s concerned some clients may still hesitate to come in for a while.
“It’s a very scary time,” Roblejo said.
At least some hairdressers are working even though their shops are closed.
Stylist and colorist Manolo Portuondo reluctantly shut down his tiny shop, tucked away at the back of an office building in Coconut Grove, and sent home the old friend and co-worker who rents one of his three chairs. Together they used to pool money to pay two women to clean the shop, but they were sent away, too. Portuondo says he worries about all three.
But Portuondo says he’s facing rent payments, trying to save for retirement in four years at age 70, and has to save his business. The stylist opened his first shop in 1980 and has developed an unusually loyal clientele that includes some prominent Miamians, some of whom have been going to him for decades and bring kids and grandkids in for cuts.
So for some trusting “select clients,” he dons a surgical mask, disposable gloves, glasses and a head covering to work. Though he said he’s always been vigilant about cleanliness, he’s armed himself with an abundant supply of industrial-grade sanitizers and disinfectant and wipes everything down after each visit. Only one person is allowed in at a time and he’s not open to the public, Portuondo said.
He believes the health risk to be small and manageable.
“There is a small chance of getting the coronavirus, and a big chance of losing my business,” said Portuondo. “My business finances were going very well until the conoravirus hit. Now I feel like I’m fighting the world from the doorstep of my salon.”
A month ago he applied for the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan but has not gotten a reply. He’s resentful that much of the relief earmarked for small businesses did not reach them.
“That $10,000 can save my business,” he said, adding: “The money is not coming to us, but to people who do not need it. I just need a little financial help, or let me work.”
Precile Lozama, owner of a full-service salon and spa in North Miami with a devoted following, PI Beauty Express, said she has had to rebuff constant requests for home visits.
“I would not take a chance. I am a legal business. It is a health issue. I couldn’t do it,” Lozama said. “But I had a lot of calls.”
Lozama employs seven people, including an aesthetician and a massage therapist, none of whom are working, she said. The closing order on March 19 came at an especially bad time. She had just launched a hair-loss treatment program that was drawing lots of new clients.
She applied for federal small-business relief but received no answer in the first round, she said. Fortunately, she said, the owner of the strip mall her shop is in has been understanding and willing to put off collecting rent for now.
Now, sitting at home, Lozama has for the first time begun offering free classes on Facebook live to clients on how to keep their hair looking good without a cut, including how to color it. She answers clients questions online and by phone. To bring in some income, she also demonstrates and takes orders for a moisturizing lotion she developed for hair and scalp called Solution7.
“During the quarantine you don’t need to cut your hair. That won’t last forever,” she said she tells clients. “Leave the hair alone.”
Doris Roblero, a cosmetologist who specializes in waxing, has built a career over decades that’s included appearances on Spanish-language TV shows like Univision’s “Despierta América.” She works at home in Kendall but decided to stop seeing clients because she did not want to risk exposing her two kids, who are 12 and
19, to the virus.
A divorced mom, she has not worked in more than a month and is worried because she has a mortgage payment and other financial obligations to meet, and little to no income coming in, other than the standard $1,200 relief payment from the government, plus $500 per child.
“Health comes first,” Roblero, 50, said. “But the stimulus money is not enough, and if this goes on, there will come a time that I will not be able to pay the mortgage.”
For Roblero, though, some aspects of her work will never be the same again. Even when authorities allow nonessential work to restart, she won’t go back to doing facials, she said.
“I have always worn gloves and a mask, but I have to touch people’s faces,” she said.
It will be safer, she said, to focus on nails and waxing.