VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — There’s one thing a lot of us probably missed during quarantine: visiting the barber or hair salon.
But there's good news if you've been waiting to get a haircut. Hair salons and barbershops will be open for business on Friday and they're taking steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in their shops.
It's part of "Phase One" of Governor Northam’s reopening plan for Virginia.
Owner of Virginia Beach’s Salon Bella Mia, Julea Strubeck, said a lot of her clients are looking forward to it.
“We do have a couple of clients who are like, ‘Hey can you ask your stylist to come to our home?’ I just say, ‘No, I can’t.’ Because I can’t force my stylist to do something that’s going to affect their life," Strubeck said.
Co-owner of Virginia Beach’s Wild Roots Hair Studio, Kristen Bacon said something similar.
“Everybody has been waiting and trying their hardest not to color their roots without us," Bacon said. "It's definitely been an experience for everybody.”
One big change you'll see in salons this Friday is that everyone will need a face mask.
“Everybody is going to wear masks –estheticians, too," Strubeck said. "We’re going to wear masks and gloves the whole time. Our customers will be required to wear masks as well.”
Bacon said her staff will disinfect things like hairbrushes, scissors, and combs, but that’s nothing new.
“We have already been sanitizing those things. We’re supposed to and we always been supposed to," she said.
Both places are also doing deeper cleaning around the salon.
“Sanitizing work-spaces, cleaning everything off before anyone else comes in, wiping hair dryers, wiping the seats down, wiping the shampoo bowl down before anybody else comes in to get any services," Bacon explained.
And you can say goodbye to walk-ins. It’s appointment-only.
“We’re going to have just one hairstylist on the floor at a time for each client," Strubeck said.
Both salons will also have lots of hand sanitizer for clients.
“Believe it or not, I mix my own hand sanitizer at home,” Strubeck noted.
And Bacon warns if you’re getting your hair colored, you might want to wear a mask around your ears that you don’t mind getting a few stains on.
“It’s definitely going to be different and it’s probably going to take us a little longer to navigate around the masks and make sure that our work is how it suppose to be, in addition to keeping the masks on the face,” Bacon said.
Both women say like a lot of other business owners, things haven’t been easy but they’re staying positive and looking forward to opening.
“This is my American dream," Strubeck said. "I want to tell people, ‘I know this is difficult, [but] look at me.’ As a girl who came to the U.S. 15 years ago, I didn’t speak English, and I can make it as a small business. I feel anybody can do it.”