'Customers are scared': salons and barbers fight to stay afloat amid coronavirus
“I’m half employees down now,” said Slava Ovaidov, 37, gesturing to his remaining workers in his usually busy barber shop in Upper East Side. He had to send the others home because there wasn’t enough work.
Ordinarily, by this point in the day Elite Barbers would have seen multiple clients. But as much of New York City began to shut down, they had only seen one by late morning.
He said he hoped it would soon return to normal and that people would start spending money again, but for now he is frightened. “I have family but I don’t know how long I can run on my savings. That’s the key. I have a mortgage to pay.”
He advised a newly arrived customer to get his hair cut while he still could. “This is how we work,” he said, putting on a face mask to cover the mouth and nose with a clear plastic shield attached to cover the eyes.
Ovaidov’s business is one of dozens of barber shops, nail and hair salons and spas in the area, serving nearby offices and the apartments and townhouses of the surrounding tree-lined streets, home to some of New York’s richest areas.
But since the outbreak of coronavirus – and the subsequent decision to close schools, offices and many businesses – many of their customers have stopped coming, leaving small business owners and employees worried about how they will make a living.
Across the road from Elite Barbers, a sign in the window of High Season Nail says the shop has closed until “the coronavirus outbreak situation has improved”.
At another nail salon, an employee dressed in a pink face mask, who did not want to be named, said they usually serve 50 to 60 people a day, but so far today nobody had come in.
“Customers are scared of the coronavirus. Everybody is scared. Even us. We need to close now,” she said. “I don’t know if the government can do something for small businesses.”
But Marshall Kim, owner of MK Salon, remained defiant. Sitting at the back of his hair salon, the 58-year-old said: “I come from the Killing Fields in Cambodia. Compared to that this is nothing. In the Killing Fields I worried about someone coming to my door and taking my life away. This is something I can do something about.”
Kim, who lost both of his parents when he was 15, said people needed to take responsibility for their own hygiene and not rely on the government. “This is not a war. This is just a virus,” he said.
Most customers who are sick stay at home, he said, but if people come in showing signs of illness they give them a mask to wear as a precaution. They
also have a bottle of hand sanitizer at the door.
Since the outbreak, he has been overwhelmed by the kindness he has witnessed. He said just this morning his landlord had called him and told him he would not charge him rent if he closed the salon.
“It’s a wonderful feeling, the world coming together. You understand who is your friend. It’s making us stronger.”
He said business was down, but that he would stay open as long as the trains kept running.
“If they close and shut up the city it’s a different story. But as long as they let me come to work I will stay open.”
Sohalia Corniquet, 53, from New Jersey, who owns nearby La Piscine Hair Salon, said the business has to survive, “no matter what, even if we don’t make money”.
She added: “The most important thing is not to have fear. When you have that, you lose everything.”
At Classic Brows Threading Salon, manager Yanna, 48, from Queens, stood alone in an empty salon. When the buzzer rang at the door, she said: “This is the first client, if it’s a client, for the whole day. What time is it now? 12.”
She said people were not coming because they were frightened of getting infected. “The streets are empty … people don’t go outside.”
In Harlem, while some of the nail salons that were open appeared to have customers, hair salons and barbers were suffering.
At Jorge Barber Shop, employees sit in the empty customers’ chairs. Barber Ruffo Moronda, 30, from Yonkers, said: “It’s slow now … Nobody wants to come outside.”
At Mandinko African Hair Braiding and Beauty Supplies, Fatouma Cohen, 56, from Harlem, sat with her head in her hands.
“Everybody’s worried. We’re sitting here, you don’t see customers,” she said indicating the empty salon.
Gema Romero, 45, a hair stylist who also works there, has four children at home following the school closures. While she said Monday was not usually especially busy, the weekend had also been dead.
“If I don’t have a job here I need to depend on the government,” she said in Spanish, translated by a friend. She added: “I am scared but I need to continue.”