‘We don’t have 6-foot shears:’ As KC hair salons open, are stylists and clients safe?
Before reopening her Midtown hair salon, Rhonda Cavner knew she had a lot to figure out.
How to reschedule 1,000 clients waiting for haircuts and root touch-ups for weeks during the COVID-19 shutdown. How to separate them by more than six feet. And how to keep them relaxed while taking their temperatures and handing them latex gloves.
“That thermometer was the most expensive thermometer I’ve ever purchased in my life,” Cavner said. “It is a lot of expense. And we’re absorbing that right now. But in a time like this, it’s the cost of doing business.”
Hair salons and barbershops in Kansas City and the Northland were allowed to reopen earlier this month, followed by Jackson County last week. With Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly giving the OK, Johnson County salons can start taking clients Monday. But, like salons in Jackson County, they’re by appointment only.
Wyandotte County, which has been hit especially hard by coronavirus, is waiting longer before allowing salons and many other nonessential businesses to resume operations.
And as salons take precautions as they reopen, many stylists said they fear returning to work. And health experts question whether anyone can be safe in such an environment.
“We have as much contact with a client as a health care worker does,” Leawood hair stylist Anita Graves-Barker said. “It’s just a haircut. It’s not life or death.”
Or, as Tara Hornback, owner of Bombshell Salon in Olathe, put it: “Stylists absolutely cannot abide by the six-feet social distance rule. We don’t have six-foot shears.”
What salons do to stay safe
Cavner and her husband have owned Roca Salon & Spa on 39th Street since 1981. The business is her family’s sole source of income, so being forced to close was devastating for them and their 25 employees, she said.
Stylists across the metro area have been filing for unemployment, struggling to pay the bills and keep food on the table.
“Salons have always sort of been recession proof. But no amount of planning in the world could have prepared us for what happened,” said Molly McPheter, owner of Roots & Branches Salon in the River Market. “When you’ve got a full book scheduled, you’re not financially worried. But then you’re told overnight you can’t open.”
Since May 6, when Kansas City allowed salons and barbershops to reopen, many, like Cavner’s, have been slammed.
Area counties restrict how many customers salons can have at a time. In the city, they’re limited to only 10 people inside or 10% capacity, so Cavner has been working extra hours, trying to fit everyone in.
“We don’t have the room to take other clients right now. That’s why we’re open on Sundays when we normally aren’t,” Cavner said. “I know that other salons are taking people from all over. Especially salons located out south, they’re pulling a lot of traffic from across the state line.”
But some salon owners decided that opening this early during the pandemic is not worth it. They could serve only a limited number of customers, many of whom may choose to stay home rather than take the risk.
Others, like McPheter, have taken extra time before opening to make a game plan and stock up on protective equipment.
“We’ve spent the last week setting up sanitation stations and getting prepped,” she said. “We didn’t want to completely rush into it, especially if the city made another change to the (reopening plan) at the last minute.”
The cosmetology industry already follows relatively strict rules, such as sanitizing tools between clients. Now, area governments require stylists to wear masks and customers are urged to do the same. The industry recommends that salons screen clients for fever and other symptoms, have employees wash hands frequently and disinfect all surfaces.
But when stylists are near customers’ faces, touching their hair, it is impossible to follow much of health experts’ guidance, especially that mainstay of six feet of social distance.
Many salons have gone beyond the requirements as they reopen. But that has come with a host of new challenges. And in order to follow safety protocols, Roca Salon has taken on hundreds of dollars in added expenses.
Instead of sitting inside, sipping on wine and waiting for an appointment, customers must stay in their cars and strap on a mask. Before being allowed to enter, they must have their temperature taken. If they don’t come with a mask and gloves, they’ll be handed some.
Cavner has purchased enough protective equipment to make sure all customers are covered. She built plastic walls to separate shampoo stations. And she stocked up on enough cleaning supplies to sanitize the entire salon before each customer comes through the door.
Among her concerns: How do you cut someone’s hair while they’re wearing a face mask?
“I practiced at home to see what it’s like to cut hair with a mask on,” Cavner said. “Masks are hard to get used to. But you figure out the right techniques, and how to make sure hair doesn’t fall in the mask. Nobody wants a mask full of hair.”
Other salons are taking precautions too, as well as reducing the number of services they offer. McPheter said she will not allow stylists to use hair dryers, hoping to cut down on the time customers are inside and limit the air flow in her salon.
“We’ve had to wrap our heads around this because we literally have to touch people to do our job. It’s not something we can do from six feet away. To make an income, we have to find a comfort zone that works for us,” McPheter said. “We’re all so cautious about everything we touch now. I wasn’t a germaphobe before this, but I definitely feel like one now.”
McPheter is working 12-hour shifts, trying to keep up with appointments. Calls keep pouring in, she said, as customers seek some sort of normalcy.
“Customers say it’s been nice to do something that feels normal,” she said. “And we’ve figured out how to make it work for now. I’m not worried about right now. I’m worried about July, about August. We’ll see what happens as more people go to restaurants or salons and become more socially active.”
What you can do
As salons in Johnson County and other parts of Kansas prepare to open, many stylists said they are terrified.
They worry about coronavirus being passed on to customers or themselves as more people get out of the house.
“We have to limit the amount of clients per day and we have to increase time to decontaminate the work area between clients, all while social distancing, which is impossible,” Hornback the Olathe salon owner, said.
Even as the metro area reopens, the coronavirus continues to spread. Health officials are warning residents to stay home as much as possible, especially at-risk residents, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
They caution against staying near others for prolonged periods, as coronavirus usually spreads from person to person. Yet many stylists said they spend at least two hours with each client.
“The latest studies that are emerging point to prolonged, close contact in enclosed areas as significant drivers of risk,” said Amy Sapkota, a professor of applied environmental health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.
“So if an individual really feels the need to go and get a haircut during a pandemic, they should try and keep the cut as brief as possible, and it could be potentially safer if done outdoors.”
Both the customer and the stylist should wear masks, Sapkota said, “perhaps the mask with elastic, versus ties would still enable a successful cut.”
Ideally, customers would wait in their cars or outside the salon, a safe six feet apart from others. “Stylists can then text their clients when they are ready,” said Sapkota.
Some salons have told their stylists to keep the chitchat to a minimum to lower the chance of transmission. “In my opinion, the time spent in the salon should be as short as possible,” said Sapkota.
After the appointment, she said, both the client and stylist should wash their hands with warm, soapy water or use hand sanitizer as soon as possible.
As more people begin to leave their homes and visit businesses, it’s more important than ever to take those precautions, said Joseph LeMaster, Johnson County’s public health officer.
“I and the other public health professionals believe that the transmission of the virus is likely to increase now that the population is beginning to circulate more,” LeMaster said.
He warned that if coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations begin to spike, it is likely that restrictions will be reimposed.
“If you go to new facilities that you haven’t been before, back to retail or to a restaurant, we strongly urge you to take the maximum level of care,” he said. “All of these things are just as important as they ever were, and maybe even more now.”
Includes reporting by The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
